Blue Monday

One of my fave Paris pastimes is to spend a
while watching the little kids with these low-tech,
no-motor, no-remote-control sailing ships.
You can rent them to sail in the pond in the Tuileries ...

and also in the Jardin du Luxembourg.

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

Today's Flowers

Yes, it is getting to be that time of year again.
Still, I just re-upped my membership
at the botanic garden in my neighborhood,
because I think there's something beautiful to 
be found there in every season.

[To see more flowers from around the world, go here.]

Shady arbor at Versailles

Once you move away from the chateau itself,
the crowds thin out a lot and it's much 
easier to appreciate the beauty of this place.
This arbor is on the grounds of the 
Petit Trianon, the (relatively) little home
that Marie-Antoinette could escape to from time to 
time and live a (again, relatively) normal life.

[Linking back to The Weekend in Black and White
and to Shadow Shot Sunday.]

Incoming!

Pelicans on a late-afternoon
fishing foray, that is.

[To see more Skywatch pics, go here.]

Thursday Challenge—"night"

Something new(ish) on the New York skyline: the tall,
skinny condo in the middle (which is now
pretty much completed) is 432 Park Ave., the 3rd-tallest
in NYC at 1,396 ft. (425.5 m) and the tallest
residential building in the Western Hemisphere.
It mostly comprises what they call "ghost apartments,"
occupied for only a few weeks a year by über-millionaires
—I hear that the penthouse has already sold for $95 million. 
(P.S. — you couldn't pay me to live up there.)

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

ABC Wednesday—L is for "Lucy"

I'm thinking of my darling grandmother today,
on what would have been her 130th birthday (this
photo was taken circa 1900). Miss Lucy did
make it to 94 and even at that age could rattle off 
the stats of every player on her favorite
baseball team.  She was a steel magnolia, a Southern
cook of the first order—and my, the woman could work a hat!

[To see more ABC Wednesday posts, go here.]

Happy Tuesday

This was one of several photo shoots that I
encountered while crossing the Brooklyn Bridge
during Fashion Week (including this one).  
On this morning, there were two—and
both of them featured balloons.

[Linking back to Ruby Tuesday, Our World Tuesday
and Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday).]