Up with the weather! Fine, frosty morn

Sunday night, family calls – Zooming with my brother, Skyping with my daughter – and Wenusia the kitten wants outta the house. As usual, to do her business outside before bedtime. But on this occasion, she did not return... Never did this before... I waited up as long as could, but with Monday morning being the start of the working week – reluctantly in the end, I had to go to bed, having drunk a second large tea to ensure that I'd be waking up all through the night. I moved my pillow to the other end of my bed so I could see the kitchen window, and having left the roller blinds open and a lit table lamp on the windowsill, I dropped off to sleep. 

I dreamt about my lost cat being in London and befriending a small dog, then woke up at 1:30. Checked outside – no sign of. Temperature was -4.8°C. Woke again at 3am, then again at 4:30, checking each time. Calling out into the darkness. Nothing. Finally woke and got out of bed at 7am, just before sunrise, again checking for Wenusia, again nothing, so I got dressed, made my coffee, had a light breakfast, and got ready to venture out into the frost to look for my missing kitten. I laced up my stout winter boots, put on my warm parka, hat and scarf, ready to brave the elements, opened the door – and who should stroll in nonchalantly as though nothing had ever happened but Wenusia.

Seize the day! I thought. So I filled her bowl with cat food and set off with camera to make the most of the opportunity. An hour before the Monday office Zoom call, time for a lap around the manor to photograph a most splendid morning that, had it not been for Wenusia's night out, I would have missed to routine.

So then we are having. The sun now rises half an hour after the latest sunrise (07:43 between 27 Dec and 3 Jan). The ground is covered with yesterday evening's snow, turned crispy by the overnight frost.

Below: the sun rises over the forest between Jakubowizna and Adamów Rososki. Fallow fields of tansy and goldenrod touched by frost. It is absolutely beautiful outside! 

Below: rows of apple trees between Jakubowizna and Grobice. Time for some gratitude!

Below: abandoned farm buildings, Nowe Grobice. Or 1930s Kentucky.

Below: looking east from Nowe Grobice. All photos in this session taken with my Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 lens, which gives a nice approximation of the field of view of the human eye. To zoom in, walk forward. To zoom out, walk back.

Below: frost-covered tansy (Tanacetum vulgare, in Polish wrotycz). Bright yellow when in bloom.

Below: more fallow fields between Jakubowizna and Nowe Grobice.

Below: just around the corner from Jakubowizna, a nicely-kept back garden in Nowe Grobice.

Below: back in Jakubowizna and in good time for our Monday-morning office call. A useful 4,000 paces in just over half an hour.

Below: safe and sound, warm and dry, fed and watered, cared for and loved. Could a kitten wish for more?

This time last year:
To Krężel via Wygodne

This time three years ago:
Another canonical dream fits the picture

This time five years ago:
Knowing what 'good' looks like

This six years ago:
Sewer system extended up Trombity

This time seven years ago:
What Happened at the Railway Inn (Part II)

This time ten years ago:
Demand and inequality in the global economy

This time 11 years ago:
Sorry, takie mamy koleje

This time 12 years ago:
Visit to Warsaw's Jewish Cemetery

This time 13 years ago:
Under Rondo Dmowskiego 

This time 14 years ago:
My most favourite bridge

This time 15 years ago:
Street lighting under the snow

This time 16 years ago:
Ul. Poloneza - archival video before the S2 was built

This time 17 years ago:
Aerial juxtaposition over Jeziorki

Up and down with the weather part II

Not the weather I'd been given to expect from the forecast on my phone. Within minutes of my setting off on my walk, a dark cloud rolled in swiftly from the north-west, bringing with it an immense flurry of wet snow. The temperature was about +1°C, though windchill and damp made it feel much colder. Below: one of the XII Canonical Prospects of Jakubowizna & District in blizzard conditions.

