……sounds like the beginning of a song.  Anyway, yesterday was very foggy.  Winter is approaching.  I went up to the rooftop to hang some laundry (which somehow didn’t get quite dry…hmmm….) and here’s what I saw:

 

 

 

 

Mike and I are pretending we’re in Seattle…. nice picture of the Space Needle, eh?

After hanging the laundry I went for a walk…..

…..and finally got around to taking a picture of a shrine in my neighborhood.  One day, a couple months before I’d moved to my current residence, I was taking a long, rambling walk and, of course, got completely lost.  I’d wandered down this alley and saw this shrine and thought it was really beautiful and, I’m guessing, at least 60 or more years old.  But at the time I didn’t have my camera.  A month or so later, when I went with “my realtor” (the nice woman who helped me find my apartment) to check out my place, we rode by this shrine.  I found it amazing that, in a city the size of Ha Noi, I’d be looking for a place to rent on this same obscure alley.

Someone always places flowers and joss sticks here (usually in an old water bottle!).

Down another alley I saw this little guy playing and singing to himself!  Cute.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the electrical ‘system’ across the street from my house, complete with loud speaker for ‘public service’ messages.  My neighborhood is relatively new.  I don’t know the actual age of the homes, but I would guess they were built within the past 20-30, no more than 40 years.  The alleys themselves have been around forever, but certainly the homes have been built more recently.  But directly across the street from my place is a very old place where people still live.  It’s got to be unbelievably drafty and cold in the winter and I’ve even seen critters crawling in under the door…..but in so many ways, I find this place more beautiful than any of these newer homes around here…..

…..and here it is again after I played around with the image on photoshop!