Weekend Reflections/ in Black and White

I found this father and son at the
Institut du Monde Arabe—a
fascinating museum—in Paris.

[To see more monochromes, go here.  To see
more Weekend Reflections, visit James's meme.]

Skywatch Friday

Maybe you know that I was down in
Virginia last week for some much-needed
r and r—that included enjoying a gorgeous
sunset (and a pomegranate martini)
from the deck every evening.


[To see more Skywatch, go here.]

Thursday Challenge—"wooden"

A gondola is made using eight different
types of wood: cherry, elm, fir, larch,
lime, mahogany, oak, and walnut—plus
a ninth, beechwood, for the rèmo (oar).


[To see more of the Thursday Photo Challenge, go here.]

abc Wednesday—X is for "xenophilia"

xenophilia: an attraction to or love of foreign
people, manners, or [in this case] culture.
The ancient Greeks seen here in a fresco by
Raphael ("The School of Athens") can be
admired in the Vatican Museum.


[To see how others handled the letter X,
visit the abc Wednesday meme.]

Random New Yorker

Since I have to ride the subway, 
I sometimes amuse myself by
taking shots of my fellow commuters
with my phone. I turn off the sound
and pretend I'm playing solitaire—don't
know if I'm actually fooling anyone,
but at least no one has yelled at me yet.

[Today is Ruby Tuesday. To see more, go here.]

Mellow Yellow/Macro Monday

"Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it's always just my luck to get
One perfect rose.
                                  —Dorothy Parker

[To see more Mellow Yellow, go here.
To see more macros, visit Lisa's Chaos.]

Shadow Shot Sunday

How to prepare the perfect meal
(though you do have to be in the right place):
Bait your crab traps, collect the crabs,
clean 'em, cook 'em, cover the
table with newspaper, pile those
crabs on top—then enjoy!


[To see more Sunday shadows, go here.]

The Weekend in Black and White

At one time I lived about two blocks
from this majestic building—this is the
portico of the Pantheon in Paris.

[To see more monochromes, visit
the Weekend in Black & White.]

Skywatch Friday/Weekend Reflections

I was meeting a friend for brunch right
around the corner from the Twin Towers
site—so I went to check out the new
One World Trade Center up close.  You couldn't 
pay me to work in this building, but
 it is pretty impressive to look at.

[To see more Skywatch shots, go here.
And to see more Weekend Reflections,
visit James's meme.]

Thursday Challenge—"hot"

And how!  The temp is supposed to
soar to 99°F (37°C) today.  What's the
weather like where you are?

[To see more "hot" shots, visit the
Thursday Photo Challenge.]

abc Wednesday—W is for "window"

I showed you a window yesterday, but these
are a bit more "uptown, " both literally
and figuratively.  These wonderful windows
grace the 1901 Beaux-Arts building on 44th Street
that houses the New York Yacht Club.  BTW, it was
designed by the same architects (Warren and Wetmore)
who designed the exterior of Grand Central Terminal.

Here's a close-up.
[To see more ABC
Wednesday, go here.]

Ruby Tuesday

I was walking on St. Mark's Place in the
East Village recently, and this tenement
window with the red curtain took me
right back to this neighborhood in the '60s.
Back then, even the poorest of my friends
could afford to live here—though most of them
had no actual furniture (except for the requisite
mattress on the floor). These days, the monthly rent
for a place like this is closer to $2,000 than $200.

[Today is Ruby Tuesday. To see more, go here.]

Mellow Yellow Monday

A talented friend—Bob Sievert—had a gallery
show last year.  I love his blasé nudes, but 
I especially liked his "mermaids," an
homage to our annual Coney Island Mermaid
Parade (which takes place next Saturday).


[To see more Mellow Yellow, go here.]

Shadow Shot/Sunday Bridges

The Brooklyn Bridge  renovation is moving
right along—and now they have parts of it so
wrapped up that it's beginning to look like Christo
and Jeanne-Claude's Pont Neuf art installation.

[To see more Shadow Shots, go here.
And to see more Sunday Bridges, go chez Louis la Vache.]

Photo Hunter—"ripple"

Granted, there really aren't a whole lot
of ripples to be seen here in this cove
in the Virginia delta—but that's only because ...

 ... we were all following the rules.

[To see more of the Saturday Photo
Hunt, visit Sandi's meme.]

