Sublime farewell to the sunny autumn days

The last week was gorgeous; so many bright days under clear skies, starting with a light ground frost. This, alas, means that heating is now needed in the mornings to stave off Discomfort. [And just then, on cue, up pops 'Comfort ye, my people' from Handel's Messiah on YouTube autoplay.] A day's electricity bill on the działka now costs 12zł per 24 hours, rather than the 1.40zł - 1.60zł in summer (unoccupied, it's around 48 grosze per day - keeping the burglar alarm and modem going). The long-term answer to winter heat is of course solar panels - another capital investment project for the near future.

Meanwhile, every opportunity soak up the early autumn sun needs to be taken. A selection of the sublime, including several of the XII Canonical Views of Jakubowizna are presented for you to experience a snippet of the joy I felt as I walked through these landscapes.

Below: this orchard's owner is a few days late for harvesting (it was ongoing a few rows to the right); many of the fallen apples are now suitable only for juice or puree.

Below: the path between Machin II and Jakubowizna - oak and pine on sandy soil.

 

Left: a long exposure and small aperture to get maximum depth of field, together with polarising filter to draw out the profound, crystalline blueness from the sky; the sublime aesthetic. The silver birch, the oak and the pine - my favourite trees. 

The deciduous trees will be devoid of leaves before too long; the pine, however, still looks good on those clear, crisp days of midwinter against a blue sky.

Below: a farm on my way from the działka towards Chynów station.

Below: ' Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God' - Isaiah 40:3. The road parallel to the tracks, looking north towards the DK50 and Sułkowice.

Below: shortly after sunset; at equinox, the sun sets due west; in summer north-west, in winter south-west. No longer does it set over Sułkowice or Wola Pieczyska, it now sets over Drwalew.

Left: the moon is facing the sun; much of the far side, hidden to us observers on earth, is bathed in sunlight. The same side of the moon always faces the earth because of tidal locking; it takes as long for the moon to orbit the earth is it does to rotate around its own axis. As a result, we can never see more than 59% of the moon's surface from earth. That 9%-over-the-hemisphere is due to the moon's libration.

This time two years ago:
Warsaw-Wrocław-Warsaw-Kielce-Warsaw

This time seven years ago:

Poland gets anglicised as Britain gets polonised

This time eight years ago:
Ale, architecture and city politics

This time nine years ago:
The pros and cons of roadside acoustic screens

This time ten years ago:
Moaning about trains again

This time 11 years ago:
Warsaw streets - Dolna, Polna, Rolna, Smolna, Wolna. Lost?

This time 13 years ago:
Ditches, landscapes, autumn

This time 14 years ago:
Golden autumn in Łazienki park