Orange You Glad It's Friday?

This is Sepia, our friendly pub local.
They have some comfy seating, a patio out back, board 
games, and local menus in case you want to "order in."  
I'm not exactly a regular (my daughter Lila took this shot 
of her sister and some friends), but sometimes I show up for the 
trivia game on Tuesday—lots of good, clean (very competitive) fun.

[To see more of OYGIF?, visit Maria's meme.]

Thursday Challenge—"wheels"

Finally—and after a long delay—NYC's CitiBike
program launched on Memorial Day. Lots of controversy
around it; this spot, for example, used to be a venue
for large public art installations (which I've featured).
And, of course, it's already hard enough to find a parking
spot in the city and these stations have eaten up
quite a few.  Personally, I'm in the "this is a great thing"
camp.  It works in DC, Boston, Minneapolis, San Antonio, Paris,
Barcelona—why not here?  I hope it's a huge success after all.

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

ABC Wednesday—T is for "tortoise"

There were once more than a hundred thousand
of these giant tortoises in the Galapagos Islands.
(The Spanish sailors who discovered the islands in
1535 named them for these creatures; the Spanish for
tortoise is galàpago.)  Now there are only about
15,000 of them left, and they are fiercely protected.
This venerable old fellow lives the good life at
the Charles Darwin Research Station.

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]

Guarding the Red Door

I'd love to be able to say that I shot this image,
 but it was taken in Buenos Aires earlier this year
by my daughter Lila, whose "eye" is 10 times better
than mine.  At least she was using my camera.  :~}

[To see more Ruby Tuesday posts, visit Gemma's meme.
To check out Our World, head here.]

Bloom in Blue

I thought this flower was a
little bit Georgia O'Keeffe-ish.
What do you think?

[To see more Blue Monday posts, go here.
To see more Monday macros, visit Lisa's Chaos.
For more May flowers, check out Tina's Picstory.
And you can see flower macros at Nature Footstep/Blo-Ma.]

A Well-Loved Tree

I happened to catch this tree without hordes
of people under it, which doesn't happen often. 
It's one of the most beautiful trees in the garden—
and a favorite spot for photo ops.

[To see more Sunday shadows, go here.
And I'm also linking back to 
Straight Out of the Camera Sunday.]

The Weekend in Black and White

This shimmering view from the campanile
of San Marco in Venice takes in the 
Punta della Dogana. The Dogana was once 
Venice's customs house and is now a place 
to enjoy contemporary art.

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