Within minutes, however, the blizzard had blown itself out. By the time I'm through the woods, out on the other side by Machcin II, the cloud has scudded by, having relieved itself of mountains of snow.

It turns out quite nice again. Below: on the path that follows the border between Jakubowizna (on the right) and Gaj Żelechowski (on the left). Note the hazel catkins in full bloom (left), which they do in Poland from early February to early April.

By the time I get to ulica Kolejowa, the sun is shining brightly, illuminating the signal posts and pylons.

But before long, another dark cloud rushed in from the north-west, bringing more snow; large, wet flakes covering my coat. A mere 1,200 paces from home, I am worrying about the snow building up around my camera.

I spin round to catch the southbound Żeromski InterCity express as it rushes through towards Chynów station on its way to Kraków from Olsztyn via Warsaw.

I am cold, wet, hungry, tired – but not miserable; the lane home and 600 paces left.

Home again. Kettle on, feed the kitten, upload photos.

It would turn out to be an eventful night, but that's for the next post...

This time six years ago:
Justify the buy – Nikkor 10-20mm zoom lens

This time 12 years ago:
The Big Melt

This time 15 years ago:
Waiting for the meltdown

This time 17 years ago:
Warsaw's inadequate airport

Cold, gloomy start to February

The last days of January brought the faintest intimations of the onset of spring; I could sniff it in the wind, I could feel it on my face and in my bones. But then along comes February, and hopes for an early spring dissolve. The weather forecast for the coming days is uniformly grim. Overcast skies, light frost at night, temperatures hovering above zero during the day; little hope of the seeing more than fleeting glimpses of the sun. Should it snow, it will be a light fall and melt quickly as daytime highs will be between 3°C and 4°C. But at least it's not raining (drizzle doesn't keep me indoors), so my 12,000 paces need doing. To the forest between Chynów and Krężel (below).

Below: despite my many expeditions through this forest, I have never come across this działka before; run-down but not abandoned – a long way from the nearest asphalted road. Short grass suggests someone's taking care of the place.

Below: in the forest between Chynów and Krężel, views of passing trains; here's a local service on its way to Warsaw (long exposure to blur the train)...

Below: the Kolberg InterCity train on its way to Olsztyn from Kraków; photo taken from deeper in the forest, this time using a short shutter speed to freeze the motion.

Below: looking north towards Chynów along ulica Kolejowa ('railway street') as the InterCity Sienkiewicz express from Olsztyn to Kraków charges through on the 'up' track, having just overtaken the local service (note one of the lower lights is red, to show its working the wrong way). I consider the subjective conscious experience of a passenger on board, looking out onto a generic landscape of orchards and forests flashing by, rather as I do when I'm travelling through regions of which I know not.

Below: the overtaken local service, moving more sedately as it accelerates away from Chynów station shortly before starting to brake as it approaches Krężel station.

Below: long telephoto shot of ul. Kolejowa, showing the dip in the road (from which I took the above photo).

As of today, sunset is exactly one hour later than the year's earliest sunset (which is 15:24 in Chynów between 8 and 16 December).

This time last year:
In the run-up to Lent
(Early last year, not until 6 March this year.)

This time two years ago:
Born between nuclear disasters

This time four years ago:
Yo-yo winter

This time six years ago:

Plank time!

This time seven years ago:
What happened at the Railway Hotel?

This time eight years ago:
How to annoy the passengers

This time nine years ago:
Zloty symbol - your suggestions 

This time ten years ago:
The future of Warsaw's public transport
[interesting to see how much of that has come true!]

This time ten years ago: 

Snowdrifts and trains in winter

This time 13 years ago:

Back to the blackboard

(on the superiority of Polish schools to British ones)

This time 15 years ago:

Greed, fear, fight-and-flight - and the weather

This time 16 years ago:

Where the new expressways will meet

This time 17 years ago:

Early spring in London

Cancel my subscription to the AI revolution (for now)

Last month I had a go with the AI tools offered by Google (Gemini 1.5 Pro and Imagen 3), and was initially so impressed with the results that I decided to go for the full monthly subscription package. However, once I'd signed up, I soon came to realise that Google's AI offering was massively overhyped and still very much in a developmental phase.

