Wednesday, 14 December 2022

Utter, utter gorgeousness

I wake up to this - rolling up the shutter blinds, here's the view across my neighbours' garden. It will be a gorgeous day - so as soon as I can, office work permitting, I'm taking a walk into Chynów to buy a rucksack's worth of food, and get some snaps on my way. That's the moon up there...

Below: view from my breakfast table. Sunrise was at 7:35 this morning - although we're already at earliest sunset (still 15:24), the latest sunrise (at 7:43) is not until 30 December.

Below: towards the gate. A sight I associate with the start of an adventure - even a hour's stroll to the shop and back. I know the padlock's going to be frozen, as the overnight low was at least -11C. I have the remedy - a bladder-full of nature's anti-freeze. The padlock's set low for this reason...

Here I can stroll into town without coming across too much traffic. Tracks of hare and deer in the snow, some human footprints too. No tyre tracks. No fresh snow has fallen since early Monday morning.

One of those moments of anomalous familiarity - not from my childhood, yet strong qualia-memory flashbacks. Oklahoma? Minnesota? Sure as hell ain't West Ealing or Hanwell!

Below: looking up at the corner of ulica Słoneczna. I'm catching that vibe again...

Tables turned: after two days of watching Poland whizz by from a train, I'm now watching a train whizzing by. Local service for Radom approaches Chynów station. On my way back, laden with food. Across the tracks at the level crossing to the right, then back along what is the continuation of this road and up the hill to my działka.

Back home, back to the laptop to get some more work done, then a second walk to catch the sunset and encroaching dusk. Below: the sun approaches the horizon over the rooftops of Jakubowizna.

I was hoping to see an elk in the forest - I didn't, but a pair of young female deer was a good second prize. Their food is under the snow - there may be some frozen apples by the trees.

Below: looking west shortly after the sun had set. I have made the most of the daylight hours.

Back home after the walk - time for some hot soup! Solar panels cleared themselves of snow and generated a useful 1.8 kWh today, about a fifth of what I consumed, but then summer's surpluses haven't yet all been used up.

I'm sorry suburbia, but you can no longer compete when it comes to views! [Having said that, the photo-haul from this time last year (below) actually does compete - still, that was before the S7 extension opened to belch vastly more traffic into the neighbourhood.]

This time last year:
Hoar frost and proper ice, Jeziorki

This time four years ago:
Alcohol, servant not master

This time seven years ago:

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