Late summer moods, Jeziorki

Moni and I go for a late-summer walk to observe our beloved Jeziorki at the end of a most unusual season. It has been a summer weather-wise characterised by heavy rains and localised flooding. In 14 summers here, we've never seen Jeziorki so wet, the water table so high. Below: Drainage ditch cutting under ul. Dumki. On the horizon, houses on ul. Trombity. Note the algae bloom.

Ul. Dumki is one of many musically-named streets in Ursynów. We live on ul. Trombity (Alpenhorn), we have Sarabandy, named after the Sarabande, a dance, and Baletowa ('Ballet Street'). Closer into town there's even an ul. Lambady. (Ah! The Lambada. The dance hit of the summer of 1989. Soundtrack to a peaceful revolution. I recall walking into the courtyard of my aunt's flat on Filtrowa, windows of every flat wide open, radios all blaring that song.)

So what's a Dumka? It is "a Slavic (specifically Ukrainian) epic ballad … generally thoughtful or melancholic in character." Moni points out that in Polish usage, it is a song of loss, as sung by the emigres who fled Poland to Paris after the unsuccessful 1831 insurrection against the Russians.

Left: This is probably the first crossing (on foot or indeed by any form of locomotion) of ul. Dumki from south to north since the snows melted. This particular feat could not be achieved back in July. This time, our Barbour wellies enable us to wade through the black water, stinking of decayed vegetation and covered in algae. My light-coloured trousers, however, still get splashed with smelly black muck from the depths.

As we walked, we waited for a storm that was ever impending, but never came. We were met by a few minutes of moderate rainfall which soon mercifully petered out. Above: by the railway tracks, looking across to Dawidy Bankowe.

Left: Meadow with brooding sky. The skies here are as they were in the camera, not artificially darkened by filter or Photoshop. No sign of lightning, no sound of thunder, no massive movement of wind. Just the continual threat of a downpour.

Below: ul. Nawłocka, as I mentioned earlier, has been dug up and when the rat-runners come down here on Monday, ignoring the no entry signs, they will be stuck axle-deep in mud. By the time this photo was taken, the brief rainfall has already ceased. Home and dry in three minutes.