YESTERYEAR

 Some parts of Belgrade are timeless. I took this photo from a bridge after exiting a bus that connects New Belgrade to the ols part of the city.

WINTER

 My little Christmas gnomes keeping snuggly warm inside while outside....it isn't really snowing and that's not my living room. Winter wallpaper on my TV!

BOTTLE OF BUBBLY

 No, not the champagne-bubbly, but rather a green plastic bottle of a local bubbly mineral water that sits on my sill. Refrigerator is overloaded, and it's cold  outside. While walking through the room, I noticed the cool (no pun intended) reflection showing areas or my neighborhood with snow that fell on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Sadly, it is now slush.

ROOF PROBLEM SORT OF SOLVED....

The other day I posted a photo of my gingerbread house made this year and complained that the rear roof had fallen in. No chance of repairing it, so I was left with a gaping hole.

Here is WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE BEFORE (although rear roof not visible) and and above is how I solved the problem, inspired by EDWARD MUNCH'S THE SCREAM.

 

THE ROOF CAVED IN....

 Well, not the entire roof. Just the back side, which is not visible here.

Every year I make a gingerbread house. Notice I said 'made,' not 'assembled,' since it is my own doing, not a bought one.

I do this with various degrees of imperfection. This year, the back roof caved in. Later I am either going to use some red and yellow crinkly cellophane  to make 'a fire,' or else find some slim balsa wood to make planks on top of which I would place some toy roof repairmen. Gotta find those too....or maybe a Santa and sleigh who made a bad landing? Possibilities are endless. This could be fun...

STILL RACING AND WINNING

I bought the Rubik's Race game several years ago for my granddaughter when she was around nine. Now she is still playing and honestly, unbeatable. Adults have tried, kids her age have tried (Grandma has tried....), and now her younger brother (9) is trying. But she is incredibly fast. The game is based on the popular Rubik's cube.  

You can read all about RUBIK'S RACE right here!  It is available just about everywhere. You will not regret it....but you might be disturbed you can't solve it before your kid partner does.

A fellow blogger, ROKINON LTD read a former post of mine about it and bought one. I think he'll agree that it is quite a challenge,

A CAMEL AND TWO BUDDIES

 A flashback to my recent trip to India. I need to replenish my stock of Belgrade photos, but the holidays are getting in the way.

While editing my India photos, I cropped this photo to get the green parrot and the camel, but lo and  behold, there's another bird buddy there that I had not noticed when I too the photo. It is also very unusual that the white feathers on the bird perfectly align along the camel's neck to look like they're part of the wall.

SVETI NIKOLA'S DAY

 

According to the Serbian Orthodox church calendar, today is Saint Nicholas's Day. It is a very popular 'slava' and it is said that half of Serbian Orthodox believers have this feast day and the other hslf attends. This is a lean slava, so here are my meatless 'prebranac' (pray-brah-nahts) or baked beans.

GRANDPA AND GRANDSONS

 Another black and white from Jaisalmer, India. This man saw me, but smiled before I took his photo, and did not strike a pose. Natural!

MANY BAD APPLES...

 

The saying goes that "One bad apple spoils the whole barrel." To alter this a bit, here it seems that many bad apples did not spoil one apple (the yellow one on the left. It really wasn't spoiled. I turned it over, then returned it to its original position.)

THE JEWELRY SELLER

 Still editing photos from my trip to India, a country that literally bursts with color. However, I like this one 100% better in black and white.