serene’s posterous

More yellow flowers! A birthday gift of potted mums from a friend.  I have had the flowers for more than a week, and they are still looking good.  Perhaps potted flowers are the way to go.

I love yellow flowers, so I decided to pick up a bundle of daffodils from Trader Joe's.  They don't last very long, but are perfectly cheery while they lasted.  And they matched the pretty pot my friend made!

Eu-Jin and I stopped by this park in Menlo Park last weekend for a pleasant 30min close to sunset.  Yes, the little hills were probably made from landfill...but it was still relatively pleasant.  There were a bunch of people flying kites - including a really fancy looking dragon kite.  We also saw a group flying a radio controlled airplane.  The last photo is of Eu-Jin on a little hill surveying the possibilities of doing his long weekend runs at this park.

     

At Aphrodisias, Turkey.

The first photo was taken in the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii), while the other 2 are taken in Rüstem Pasha Mosque (Rüstem Pasa Camii) in Istanbul.  I love how the chandeliers come down from the high domes, gently lighting the enormous space while light also comes in through the windows in the dome.

     

I wasn't the only person taking a photo of Eu-Jin lying on the ground in his attempts to get a better photo of the Library of Celsus in Ephesus, Turkey.

There's been a bunch of construction work around our apartment - new fences, repaved paths and soon-to-be-redone yards.  Things have not been going smoothly.  We already have had our sewage and water lines damaged. 

But this could have been potentially worse.  We got home last evening, and noticed water from the waterlogged backyard backing up close to our apartment.  And the water was raising gradually but surely towards our apartment.  The unfortunate housing maintenance guy we called had to come in on a Sunday evening in the pouring rain.  He had to splash through the inches deep water to put sandbags at our back door.

First photo was of Eu-Jin checking out the water level.  Second photo was of how the mini flood looked in the morning.

   

We saw the cat in the shop window along İstiklal Caddesi (the main shopping drag in Istanbul).  The cat looked so regal and pretty, I had to persuade Eu-Jin to take a photo of the cat for me.

Eu-Jin got me a Canon G10 so that I won't be bored when he is taking photos.  But it seems I always end up taking photos of him taking photos.  First photo is sunset at Lands End.  The other 2 were of Eu-Jin trying to take photos of the Golden Gate Bridge with Vince looking on.

     

Photo taken by Eu-Jin.

We saw lots of cats in Turkey, and were surprised how good they looked.  They are probably strays, but seemed reasonably well fed, and had nice, good looking coats.  This was one of my favorite cats.  We met her in Kariye Müzesi in Istanbul.  She was very affectionate and was purring as I petted her.  Love her stripey coat!