Above: The pond on ul. Trombity. If there's on thing to give you confidence when stepping out onto ice, it's tyre tracks. If a quad can drive on this stuff, there's nothing to worry out.
Above: following the quad's tracks forming a corridor through the reed-beds I enter a world normally closed off to human eyes, taking in vistas that for much of the year the human eye cannot witness.
Above: the effects of the floods of 2010 are still visible. This stand of trees is still under water.
Left: an Alitalia Airbus A319 on final approach to Warsaw Okęcie airport. If any Italians are gazing out of the plane at this moment, they will probably not be too surprised, as it's frosty in Rome too, with bright blue skies.Look at these pictures closely - no distant roofs, pylons or spires. After the thaw, humans will not be here again until the wetlands freeze over again.
Compositions in white, blue and gold hit the spot when it comes to the sublime aesthetic; that moment when the human consciousness is transported to another place and time, familiar, and yet not of this life.
Right: a tree with its bark stripped - I guess by a woodpecker. Plenty of bark on the ice below, another tree a few metres away has been similarly attacked. Closer inspection of the tree shows that there are plenty of holes where beetles have bored into the trunk. A sign that despite the big freeze, life goes on, the struggle to survive.Although a bit later in February, I made a similar expedition to the frozen wetlands last year (the relevant post is here). It seems that we had a week with temperatures averaging-9C back then.
This time three years ago:
Wetlands in (a milder) winter
This time four years ago:
Railway miscellany
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