Here I am, 27 years living in Poland, Polish my first language (I began learning English at nursery school), and yet here's a simple Polish word I never knew. Stawa. Beacon. On exploring Świnoujście further, I learnt that the town's symbol is Stawa Młyny (the Windmill Beacon), below. Up on top, 11m high, is the navigation light on the western breakwater of the approaches to the port.
The 'windmill' sails today are decorative serving no functional purpose, but originally, they rotated at a fixed speed (driven by an internal mechanism), to block light from the lantern housed at the top of the beacon at a fixed interval A lovely bit of Germanic maritime history, bringing vividly to life the atmosphere of Erskine Childers' The Riddle of the Sands, a nautical spy novel set along Germany's coast in the years before WW1.
Below: that same klimat, tidal estuaries and treacherous sandbars, looking out over the Szczecin lagoon from Lubin, a village situated on the south-westerly tip of the Wolin national park, on the island of Wolin. Heavy rain is falling on the island of Uznam (Usedom); Świnoujście is hidden behind the tree-trunk in the foreground. At the north end of the Wolin national park, there's a bison reservation, which also holds several other mammalian species native to Poland.
Below: returning to the west bank of the Świna estuary on the Bielik IV, its decks still wet from the recent downpour.
Corporate profits – better than Bolshevism.
This time three years ago:
Intimations of Immortality, revisited.
This time four years ago:
Things will never be the same Pt II
This time five years ago:
Up to my waist
This time six years ago:
Luton Airport's never-ending modernisation works
This time nine years ago:
Another office move
This time ten years ago:
Workhorse of the Free World's Air Forces over Jeziorki
This time 11 years ago:
Looking for The Zone, in and around Jeziorki
This time 12 years ago:
I awake to snow, on 4 May
This time 17 years ago:
This is not America. No?
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