Thursday 4 October 2007

Autumn finally makes its presence felt

The morning was decidedly autumnal, the mist bringing to mind Keats' Ode to Autumn. The shrouded biblical figure photographed in the fields next to our house is actually a tree stump, but I often need to give it a double take in the twilight to make sure.

Today's drive to work down ul. Poloneza was steeped in the atmosphere of early autumn. So much so I had to stop the car and snap some photos. Below: The Warsaw Metro's rail link to the outside world. All underground trains running on the Metro have had to travel on this line to get to the terminus at Kabaty, from the sidings at Okęcie. Rail traffic here is exceedingly rare.

Today is my 50th birthday; a dividing line between the first and second half of my life. Late-summer-into-early-autumn is the metaphor - ahead lie many sunny days, like today; a day of brightness, beauty, optimism and peace. May God give me many more like today.

I was born the very first day of the Space Age, the day mankind put its first artificial satellite (Sputnik I) into orbit; Google has marked the day with a special logo (below).



UPDATE October 2008: In a few months' time, the land beyond the railway line will the given up to what will be the Berlin-Warsaw-Moscow motorway; four lanes of traffic will roar along these quiet fields.

1 comment:

Aphelion said...

I know this post is a bit older already, but I wanted to tell you how much I love the beautiful photos! What a funny coincidence that you were born on the day Sputnik was launched; incidentally, my birthday is on the 7th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's death...