Below: yesterday, 18:30. A storm cloud moves in from the south-east. Strong winds, caused by the downdraft from the intense rain, herald its imminent arrival. Time to run indoors.
From my bedroom window, looking north, 18:39. Intense rain is lashing down, huge droplets appear as white streaks in the photo below (click to enlarge).
The deluge lasts half an hour, for a further hour it rains less heavily. At 20:00 it's dry enough to venture out, wearing a light shower-proof jacket. It is still very warm. Way too warm for a Barbour. Below: a rainbow over Jeziorki.
Below: the air is fresh and clean, I head along ul. Dumki towards the pond. The sun is slanting in under the northbound clouds.
Below: sunset over the pond, seen from ul. Dumki; the dying embers of the day will soon be extinguished by the rain clouds as they roll on northwards.
It was a similar story today. Bright sunlight through the curtains woke me up some time after six o'clock; shortly afterwards the loudest roar of an aircraft flying low overhead had me rushing to the window - it was a huge Antonov An-124, massive beast, really low over Jeziorki. Magnificent sight.
Sunny conditions remained throughout the early morning, but the clouds began forming and thickening throughout the day, with light rain arriving around lunchtime. By the early evening, the storm clouds were massive. Below: sheltering around the tunnel entrance to platform 3 at W-wa Zachodnia station. People in shirtsleeves and T-shirts - when they left home this morning, who would have thought the same deluge that happened yesterday would happen as well today?
On my way home I bought 5 złotys (90p)-worth of strawberries. The plate below represents about a third of the purchase. It is the season for strawberries and they should be bought and consumed in huge amounts. These specimens were perfect. Picked today. Tasting of strawberries from our garden back in the Old Country, not of something imported in plastic punnets that visually resemble strawberries. The season will not be long, while Polish-grown strawberries are in season, it is our duty to stuff ourselves with them.
The stormy season seems to be moving earlier in the year. Will we have a repeat of last year, with a dry August?
This time last year:
Where's it better to live: London or Warsaw?
This time two years ago:
Jeziorki, magic hour, late-May
This time three years ago:
Świdnica, one of Poland's lesser-known pearls
This time six years ago:
Spirit of place
[Another 'why I love Jeziorki so' post. Walking around for an hour without bumping into a single soul? Try doing that within a nine-mile radius of Hyde Park Corner!]
2 comments:
Great picture of the rainbow. We were out yesterday afternoon and the rain started as we made our way back with the temperature dropping 10C to a chilly 23C! It still gave us time to see a double rainbow in the sky. When I left this morning, the temperature was 20C at 5am. All that water evaporating has to go somewhere.
The weather these days. Magnificent, but too humid... Also noticed the ear-splitting roar of the plane, now at least I know what it was.
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