The morning sun in a pure blue sky blazes, inducing flashback after flashback to that old anomalous familiarity. Reading a magazine on the train, catching sight of an attractive woman on the platform - the spirit of mid-century America as experience by a man in his thirties returns. And back in Jakubowizna in the evening for a sunset stroll, this canonical prospect, side-lit from the west, carries me away.
And a further flashback - prosperous farmhouses surrounded by arable land. Familiar, pleasant, instantly recognisable - but not from distant Hanwell nor Perivale, nothing to do with the endless streets of terraced 1930s and Victorian houses and traffic jams among which I grew up.
Below: a landscape that triggers a present-life flashback, this time to Stella-Plage in northern France, and precisely to what is now the junction of Chemin du Baillarquet and Rue des Iris; although back in the 1970s, these chemins vicinaux were unnamed, unasphalted and undeveloped.
Tomorrow looks like rain, and the next day, and the weekend, and right through to next Thursday, but no frost forecast. Sunny October must inevitably yield to damp, grey October, though knowing the Polish climate, some nice surprises can still turn up. As it is, I have yet to switch on the heating, daytime temperatures inside my house haven't yet fallen to anywhere near uncomfortable (at 18C I shall activate under-floor heating, but at 19.5C all that's needed is a thin jumper over my shirt and some press-ups, squats, weights or plank to warm myself up. Last autumn - well, late summer actually! I already had to put on the heating on 19 September.
Changing seasons are strong flashback triggers. One I look forward to is the first evening frost - leaving the office in town with temperatures below zero, and the anticipation of Christmas...
This time last year:
I dream of telepathy
This time three years ago:
S7 update, around what's now Węzeł Zamienie
This time four years ago:
Marchin' again
This time eight years ago:
The autumn sublime in Jeziorki
This time ten years ago:
Enduring Ealing - Victorian and Edwardian klimats
This time 11 years ago:
Krokowa, Poland's former northern borderlands
This time 16 years ago:
Aerial photograph of Central London
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