Gemini was consistently unable to answer questions that really aren't particularly tough. The last straw came this morning, when I asked it to give me inflation and wage-growth figures for the UK for the past 20 years. After the boiler-plate apology ("I am still training etc") it offered me a list of the web addresses for pages I already knew. Yes, Gemini, I know where the data is – I was expecting you to extract it and save me about 90 minutes of research work*.

Earlier, I asked it to list me European cities and towns ending with the letters 'in', giving Berlin, Dublin, Lublin and Turin as examples. It couldn't. (At least it was honest about's its inability – Elon Musk's Grok AI offered me the following: "Here are several more European cities and towns that end in the letters "in": Århus (Denmark), Belfast (Northern Ireland, UK), Bergen (Norway); Birmingham (England, UK), Bratislava (Slovakia, but commonly referred to as "Pressburg" in German, which doesn't end in "in"), Cardiff (Wales, UK) followed by another 25 laughable attempts; the nearest match being Tallinn (Estonia)**. 

On images, with one or two exceptions, Gemini has failed me. All too often it comes up with a lame excuse for not even trying (prompt: "the politburo of the Chinese Communist Party laughing at CCTV images of London streets"; result: "Sorry, I can't help with images of people yet."). Grok managed extremely well here! My request to include a drummer in the post-apocalyptic image I prompted (for this post) could not be met, so again I used an image generated by Grok. Typically, when Gemini does a reasonably decent image in a first attempt, subsequent tweaks to the prompt result in a worse image than the first one. Grok, on the other hand, in its freeware version, offers you four images, all rendered simultaneously in real time before your very eyes. Pick the best of the four and prompt it to improve.

In all honesty, in a month of using Google Gemini 1.5 Pro, I could see absolutely nothing about it that's in any way better than freeware offerings from OpenAI or Grok (I have yet to try Claude by Anthropic and I won't be using DeepSeek). I had been using OpenAI's Chat GPT from shortly after its launch; that was groundbreaking (and free). A huge productivity benefit when used in the workplace environment, summarising reports, re-writing texts or drafting emails. But I have not been convinced in the slightest that a paid-for upgrade to a pro-version AI is worth it. On the contrary, I do not want to be paying Google to train its AI system, and so I have pulled the plug on Google Gemini 1.5 Pro.

Plus the price – in Poland it costs 97.99 złotys a month, which is double what I am paying Google for YouTube Premium, which is truly excellent value for money.*

* Postscript: After cancelling the subscription (which is due to run out on 21 January), Google offered me access to Gemini Advanced 1.5 Pro with Deep Research. Now this is better! Within minutes it had scoured the ONS website and dug out the relevant data that I had requested. I have three weeks to use this; if the advanced version shows a marked improvement in performance, I shall re-subscribe!

* Post-postscript: On the European towns and cities ending in the two letters 'in', Gemini Advanced 1.5 Pro is still unable to answer correctly: "I've compiled a list of European towns and cities ending in "in". Please note that this list may not be exhaustive, as there are many smaller towns and villages across Europe. Here are some examples: Esslingen, Göttingen, Ingolstadt, Tübingen... " It continues in similar vein across other European countries; most are laughably wrong "Debrecen, Győr, Kecskemét, Pécs..." In its favour, Gemini did dredge out Koszalin, Bodmin, Kolín, Litvín (both Czechia) and El Espín (Spain). Asking it to edit out all the names not ending in the letters 'in', I waited several minutes before receiving the news that 'something went wrong'. 

*** Post-post-postscript: Google informs me by email that the 97.99zł/month is for my old storage deal (100GB of data) as well as the AI. The former cost me 47.99zł/month which is entirely acceptable, so access to the AI actually costs 40zł/month. This reframes the question of utility cost. I have three weeks to reconsider...

