A Visit to Gymnasium Mostar and the Spanish Square

I recently posted about the Chocolate Festival in our city, and a lot of people have been commenting about the orange building that could be seen in the images. I decided to take more shots of it and maybe write a sentence or two about it. The building is called "Gymnasium Mostar" and is actually the high school I went to. 

During our recent nightly outing to the city, we also stopped by there to take some shots. I hope you'll enjoy these.

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Charlie Chaplin at the age of 27, 1916

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The Sunny Morning Cocktail [Non-alcoholic]

I fully realize that the photo-blog is almost turning into a food-blog, with the amount of recipes I'm posting recently, but please bear with me. This here is  a recipe for a drink. The method is easy and the ingredients are few. This is my "Sunny Morning" cocktail, something I have discovered for myself, and that I really like to make on the weekends or whenever I need something refreshing and fruitful.

The recipe that follows is non-alcoholic, first, because I don't drink alcohol in general, but also since adding alcohol would somehow diminish its title. :) This of course doesn't mean that you can't turn this into a alcoholic cocktail.

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Let me show you first what we'll be creating.

Ingredients are few but good (this makes 1 "Sunny Morning" cocktail):
- 2 oranges (or 1 if you have a big orange)
- 2-3 shots of pomegranate syrup
- lots of ice
- water to top of your glass

Slice your oranges and juice them. Tip: Before juicing, cut up one thick slice for garnish later, and juice the rest!

Pour into your glass and add your ice.

Now add the pomegranate syrup. This is very sugary and sweet, so be careful not to add to much.  I sort of eyeball it by my glass, But i recon it's 2-3 shots or tablespoons of this. I love the deep red swirls you get when adding this to the orange juice and ice.

Top off your glass with water. This is important, because you need to water down the syrup, otherwise it will be too sweet. Give it a good shake, until it comes out pinkish.

Garnish with a slice of juicy orange, or serve straight up. This goes well with breakfast, brunch or as a midday refreshment.

I hope that you liked this post and the images inside and that you'll also make this, since it's so easy and you usually have all of these ingredients on stand by. Thanks for stopping by.

Tom Thumb and his Mother c.1850-55

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General Tom Thumb was the stage name of Charles Sherwood Stratton (January 4, 1838 – July 15, 1883), a little person who achieved great fame under circus pioneer P.T. Barnum.

Take a peak in our Garden during Winter

I wanted to write an add-on to last years post about autumn in our garden. While some blossoms are to be seen here and there around the city, nature is still sleeping. Our garden has been mostly still standing during the winter months, and the open space that is there, is used by our dog Beni for jumping around and playing.

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The only plants that are still fresh are the various herbs planted here and there, like the Rosemary in this first image.

Beni is in full play mode, often hiding behind the house. When we have sunny mornings and afternoons he likes to sunbathe outside.

Or wait for me to throw him a ball...

... and go after it...

...and proudly return it.

I quite like this little portrait of him, because of the patterned background.

In the post from last year, I mentioned the little house that we were building next to the main one. Back then it was unfinished inside, but now we have completed all of the major works inside. The floors are installed, the walls have been painted, and...

... we have selected the wallpaper in the main bedroom. Everything is mostly white and bright, but one of the walls in the bedroom contrasts that with a olive green wallpaper, that my mom selected.

 

The furniture is hand crafted and in the works, I'll update you again when there is more to tell.

So that's it for today. Thanks for coming along, I know these are not the most exciting images, but it is our life at the moment. I have a trip planed to Vienna, Austria next weekend, and I'm looking forward to the change of pace and the images I'll take. But there will be more new content here until then. 

Boy with pet owls, circa 1911

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Evening Portraits on the Walking Lane

These portraits were taken on the big walking lane in Mostar, right next to the city park, where I recently took some night images. Portraits at night always need some sort of light in the background (foreground obviously) to make the subjects really pop out. In some of these shots I used the small circus that was set up there for the kids to add some interesting backgrounds and surroundings.

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Thanks for stopping by. I wish you all a happy start into the coming weekend. I will soon post that star trail tutorial I was talking about recently.

Bridesmaids, flower girls and pageboy from a 1920s wedding

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A Night in the Park

Yesterday I mentioned our city park where I took the star trail photos, which I also posted yesterday (click here if you haven't seen them). In this post I want to show more about the park itself. I have taken many  images here during daylight, but haven't taken shots at night. That's why I thought that it was high time to catch up on that.

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The blossoms have already bloomed in the park and at night they create for a very interesting sight. In the background the city lights are flickering.

Inisde the park a golden statue of Bruce Lee can be found. Engraved below stands "Bruce Lee -Your Mostar". It was unveiled on November 26th of 2005. The life-sized statue stands 1.68 meters tall and is a symbol of solidarity in the ethnically divided city. Lee, who was an American of Chinese descent and a famous martial arts actor, represented a bridging of cultures. The statue was the first public monument to Bruce Lee unveiled in the world, with a statue in Hong Kong being revealed one day later marking what would have been the Chinese star's 65th birthday.

A wide shot of the park at night. In the distance you can see the old bank building, that was destroyed in the war, and hasn't been sold and privatized from the public sector since then.

The nightly stroll through the city will continue. In another post I will show you the high school I went to (it's the orange building that I recently posted and some people asked about) and the Spanish Square at night.