ABC Wednesday—Q is for "Qu'ran"

. . . another way of spelling Koran.
This one is decorated with gold and lapis and
was made in Kashmir in the late 1700s.  It's
on display with other examples of Islamic art 
(with many beautiful and also practical 
items such as bowls, screens, and carpets)
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]

After a Saturday matinée

All of these fortunate folks (and I) had just
enjoyed a performance of Cosi Fan Tutte
at the Metropolitan Opera House.

[It's Ruby Tuesday. To see more, go here.
For more of Our World Tuesday, go here.]

It's all yours

When one of my Brooklyn neighbors puts something
on their fence like this, it's usually an invitation
to passersby to help themselves.  I didn't
want the painting, but I did think it added
 a nice bit of color to the stoop.

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

Tower of Flowers

Here's a recent arrangement made by
Remco van Vliet, the in-house floral designer
for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
If you'd like to know more about how he
creates his towering floral masterpieces, you
can read this article from the Wall Street Journal.

[I'm linking back to Shadow Shot Sunday
and also Today's Flowers.]

The Weekend in Black and White

The view through one of the Musée d'Orsay clocks.
I loved this place back in the day, when
it was an eerie abandoned railroad station.
Merci to Jacques Duhamel, minister for cultural affairs
in 1970, for not letting them tear it down and to
the directorate of Les Musées de France for 
having the brilliant idea to turn it into a home for
the largest collection of Impressionist and 
Post-Impressionist masterpieces in the world.

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

Weekend Reflections

There's a store in Paris's Passage du Caire
 that sells, among other things, mannequins.
One in particular was extra reflective!

Though the entire vitrine was full of them
(mannequins and reflections, that is).

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

Hiding in plain sight

That's what this lava lizard (spotted
on a trip to the Galapagos) was doing.
Since all of the creatures there seem to have 
no fear of humans—and no reason to—we
were warned to watch out for these little guys
while hiking on a 100-square-mile
lava field on the island of San Salvador.

[Today's prompt for the Thursday Photo Challenge
is "small animals." To see more, visit Dale's meme.]

And it's the 1st of the month, so I've posted to my Paris blog.