This time two years ago:
Rational vs. magical thought

This time four years ago:
Longevity, telomeres and exercise

This time five years ago:
A day of most profound sadness

This time four years ago:
Vintage aerial views of the ground

This time eight years ago:
Adventures of a Young Pole in Exile - review

This time nine years ago:
Ealing in bloom

This time ten years ago:
Keeping warm in January

This time 11 years ago:
If you can't measure it, you can't manage it (health, that is)

This time 12 years ago:
Sten guns in Knightsbridge (well, Śródmieście Południowe, actually)

This time 14 years ago:
To The Catch - a short story (Part II)

This time 15 years ago:
Greed, fear, fight and flight - and the economy

This time 16 years ago:
Is there an economic crisis going on in Poland?

Winter work hastens spring

I let my garden grow wild, it let it flourish – grass grows high, flowers attract pollinators, a million leaves turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. During the vegetative season, which seems to start earlier each year, I cut only that which needs cutting to allow me access to important parts of the plot. So the bulk of the year's pruning I do in the weeks between the last frosts and the early spring when the sap starts to rise and branches are no longer crack crisply between the blades of my lopper.

So far this year, I've done three or four pruning/lopping/shearing sessions, but there's much land to cover (I have banned the use of power tools, especially fossil-fuel powered ones), so it's all done by hand. It's now late-January, and a little gardening work on dry, sunny days is in order.

Below: in the orchard. There will be few apples last year, as my unsprayed trees are biennial bearing; the next cider-apple harvest will be in 2026. But in the meanwhile, some tidying-up is due.

A walk is in order. I can sense that spring is on its way; winter might return for a few days yet, but there's something in the air that suggests an early rebirth; some subtle smells? The feel of the air on my face? When the sun pops out and the temperature rises into double digits, intimations of spring fill me with optimism. Today's walk was my first without a parka since late October, and gardening was done with just two layers (shirt + cardigan). Below: on the edge of Jakubowizna, border with Machcin II.

Below: the sun sets at quarter past four; between Węszelówka and Piekut. Lovely sky, like liquids of different viscosities being swirled about.

Below: double-decker train heading to Warsaw – one of two that don't stop in Chynów (much to my annoyance). These services (KM 21128 and KM 21130) for some reason skip almost all stations between Radom and W-wa Służewiec except Dobieszyn, Warka and Piaseczno. Passing through Chynów at around 16:30 and 18:20, both would be brilliant for getting into town quickly for an evening of culture or entertainment, rushing to town in a mere 20 minutes (to Służewiec) or half an hour (to Zachodnia).  

Below: Wenusia, a kitten in the process of becoming a cat. A joy to be around, the perfect feline companion. More on life with Wenusia in a week's time, a month after she followed me home.

This time last year:
Precognition – the future foretold

This time two years ago:
Levels of Detail, Applied
[More dreams!]

This time six years ago:
Dreams of birth?

This time seven years ago:
Foggy, icy, slippery day in Jeziorki

This time 11 years ago:
Hannah Arendt and the banality of evil

This time 12 year ago:
Snow scene into the sun

This time 13 years ago:
More winter gorgeousness

This time 14 years ago:
New winter wear - my M65 Parka

This time 15 years ago:
Winter and broken-down trains

This time 16 years ago:
General Mud claims ul. Poloneza

This time 17 years ago:
Just when I thought winter was over...

