the end of the line

This is the last train stop on the North Fork
of Long Island.  And it's the final resting 
place for this little red orange 
caboose, whose working days are over.

[Linking back to Monday Mellow Yellows
and Mandarin Orange Monday.]

shell game

Went out to the North Fork of Long Island with
the family to have a "birthday weekend"
(mom and moi, within five days of each other). 
Yesterday included a long walk to a deserted beach,
where I gathered these pretty translucent shells.

[Linking back to Monday Mellow Yellows,
Mandarin Orange Monday, and Macro Monday.]

cool curtain

When I found these puka shells left over
from some craft project at work, I knew exactly
what I wanted to do with them.  Love the
way the light shines through them in the morning
and—if it ever warms up enough to open
the window—the pretty sound 
they make when a breeze hits them.

[Linking back to Blue Monday, Macro Monday,
Monday Mellow Yellows, Mosaic Monday,
and Mandarin Orange Monday.] 

colorful cauliflower

And I didn't even play with the saturation in this photo.
I love cauliflower and I think these are beautiful—
but I'm not sure bright fuchsia food really
looks all that appetizing. What do you think?

[Linking back to Macro Monday and
to Mandarin Orange Monday.]

Dinner in Budapest

Our friends took us to one of their favorite
restaurants (Klassz, on Andrassy Ut—go if you 
visit Budapest).  The food was excellent and 
the company even more so, but now I wish someone
had explained the illustration on this bottle of
sparkling rosé.  It was very good, btw, and cost
about 920 forints (that's approximately $3.50—yet
another reason to love this beautiful city).

[It's Mandarin Orange Monday. To see more, go here.]

Sunset Persian Wall

 That's the title of this incredible work
of glass sculpture, seen at the
(Dale) Chihuli Museum in St. Petersburg
(in Florida).  It's almost overwhelming—
and they don't care how many photos you take,
just so you Don't Touch!!

[Linking back to Monday Mellow Yellows,
 Mandarin Orange Monday and Weekend Reflections.]

les ponts de Paris

Well, three of them anyway (in all, there
are 37, including 3 for pedestrians and 2 for trains).
Visible through the ornate railing of the Pont
Notre Dame (1853) is the Pont au Change (1860), 
and behind that is Paris's oldest bridge, the Pont Neuf,
which dates all the way back to 1606.

[Linking back to Mandarin Orange Monday
and to Travel Photo Mondays.]

two redheads

Last Wednesday, I showed you Szimpla Kért,
the original "ruin pub" in Budapest
(where they also have a great Sunday market).
I found both of these Hungarian beauties
there—though one of them wasn't too sure about
us.  Unlike some other places in Europe
(i.e., France, where it is strictly verboten), parents
in Budapest didn't seem the least bit bothered
if I wanted to take a photo of their child.

[Linking back to Mandarin Orange Monday.] 

downtown autumn color

Haven't been able to get out of town lately,
so I've been doing my "leaf-peeping" on the way
to work, within sight of some spectacular buildings.

[Linking back to Monday Mellow Yellows
and to Mandarin Orange Monday.]

bee-licious!

This apricot tart caught my eye in a shop
on rue Mouffetard, one of Paris's
famous market streets.  Apparently, I'm not
the only one who thought it looked tasty.

[Linking back to Mandarin Orange Monday and Macro Monday.]

père et fils

On a sunny Sunday in September, 
what could be more fun than
going to the Jardin du Luxembourg
with your papa and sailing your
boat in the pond?

[Linking back to Monday Mellow Yellows
and to Mandarin Orange Monday.]

méz élado*

* which means (I hope) "honey for sale" in Hungarian.
When I got to Budapest last month, they had
closed a main thoroughfare (their "Champs Elysées")
and there were lots of artisanal foods and
handmade artifacts for sale—plus, for some reason,
brand new buses and garbage trucks on display.

[Linking back to Monday Mellow Yellows
and to Mandarin Orange Monday.]

Bright and Beautiful

I grew up with the unenlightened notion that
pink and orange don't go together. Whoever decided
that had obviously never been in a garden!

[Linking back to Mandarin Orange Monday,
Macro Monday, and Today's Flowers.]

Was this really necessary?

How long does it take to spoil a world-class view?
Fewer than five months—as I watched this 17-story
building go up beside the Brooklyn Bridge.  You
can still walk out on the bridge and look over to the
Manhattan Bridge upriver, of course, so the view
is not entirely gone.  What really ticks me off is that—
with the exception of a small percentage of
apartments on the lower floors—this will be yet
more luxury housing for the few who can afford it.

[Linking back to Mandarin Orange Monday and Mosaic Monday.]

the butterfly's brunch

I went to the garden to play with my new
camera, which has a 50X zoom.  I was
impressed with what I could capture from
a fair distance—and handheld too.

[Linking back to Mandarin Orange Monday,
 Macro Monday, and NF Blo-Ma.]

Canna show you a pretty plant?

I looked for a plant label for this beauty
and couldn't find one.  But I could tell 
by the foliage that's it's a canna cultivar, so
I'm going with 'Orange Bengal Tiger'.

[Linking back to Mandarin Orange Monday, 
Macro Monday, and Today's Flowers.]

And the winner is . . .

These pretty poppies were growing
side by side at the botanic garden, looking
like so many contestants in a beauty pageant.

[Linking back to Monday Mellow Yellows,
Mandarin Orange Monday,
Mosaic Monday, and Ruby Tuesday.]

pretty planters

Whoever owns this place in Manhattan's
Turtle Bay neighborhood on the East Side has
taken a fairly nondescript doorway and
given it some major curb appeal.
I don't think they need to worry about
anyone absconding with those planters, do you?

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

Âllons, enfants!

I'm raising a glass to all my French
—and Francophile—friends who 
are celebrating Bastille Day today.
(My cocktail is the "healthy"
one, with cucumbers!)

[Linking back to Monday Mellow Yellows and Mandarin Orange Monday.]

I'm ready for my closeup

Finally!  NYC birds are not like the cooperative
(and much larger) ones I photographed in the Galapagos.  
I'm always trying to shoot the birds in the botanic garden, and
they tend to flit off the very second I get my camera to 
my eyeball.  But this little birdie landed a couple
of feet away and posed for me for at least 30 seconds
(never took his eye off me though).

[Linking back to Shadow Shot Sunday, Monday Mellow Yellows,
Mandarin Orange Monday, and Macro Monday.]