Review of the Year 2020: II. Investments

After all of last year's work on the działka and the purchase of the adjoining orchard, my investment priorities for this year were to fence the whole plot as one parcel of land, with a front wall along the length of the plot adjoining the road, with a gate and a drive. This was only partially achieved, given the pandemic. Firstly, I needed a geodeta (sworn or legal surveyor), to mark out the boundary between my new plot and the forest next door. I'd wanted to do this in late March; it happened in June. The next step was to remove the fencing along the east side of my original plot and move it 25 metres eastward along the now-legally delineated border with the forest. Planned for April/May, this finally happened in November, though there's no wall facing the road (only a wire fence) and no drive. All this waits for 2021.

Another fiasco this year was the solar panels; the government subsidies were withdrawn 11 days before the original deadline ('because money had run out') so there will be no 5,000 złotys to offset the 21,500 złoty investment for the installation of the ten panels. Electricity supplier Innogy Stoen Operator has yet to send an annex to the contract, despite changing the meter to a two-way one, meaning that we're still on the old tariff and paying normally for electricity.

Plans for next year? On the działka - the wall and the drive; the latter will mean removing four apple trees which stand in the way. Some landscape gardening will be in order too.

I have ordered and paid for a full set of roller-blinds for the house, not so much for the sake of security, more to do with keeping out early morning sunlight (midsummer sunrises at 04:15). Also on the cards - knocking down the wall between the two downstairs rooms (if structurally possible) and installing a spiral staircase to link the upstairs room with the downstairs rooms directly (at present, the stairs are outside).

Wilder fantasies/follies for the działka include my 18th century English pub... 

...and an Indian-style step-well, all the better to retain rainwater

Public investments are well documented on this blog, in particular the S7 extension from the airport down to Grójec and the LK8 Warsaw-Radom railway line that is now (almost) complete between Warsaw and midway point Warka. Fingers crossed for the projects' swift completion.

This time two years ago:
Exploration of a largely unknown Ealing

This three years ago:
Eric Ravilious
[Since then, the artist has found new audiences via Twitter]

This time five years ago:
Dark thoughts at 2015 comes to an end

This time six years ago:
Shots from the sky

This time seven years ago:
One-millionth of a zloty 

This time nine years ago:
Random year-end thoughts

This time ten years ago:
Beery litter louts

This time 11 years ago:
Miserable grey London

This time 12 years ago:
Parrots in Ealing

This time 13 years ago:
Xmas lites, Jeziorki