Further exploration of Sułkowice's wetlands

No ice this year thick enough to walk on; our winters are getting warmer and warmer. Today I decided to venture once more into the wetlands alongside the Czarna river between Sułkowice and Ławki from the south, walking along ulica Ogrodowa ('Garden Street'), then ul. Torowa ('Track Street' or 'Rails Street') up to the end of the asphalt. Below: looking along ul. Torowa, as an InterCity train from Kraków to Olsztyn via Warsaw hammers through. To the left, ul. Psa Cywila (Civilian the Dog Street) – a reminder that the national police-dog school is on that side of the road. No pavement as this is a no-through road with hardly any traffic other than that accessing the few houses along here. The road bears left then ends abruptly. From there I take a muddy footpath west through a small copse, which yields to the wetlands beyond.

Emerging from the trees, I spot something interesting – a footbridge made of two concrete posts. There's a similar arrangement upstream by the ford near Hipolitów; this one is on the water rather than over it, keeping the algae and surface scum from floating down the Czarna river. I cross over to the other side, but find it too boggy to progress any further in the direction of Budy Sułkowskie.

Below: view from the bridge, looking north-east (all that scum is behind me as I look). Walkable on the right bank, not walkable on the left bank.

Below: OpenStreetMap  shows the terrain nicely, even including the makeshift footbridge! Beyond the Czarna, the map suggests there is a footpath leading to (but not actually entering) Budy Sułkowskie. I have try to find it from the other side last year; nothing doing. And from this side – the land is waterlogged.

Below: it's clear that someone has been at work to ameliorate the terrain at least on this bank of the Czarna; note the drainage channel letting water into the main flow of the river.

Below: work of beaver or man? I noticed a felled tree earlier on, with characteristic gnaw-marks, leading me to suspect it is indeed a dam made by a Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber). Beavers, almost hunted to extinction at the end of the 19th century, have made a strong comeback and are good for the wetland ecosystem. 

Below: west of the railway line, north of the river, the terrain is boggy and impassible (if you wish to maintain dry socks). Last April, I waded across further to the north, by accident, it must be said. A southbound local train crosses the bridge over the Czarna. On this side of the river, the footpath is dry and passable (if you're wearing stout boots).

Below: east of the railway line, the Czarna has been rerouted through a man-made canal, which flows further north than the river's original course.

Below: from ul. Jeżynowa ('Blackberry Street') to ul. Spacerowa ('Walk Street' or 'Stroll Street'), there is now a proper pavement serving residents of ul. Podleśna in Sułkowice's north-east corner. Hurrah for road safety! This has become a vastly busier road now that there's a proper asphalt surface all the way up beyond Kiełbaska and Julianów to Czarny Las.

Below: sadly, the new pavement doesn't go all the way into the centre of Sułkowice, falling some 450m short. The picture below illustrates how necessary a pavement is on this stretch of the road (ul. Dębowa) from the point of view of road safety. I hope the relevant authorities get round to building one before there's a serious accident here. 

Walking home from here at dusk, I have several anomalous qualia-memory flashbacks; a splendid walk (13,400 paces) and plenty of qualia memories stored up for the future.

Reaching my działka, I hear the familiar call in the woods behind my house – which the Merlin bird app confirms is a tawny owl (Strix aluco). Hauntingly soothing. Soothingly haunting.

UPDATE SUNDAY 26 JANUARY: Walking past Krężel station, I could see a small aircraft approaching through an overcast and drizzling sky. Not your usual Cessna 172... something more interesting – a quick change of lens, and snap-snap! A North American Harvard of WW2 vintage!

This time last year:
Melting in the rain

This time ten years ago:
Winter woes and a crisis of creativity

This time 12 years ago:
Warsaw – the more it snows

This time 13 years ago:
"Get orf my lairnd!"

This time 14 years ago:
A Dream Too Far - part two

This time 15  years ago:
Electric in the dark

This time 17  years ago:
Elegant and proper

Warsaw city centre, dusk to darkness

To town for the leaving-do of a colleague (always a sad occasion when a excellent, competent and all-round nice person moves on) a beautiful cloudless sky brings on that 'crushed-velvet dusk in the city of my dreams' vibe again. Warsaw's city centre has developed fantastically over the past three decades, its skyline once dominated by Stalin's Palace of Culture slowly becoming crowded out by new skyscrapers. Little by little, Warsaw's central business district is shifting westward, its epicentre no longer focused around the axis of ulica Marszałkowska. Rondo ONZ ('United Nations Roundabout') and aleja Jana Pawła II now constitute the eastern edge of the CBD, and it's around here that I strolled yesterday evening.