The Moon

Ah, pray make no mistake, we are not shy;
we're very wide awake, the moon and I!
 —Sir William Gilbert, The Mikado

[It's Skywatch Friday; to see more, go here.
And for more monochromes, visit The Weekend in Black and White.]

Thursday Challenge—"big"

Well, it's big for me at least—here are four glasses of
the good stuff  to celebrate the 4th anniversary of this
blog (with a fifth as a promise to keep it up).
Many, many thanks to all of my wonderful blog pals—
I hope you know how much you mean to me!

ABC Wednesday—V is for "Virginia"

We're back in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley,
where my ancestors settled 326 years ago.
I think this scene is beyond beautiful and I love to
visit my Virginia relatives around here—but I'm still
very much at home in the canyons of Manhattan.

[To see more ABC Wednesday, go here.]

What??

I'm not trying to make any kind of political
statement with this shot. (Besides, I'm a
New Yorker—where do you think I stand?)
The original clock was installed in Times Square
back in 1989 and this improved version was moved
here to 44th St. in 2004. By the way, from Sept. 2000
to July 2002, the clock was dark because the debt
went down and it wasn't designed to run backward.

[It's Ruby Tuesday. To see more, go here.]

Blue Monday

Cookie Monster wants to know where Lady Liberty
got that patriotic but out-of-context bandanna.
This Elmo probably doesn't remember it (and
no doubt thought we were out-of-towners rather
than born-and-bred New Yorkers), but I recently gave
him a buck to pose with a friend here in Times Square.


[To see more Blue Monday posts, visit Smiling Sally's meme.]

Shadow Shot Sunday

I found these pretty shadows at
the entrance to my beautiful
"backyard" botanic garden.


[To see more shadows, go here.]

Photo Hunt—"clean"

Last time I visited my mom, she
made us a delicious meal that was
topped off with these beautiful berries.
I hope that when I'm 92, I'll be as
sharp and independent as she is.


[To see more of the Saturday 
PhotoHunt, visit Sandi's meme.]

Skywatch Friday

The other day as I walked home over the
Brooklyn Bridge, I had to keep stopping to
turn around and shoot this dramatic
sky that seemed to be changing every second.

Thursday Challenge—container

This gorgeous vessel was part of an
exhibit at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.
I suppose it would be a case of gilding
the lily, but I can picture all kinds of
flowers in this elegant container.
What would be your choice?

[To se more of the Thursday Photo
Challenge, go here.]

abc wednesday—U is for "upside-down"

upside down"

I admit that (unlike some folks) I've always loved the 
above-ground pyramids that now define the entrance to
 the Louvre, and was pleasantly surprised when I first saw 
this upside-down one (which features prominently in the 
final chapter of Dan Brown's book The Da Vinci Code).

[To see more abc Wednesday, go here.]

Ruby Tuesday

Red is such a difficult color to capture,
so I hope I've done justice to these gorgeous
geraniums that I found this past weekend
at my local greenmarket here in Brooklyn.

[See more Ruby Tuesday here.]

Mellow Yellow/Macro Monday

I'm still in the garden—where many of the roses
have already bloomed and faded but where I did
find this lovely pink-tinged yellow rose and
the promise of three beautiful buds.

[To see more Mellow Yellow, go here.
And to see more macro shots, visit Lisa's Chaos.]

Shadow Shot Sunday

The temperature was in the 90s, so I
was happy to find a bit of shade.  But the
"coolest" thing about this new Visitor Center
at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden . . .

. . . is the roof!  (BTW, that tall housing project 
in the background is called "Ebbetts Field,"
because it was built on the site of the 
home of the Brooklyn Dodgers.)


[To see more shadow shots, go here.]

Who's your designer?

The window display at a Papyrus store in
Grand Central Terminal includes this
mannequin wearing a gown made
almost entirely of paper.

[I'm linking back to The Weekend in Black and White.
To see some beautiful monochromes, go here.]

How I spent the weekend

Well, part of it anyway.  I may not have my own
yard (my personal outdoor space is a fire escape),
but I do have beautiful Prospect Park just two minutes
away (and I don't have to mow it).  On a gorgeous day
like this was, what a pleasure to lie on the grass and
just enjoy the green trees and blue, blue sky!

[Hope you'll check out my Paris blog, where
 I've started posting on the first of each month.
And to see more Skywatch, go here.]