Royal Parks in the rain

It's Thursday morning in London and the weather continues wet and dull. Eddie and I zoom into town from Ealing on the train to Paddington (a mere 10 minutes), then stroll through elegant streets and mews to reach Kensington Gardens. We intend to walk through four of London's Royal Parks - Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park,  Green Park and St James's Park, passing Buckingham Palace to emerge at Trafalgar Square. Thence up to Piccadilly Circus, up Regent's Street and finally to Oxford Circus, and back to Ealing by tube.

Below: Eddie's umbrella comes in handy more than once as frequent heavy showers rain down on us along our way. Here we are in Hyde Park, the largest of the four Royal Parks on our route, at 142 hectares, almost twice the size of Warsaw's Łazienki Park (which I must say is more splendid in its topography and architecture).

We find that much of the park is closed off for the Olympics, which open next weekend. Eddie and I are forced to take numerous detours from our intended route. We make our way round the southern perimeter of the Serpentine, the snake-shaped pond that divides Hyde Park in two. The picture below, taken from a vantage point above the Serpentine, gives no clue as to the fact that we are standing in the middle of a huge city. Hyde Park's size and layout gives it rural charm.

Below: a royal swan, at its feet a cygnet. There's an enormous amount of bird life in Hyde Park - missing, though, are the peacocks that grace Łazienki Park. Clouds presage another impending shower. In the distance you can see the spectator facilities for the swimming parts of the women's and men's triathlon events that will take place here on 4 and 7 August respectively.



On we go, across Hyde Park Corner (not to be confused, as many do, with Speakers' Corner, which is to the north-east of the park). Across Duke of Wellington Place and we're in Green Park, to see the new RAF Bomber Command Memorial unveiled by the Queen three weeks ago. A stirring monument, one which draws many visitors.

We then passed Buckingham Palace, surrounded by tourists from around the world. The Mall, connecting the  palace to Trafalgar Square, has been fenced off (the underwater ping-pong or something takes place on Horse Guards Parade), so we're forced to go to Parliament Square and up Whitehall to get to where we want to go. Everywhere there are soldiers, replacing the security guards that G4S failed to deliver. The Olympics may be a huge tourist draw, but they are also a major inconvenience to tourists who are here to see the city and not the sporting event.

London is a magnificent city to visit, though I'd not move back to live nor work here, for it is too large, too sprawling, its centre too far from open countryside, its climate too damp. But for Eddie - and I suspect for young people the world over, it exerts a fascinating pull.

This time last year:
Storm clouds over Goclaw, Dolinka under water

This time two years ago:
Round-up of pics from Dobra

This time three years ago:
Conservatism - UK or Polish style?

This time four years ago:
Wheat and development

This time five years ago:
A previous visit to London

Melancholy autumn mood, Łazienki

Must have been the wettest September since moving to Poland. Cool damp weather pervades. This morning, the second in a row, my day starts at Łazienki Park with a business breakfast at the Belvedere restaurant. This gives me the chance to stroll through my favourite Warsaw park, though the mood is most melancholy.

Summer has ended. Best submit to the melancholia, wallow in it for a while - for it will pass. Spring will return, one's mood will lift. Before then of course, there will be joyous days of autumnal and winter sunshine. Poles tend to suffer more than Brits from changes in meteorological conditions, as I've mentioned before. At first after moving to Poland, I found it hard to believe that the radio and TV weather forecasters talking about niekorzystne warunki biometeorologiczne was anything other than quasi-scientific mumbo jumbo. After all, if in Britain (or Ireland!) the weathermen keeps on saying that heavily overcast skies and low atmospheric pressure mean you'd be feeling low, a state of profound torpor would soon set in. Apathetic lethargy, sluggishness and langour. Yet despite its climate, Britain managed (for a time) to have the world's largest empire.

Have the inhabitants of the British Isles become acclimatised to prevailing dullness and damp? The longer I'm here in Poland, the more I'm beginning to think there's something in it.

Weather patterns here are more stable than on the western fringes of our continent. So when bad weather sets in, it hangs around for a week or more. It's unusual to have four days of glorious sunshine interrupted by a day of rain. I'm still intrigued as to whether the melancholia set off by bad weather is due to a) lack of sunlight on the brain = fewer endorphins being produced, or b) low atmospheric pressure acting upon our circulation. Or both a) and b).

Above: 'Caesar adsum iam forte, Pompei adsum tu'. Anyone else remember that? Below: portrait of a peahen and her offspring, bedraggled in the rain.

The park is still beautiful when cloaked in low cloud and drizzle; my mood will lift with the coming of sunshine.

Waiting for the meltdown

According to the weather forecasters, we're in for several hours of heavy rain from tomorrow night into Saturday, coupled with temperatures as high as +3C. Disaster looms! Above: Just look at all the heaps of snow in front of W-wa Powiśle station. Where will it all go?

Above: This is what was happening today; no rain, warm sun, just above zero. A foretaste of what's to come; when the metre-and-half heaps of icy snow on the side of the roads start to get washed down by the rain. