Out in the mid-September heat

Today's the 15th of September, and the temperature at half past four this afternoon was 28C. Heatwave territory! Time for an early laptop lid-down (well, I was answering emails at 10pm last night) and a late-afternoon walk around Jeziorki. 

The sun set today at 18:50, the one day of the year when it does so. Because of the asymmetrical horological shenanigans (clocks go back one month and a few days after the autumn equinox, but go forward only a few days after the spring equinox), there are no sunsets in Warsaw between 18:03 and 19:03 in the spring. Nor are there any between 17:21 and 16:19 in the evening in the autumn.

Every sunny day's a bonus and must be exploited - biologically, to soak up that Vitamin D, and psychologically, to build up a reserve of good samopoczucie before the Hammer of Darkness descends, as it will, in early November (this year accompanied by a second wave of Covid).

Below: O, happy outdoor life in Jeziorki, under azure skies... summer is still very much here. Time to make the most of it!

Left: Bella perennis, the common European daisy, or stokrotka in Polish. Still in flower, a good plant for the garden, "offering valuable ground cover, where low growth and some colour is desired with minimal maintenance, while helping to crowd out noxious weeds." [source Wikipedia]. Incidentally, the word 'daisy' comes from 'day's eye', the yellow centre of the flower resembling the sun.

Below: more yellow from goldenrod (nawłoć) still flowering, while the tansy (wrotycz) is turning brown, burnt by the sun. In the distance, the small estate of houses on ul. Kórnicka is nearing the stage of habitability. In the foreground, butterflies.

Below: and the sun still burns away the pond's water; Jeziorki's famed feature is disappearing before its inhabitants' eyes. I can but hope for some decent snow cover this year, and frosts.

Jeziorki's swans didn't breed this year - maybe they're past it, maybe they were unable to find a spot to build their nest. They are sipping the surface curiously. The water is not only extremely shallow, it's mostly covered by algae bloom at the northern end. Today, other than the swans, I saw only a few ducks, not even coots or gulls. The grebes didn't visit this year.

Below: double-decker trains are back, though only from Piaseczno. This is Koleje Mazowieckie's 16:48 Piaseczno-Siedlce service, seen here between W-wa Jeziorki and W-wa Dawidy.

Bonus photo below, another passenger train headed into Warsaw, but taken two days earlier, the 19:17 from Chynów, on its way to Sułkowice, shortly after sunset. I love this photo!

This time last year:
Poland's ugliest building?

This time six years ago:
Weekend cookery - prawns in couscous

This time eight years ago:
Draining Jeziorki

This time nine years ago:
Early autumn moods

This time ten years ago:
The Battle of Britain, 70 years on

This time 11 years ago:
Thoughts about TV, Polish and British

This time 12 years ago:
Time to abandon driving to work!

This time 13 years ago:
Crappy roads take their toll