Below: Rondo ONZ, an entrance to the Line 2 Metro station in the foreground. Note cycle path snaking round it. Two pizza delivery guys are setting off with their orders. To the left, the Ilmet building, completed in 1997, destined to be pulled down and replaced by a taller building in 2011, and still standing. The giant rotating Mercedes-Benz logo on the roof was taken down in 2021 (a shame!); demolition was postponed because of one thing after another, but as you can see, there are no longer any tenants in the building (no lights on) and new plans to dismantle it and build something new in its place were announced in 2023. Plans for building a 188m-tall skyscraper, Warsaw One, have been announced by developer Skanska, with construction due to start in 2026, which suggests that the Ilmet building will finally be torn down sometime this year.

Left: Rondo ONZ One stands on the south-east corner of the roundabout. It is 159m high (plus mast), so when built, Warsaw One across the road on the south-western corner will look down upon it. My favourite Warsaw skyscraper, its appearance in 2006 contributed hugely to cementing Warsaw's image as a modern city of business. As well as the metro station, Rondo ONZ is also well served by trams running up and down al. Jana Pawła II and (after modernisation) west along ul. Prosta. And Warsaw Central railway station is a mere seven-minute walk away.

Below: looking west along ul. Twarda ('Hard Street'); in the foreground, the Cosmopolitan tower, behind it, Spektrum tower. At the base of the former, a fine cafe called SAM where we had the leaving do. Spektrum tower boasts that it has "the highest-situated concert hall in the world" on its 28th floor, though this is contentious.

Below: Plac Grzybowski, looking west. Cosmopolitan tower in the centre, to the right, the Q22 tower, to the left Rondo ONZ One, and to its left, Warsaw Financial Center. 

Below: pl. Grzybowski looking southwest. In the foreground, the Church of All Saints (where, in 1923, my father was baptised); behind it from the left – the Intercontinental Hotel, the antenna topping Varso tower, Warsaw Financial Center and Rondo ONZ One. And shining brightly in the sky, Venus, the evening star (after whom my kitten is named).

After some decent food (and three glasses of surprisingly excellent Pinot Noir!), it's time to say farewell and set off to Młynów and thence to Chynów, accompanied by the strains of Yours Sinsoully in West Wilts Radio (for my weekly dose of finest soul and R&B). And there's a hungry kitten to feed!

Night falls. Below: a view of Warsaw largely unchanged since the 1970s, though with more (and bigger) cars. A reminder of the time when the Palace of Culture, seen here flanked by postwar apartment blocks, was the only tall building in Warsaw.

Below: and back to where I started – Rondo ONZ for the metro back to Młynów. Looking west towards the Warsaw's newest skyscrapers that stand around Rondo Daszyńskiego. The skyline will be filled out by the five towers currently under construction for the Towarowa 22 complex.

Warsaw is developing beautifully; a dynamic business hub, integrated into the European and global economies, with an excellent culinary and cultural infrastructure. May its growth be sustainable.

This time four years ago:
We live, we dream – what's all that about?

This time nine years ago:
Searching for growth

This time 12 years ago:
The more it snows - a decent snowfall in Warsaw

This time 13 years ago:
A Dream Too Far - short story

This time 14 years ago:
Compositions in white, blue and gold

This time 15 years ago:
Dobra and the road

This time 16 years ago:
Polish air force plane full of VIPs crashes on landing in bad weather

By tram out of central Warsaw

Into town for a couple of meetings, and to get me from A to B and back to the railway station for my return to Chynów – Warsaw's trams. So much better than driving, guys! No worries as to where you will park, or getting stuck in jams (of your own making). The back of the tram is a good place from which to observe Warsaw as it grows. Below: the tram stop by Warsaw Central station. Plentiful trams in both directions. The city skyline has grown beautifully.

