Summer as it should be

It's dawned on me earlier this summer that a great part of why I love it round here in Jakubowizna is because the landscape reminds me of two places I grew up with, associated with pleasant memory - Oxshott Common in Surrey and Stella-Plage in northern France. And throw in some atavistic memory from my maternal grandmother (who grew up near Mogielnica, 22 miles away), and some past-life qualia memories (exomnesia) from 1940s U.S.A. - and it all fits together. Below: a real Stella-Plage/Sandy Lane, Oxshott vibe here. Smell of pine in the late-afternoon heat.

I rode to Grójec to sort out the paperwork for my solar-panel subsidy, a beautiful day for a motorbike ride. Taking mostly backroads, I was in my element. Below: setting off (l), road out of Grójec (r)

After getting back, lunch, some office work - and as five o'clock comes round, time for a long walk around the orchards between Adamów Rososki, Grabina and Grobice and back.

I walked for an hour and 20 minutes and during all that time, was passed by just one car and one cyclist, and I saw three people at work in the orchards. Blissfully quiet. Left: the car raised clouds of dust, the sun between the trees highlighting it in a pleasing composition. Apples are ripening but nowhere near ready to eat. In the orchards, branches are being cut to ensure the fruit gets maximum sunlight - and that the apples are easier to pick.

Below: as canonical as it gets; one of my favourite vistas. Where orchards give way to forest; through the wood to Machcin II.

Night falls. The sky is clear, and a waxing crescent moon shines low, just above the horizon, about an hour before it set. I am most grateful for the day, for a summer which - so far at least - has neither bothered Poland with searing heat nor with any biblical deluges. The spring was dry, so early fruit have been small in size, but the apple harvest looks set fair.

Below: bonus photo - in Grójec, I came across this magnificently preserved Mercedes-Benz 230 (W115). Post face-lift, this would have been manufactured between 1973 and 1976 - so it's getting on for half-a-century old. Magnificent! Worth pulling over to snap.

This time last year:
Measuring the unmeasurable

This time three years ago:
Heading Home [my father leaves Warsaw for the last time]

This time five years ago:
From my father's historic return to Warsaw

This time six years ago:
Country life in a capital city 

This time eight years ago:
My ogród is my działka

This time ten years ago:
Mazowieckie province tempts with mini- and micro-breaks

This time 11 years ago:
Pride and anger