Shadow Shot Sunday

Prime NYC real estate: This pretty building is on the
corner of Macdougal and Prince, in Soho. (And, yes,
that's a nice, shady terrace off the second floor. Bet they
enjoyed it when the temps were up in the 90s this past week.)

[To see more Sunday Shadows, go here.]

The Weekend in Black and White

On a trip to Rome, I made my way up above
Trastevere and came upon a beautiful
old courtyard, seen here through the
doors of an equally ancient chapel.

[To see more monochromes, visit Dragonstar's meme.]

"Let the River Run"

It's a short ferry ride between Governor's 
Island and Manhattan, but—as with the 
Staten Island Ferry (that spot of bright orange 
in the middle of the shot)—it's free and the 
view is world class (and I always hear
 Carly Simon singing this when I see it).

[To see more Skywatch, go here.
And Orange You Glad It's Friday? If so, visit Maria's meme.] 

Thursday Challenge—"flowers"

You take your olfactory chances when you ride
the New York subways. You might find
yourself cheek by jowl with someone whose
hygiene habits are sketchy at best—or
you might get lucky like I did the other day
when the person next to me was toting these.

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

ABC Wednesday—X is for "Railroad Crossing"

(And please keep in mind that this is my 9th
time trying to find an X for ABC Wednesday!)

Where I live, all of the trains are either
below ground or on elevated tracks. Down
here in the Virginia countryside, you get to
wave to the engineer when a train passes
by. (And he'll probably wave back—and
blow the train whistle for you too!)

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]

Water Lily

In the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the
water lilies are perfectly placed
to capture the late-afternoon light.

[To see more June flowers, visit Tina's Picstory.
To see more shots that catch the light, go here.]

Mellow Yellow/Macro Monday

This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
—William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)

You can see that beauteous flower here.
P.S.—Happy birthday to my favorite niece.
This bud's for you!

[To see more Mellow Yellows, visit Gemma's meme.
For more macros, go here.]

Shadow Shot Sunday

More fun with the iPhone—and my new lenses:
This first attempt at a fisheye shot is a little
fuzzy, but I still like these shadows at the Met (and the
two women in red who don't even know they're twins).

[To see more Sunday shadows, go here.] 

New York at Night 23

One of the most beautiful NYC sights:
lower Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge.
I get to enjoy it almost every day, but hardly ever
like this, after dark. For me, this view is magical.

To see more monochromes, visit The Weekend in Black and White.]

Skywatch Friday

The folks over there in Jersey City have a
world-class view of lower Manhattan, but
those of us over here on this side of the Hudson
River get to enjoy this "big sky" vista—and
plenty of spectacular sunsets too (like this one).

[To see more Skywatch, go here.]

Thursday Challenge—"outdoors"

To be perfectly honest, I'm mostly an indoors
kind of girl.  However, I am more than willing and able
to pull on a pair of sturdy shoes and make the uphill
effort for a payoff like this.  I took this shot from a
hiking trail in Italy's Cinque Terre and our destination—the
beautiful village of Vernazza—had just come into view.

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

ABC Wednesday—W is for "web"

Credit goes to my daughter Lila, who found this 
crazy web at the Recoleta Cemetery, in
Buenos Aires. What do you think—spider on crack?

[To see more ABC Wednesday, go here.]

colorful close-up

I don't know of a lot of flowers
(or maybe no other?) that can combine
three or four colors in one bloom.
This is a pretty little lantana.

[To see more flower macros, visit NF/Blo-Ma.]

If life gives you lemons . . .

Whip out your cell phone and take a picture!
These are extra-lemony Meyer lemons—some
of the beautiful (and almost all of it organic)
produce I can get at my local food coop.

[To see more Mellow Yellows, visit Gemma's meme.
For more Monday macros, go here.]

Photo Op

If you come here on a regular basis, you
know that weather permitting I walk across
the Brooklyn Bridge twice a day.  For some
reason, I run into monks like these up there all
the time.  However, they're not usually taking 
pictures with a camera that cost way 
more than mine did.  Just sayin'

[To see more Sunday shadows, go here.
To see more Mandarin Orange Monday, go here.]

Happy Blogiversary!

Five candles for five years!
I'm still having fun and still so so grateful for all the
wonderful friends I've made since I started this adventure—
those who also blog (and who inspire me with their creativity)
and those who make my day with their kind comments
(and, of course, some of you fit into both categories).
  Thanks to you all for your friendly presence here.

