This morning I found myself still enjoying last week’s “Week in Pictures” and still trying to avoid dwelling too long on the gruesome events of the day.  So I’ll stick to happy stuff!  First, I really love Nikita Dudnik of the AP’s photo of the beach goers in Novosibirsk caught in a hailstorm.  You gotta admire the photographer, who was probably also caught out in the storm. I apologize to anyone who calls Novosibirsk home, but about twenty years ago I went to a seminar by scientists from a research institute there about nasty tick-borne illnesses (the ticks are nasty, the illness deadly) and the unbelievably high level of ticks there in summer. I came out with the conclusion that this was a place on Earth only very marginally supportive of human life.  No wonder everyone is on the beach ready to be pelted with golf ball size hail. Stay out of the grass people! Yikes! Guess summer is over. 8<)

Next is Christian Hartmann of Reuters spectacularly picture of an elderly French woman cheering as the Tour de France rides by in fantastic blur before her.  This is a classical and beautiful example of using blur to create an exciting sense of motion.

Finally, take a look at Erik De Castro also of Reuter’s picture of tigers enjoying a cooling swim at a zoo in Malabon in the Phillipines.  You gotta love the big guy licking the glass. Some will try to accuse me, I know, of posting a cute cuddly animal picture. But as all cat lovers are keenly aware: cats are the most human of people.