Fresh powder on Warsaw's parks

It snowed and it snowed, cloaking Warsaw's parks in a magickal atmosphere. Worth taking 20 minutes time off between meetings to soak it in.

Below: Park Ujazdowski, an avenue of trees running parallel to Al. Ujazdowskie. Fresh powder about 4 inches (10cm) deep upon all surfaces. Little wind, so no drifting.


Left: As though wearing a baggy white mohair sweater, Poland's piano-playing elder statesman toughs out the cold. The statue faces the building that housed the British Embassy on the corner of Al. Ujazdowskie and Al. Róż. The lawn behind the statue is lined with roses in the summer.

The snow continued falling all day and into the early evening, by then, however, the temperature rose above zero for the first time for three weeks. The roads and pavements would fill with unpleasant slush, but for now, time to revel in the freshness of the snow-blanket.

Right: the pond at the southern end of Park Ujazdowski, frozen solid, offers children returning from school a ready-made skating rink. No danger of anyone falling in after such a prolonged period of heavy frost. The ducks that usually reside here cluster near the park's southern-most exit, hoping to cadge bread from passers-by.

Below: a woman comes to Park Łazienkowski just across Trasa Łazienkowska from Park Ujazdowski armed with bird-food and a camera. Her attempted to lure blue tits and blackbirds to her feed-box were largely unsuccessful; in the end she scattered the food on the path - this attracted quite a flock.

This time three years ago:
In praise of the 20-minute bus/tram/Metro ticket
[it was just 2zł or 35p back then; today 2.60zł or 50p.]