MONDAY MURALS--soccer fan

 Partizan soccer club's colors are black and white. This fan has it all together, with his black and white clothes and with the team's scarf.

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WEEKEND REFLECTIONS--green and shiny

 I was almost going to save this photo for Saint Patrick's Day, but March is a long way off.

This emerald green is not a color usually sported by Mercedes automobiles. Eye-catching though, for sure.

See other reflectionns on James' WEEKEND REFLECTIONS.

SKYWATCH--clear toys

 These are a candy I knew as a child in Pennsylvania and are called Clear Toys. You can read about them right here.   I found them here too when my kids were little, but they never seemed to enjoy them as I did. In Pennsylvania, they're popular at Christmas and Easter.

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Tiny house, tiny bird?

 No bird around now. I think there may never have been any to make a nest inside, because the house is hung very low. 

Don't climb me...

 ...or don't try to eat me either.  This is the trunk (and leaves below) of the honey locust try. Nasty, nasty thorns it has. I looked up the honey locust and it is a descendent of an ancient tree.  Here is what Wiki says:   "These thorns are thought to have evolved to protect the trees from browsing Pleistocene megafauna, which may also have been involved in seed dispersal, but the size and spacing of them is less useful in defending against smaller extant herbivores such as deer. "

So I imagine there are now hungry deer nibbling on the bark, since the megafauna is gone.  I thought the thorns might be pretty sprayed white or gold for Christmas decorations, but they are difficult to dislodge.  I tried...ow.

Garage Sale!

 Neither my title nor my photos would win any award for originality, but for me the photos did. I have never, in all my 43 years here, seen someone holding a garage sale, except for expat or dipolmat families.  I think the main reason only the latter do is because they live in houses,  not apartments, and have more space.

I ran across these enterprising ladies in the small town of Alibunar, population of around 3,000, while I was staying in a  nearby town for two weeks.

They were mostly selling kids' items and shoes, but I snatched the two Fu Dogs that are now gracing my credenza.

MONDAY MURALS---1998

 Another mural from the same school whose murals I showed you last week.

This one was done by the class of 1998.

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SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY: Magritte was here?

Rene Magritte was a Belgian surrealist artist, who often challenged his viewers by presenting everyday objects in unusual settings.  This does  not hold true for my photograph of the lamp and trees above, nor for Magritte's painting below, but they are somehow similar. If you google Rene Magritte 'trees,' you will see what I mean.

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SKYWATCH--Romanian Church in Vladimirovac, Serbia

 On my recent trip about 50 kilometers out of Belgrade, I came upon this church in Vladimirovac which is getting  a new dome. You can see its old dome in the smaller picture below thatI took from the Internet, and I couldn't find anyone to tell me what happened to it.  The church dates from 1896.

There are quite a few ethnic Romanians living in thie part of Serbia and this is Vladimirovac's Romanian Orthodox Church. Overall, the Romanian Orthodox Church is the only Church in Eastern Orthodoxy to have a Romance language for liturgical use.

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Polenta and butter/cheese

 I'm back in Belgrade now, but I have just spent two weeks on a self-imposed writer's retreat in a small town in the country, where I could write without distractions. I got a very good deal on food and board, almost unbelieveable--three meals a day, room for only 15 euros...I was in heaven. The food was great, though typical Serbian fare:  yummy, but meat at every meal and enough for two.

This breakfast though has no meat, though some people add bacon to it. It is polennta, with two generous dollops of 'kajmak' (KYE-mak), which is layers of buttery cream skimmed off milk and used sometimes in place to butter.

My cholesterol is not happy. I added the smiley face.

Fall's fallen

 An acorn and its oak leag. Two signs of fall have fallen.  

I've been away in the country for two weeks and am going home today. Hope the central heating is on....it's chilly.