[To see more monochromes, visit Dragonstar's meme.]

One World Trade Center

The spire is up and one of the two cranes is now down
(last weekend, I saw pieces of it on huuuge flatbed trucks
along the length of several blocks).  It's worth hanging in for
a 30-second ad to see this footage of the last piece of
the spire being put in place last month—unless you're
acrophobic, in which case better skip it).

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

Thursday Challenge—"music"

The band is called The Lone Sharks.  That's
my brother Chris on drums and the talented guy
behind the hat is Gene Casey. Here's what
they were playing when I took this shot.

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

ABC Wednesday—V is for "vineyard"

The North Fork of Long Island used to be lined with
potato farms—now it's one vineyard after another, and
they produce some pretty good wine.  I shot this
from a car going about 50 mph (way to go, iPhone!).

[To see more ABC Wednesday, go here.]

the end of a perfect meal

Here's a lovely way to top off a delicious lunch—
especially if you get to enjoy it on the sunny terrace 
of a great restaurant and if the restaurant 
is on the island of Burano, near Venice.
(The people who were having this meal looked
pretty happy—and so did we, even w/o eating cake.)

[To see more "liquid", go to Tina's Picstory.
And check out Ruby Tuesday, Traveling Tuesday, 
and Our World Tuesday too.] 

Mellow Yellow/Macro Monday

                              "When daisies pied and violets blue,
                          And lady-smocks all silver-white,
                     And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
                                  Do paint the meadows with delight . . .
                                         —William Shakespeare (Love's Labour's Lost)

                       [To see more Mellow Yellows, visit Gemma's meme.
                          To see more macros, visit Magical Mystery Teacher.]

Shadow Shot Sunday

I recently (finally!) got a membership to the
Met(ropolitan Museum of Art). Now I'm
determined to really learn my way around this huge
place and bit by bit to see everything in it.
This charming little bed is in the part of the museum
devoted to medieval art—it's someone's idea of
what a bed for the baby Jesus should have looked like.

[To see more Sunday shadows, go here.]

The Weekend in Black and White

I think cactus plants are fascinating,
especially when you check them out up close.

[To see more monochromes, visit Dragonstar's meme.]

Brooklyn Sunrise

I asked my daughter Katie if I could
use this one.  She told me she woke up at
5 a.m. the other morning and wasn't
too happy about it, until she saw this
spectacular sunrise over the Brooklyn rooftops—
which only the early risers got to enjoy.

[It's Skywatch Friday; to see more, go here.
And Orange You Glad It's Friday?  I am!]

Thursday Challenge—"cleaning"

In Venice, it's so worth getting up very early
and heading to Piazza San Marco—you can
have the place pretty much to yourself, except
for the colorfully dressed cleaning crew.  They're
out at dawn and busy with hoses and old-fashioned twig 
brooms, spiffing up the piazza before the hordes descend.

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

ABC Wednesday—U is for "upside-down"

Who knew?  Apparently, icebergs (even really
big ones like this) sometimes flip over—and you can
see what the action of the ocean's constant movement
 does to the part of the 'berg that's underwater.
My daughters learned this when they traveled to Antarctica
earlier this year (and I borrowed this shot from Katie).

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]

Tina's Picstory—P is for "panorama"

. . . and also for Prospect Heights, my
Brooklyn neighborhood—where I shot
this colorfully painted wall.

[To see more of Tina's Picstory, go here.]

Mosaic Monday

How do they stay up so straight? Some of
these alliums are as tall as I am!  Granted, I'm only
5' 2", but I at least have two feet to stand on.

To see more mosaics, visit Mary's Little Red House.]

Moving in Close

I recently got a swell new toy—a lens set for my iPhone, 
with a fisheye, a wide-angle,and a closeup lens.  
Obviously, I haven't quite perfected my macro skills 
with it (you hold the lens about a half-inch from 
your subject), but I'm already having way too much fun!

[Linking back to Shadow Shot Sunday, Today's Flowers,
i heart macro, macro monday, Catching the Light, Blo-Ma]

Pink Saturday

Here are some aptly named bleeding hearts
(aka Valentine flower).  For such small blooms,
they make a pretty big statement—I know I look
forward to their arrival every spring.

[To see more Weekend Flowers, visit Tina's Picstory.
To see more Pink Saturday posts, visit Beverly's meme.
And since it's the first of the month, I've posted to my Paris blog.]