Below: two stops south, and the skyline looks different – and older, with the two LIM towers (centre), Stalin's Palace of Culture to their right and Libeskind's Złota 44 tower to their left. The buildings on either side of Aleja Niepodległości were built before the war and would have been familiar to my father, who grew up less than a kilometre and half from here. If you click to enlarge, you will see the new branding of the former Marriott hotel, now the Presidential.

Below: on, on by electrical traction, southwards along al. Niepodległości as it bisects Pole Mokotowskie fields, the two halves connected by a foot/cycle bridge. Now the skyline is dominated by Varso tower, the EU's tallest building (if you include the mast, second tallest if you don't).

Below: Warsaw's tram network is being enhanced. This is ulica Batorego looking east, with Warsaw School of Economics (SGH) to the left. New tram tracks are being laid here, which will link al. Niepodległości to ul. Puławska and the recently opened tramline heading down along ul. Spacerowa towards Wilanów. And heading east along ul. Batorego the either way, the tram will go on to Warsaw West (W-wa Zachodnia) railway station.

Below: a headache for drivers for the time being, but a boon for public-transport users, as a third major east-west tramline south of the city centre will emerge, sometime this year (they say). By next year, this will connect W-wa Zachodnia with Wilanów.

Below: some modest modernism on ul. św. Andrzeja Boboli, shortly before it becomes ul. Wołoska. Overlooking some urban działki on the other side of the road. Let's hope these recreational plots don't fall prey to developers.

Below: this is ul. Woronicza, home of Poland's state-run television station, TVP (further along on the right). In the picture on the right you can see the spiral ramp of Poland's first multi-level car park, completed in 1958, and a listed building since 2023. Woronicza itself is an important east-west link in the tram network; behind me is the tram depot. Other than the horizontal road markings, the scene here pretty much unchanged since the 1960s.

Below: end of the line - the tram loop at Służewiec, where the 17, 18 and 31 routes terminate. Connecting with PKP W-wa Służewiec for Koleje Mazowieckie, SKM and InterCity trains (for Warsaw-Olsztyn, Radom-Kielce-Kraków, and now Radom-Rzeszów-Przemyśl). Passing overhead is the viaduct carrying ul. Marynarska over the railway line, where it becomes ul. Sasanki. Convenient interchange for local bus services. Note the road snaking round from the left; this is new and connects ul. Suwak (lit. 'slider' or 'zip' street) to ul. Cybernetyki ('cybernetic street'). Opened to traffic last month, the road is so new that neither OpenStreetMap nor Google Maps show a name for it yet. 

And here, at PKP W-wa Służewiec, I catch the train back to Chynów, just 33 minutes away on the normal all-stations stopping service, or a mere 21 minutes on the przyspieszony (accelerated) service that skips more than half the stations along the way. 

Below: on my way home. The Polish countryside today – it's good to know it's such a short way from town. I like it here.

This time last year:
Base Twelve (why decimalisation speeded up Britain's decline)

This time two years ago:
Memories of Seasons

This time three years ago:
Pictures in the Winter Sun

This time four years ago:
Magic sky

This time five years ago:

Too good to skip over

This time seven years ago:
The Hunt for Tony Blair
[Apologies to UK readers - the YouTube link is geo-blocked there]

This time nine years ago:
Lux Selene

This time 12 years ago:
David Cameron, Conservatism and Europe

This time 13 years ago:
Citizen Action Against Rat Runners

This time 14 years ago:
Moni at 18 (and 18 months)

This time 14 years ago:
Building the S79 - Sasanki-Węzeł Lotnisko, midwinter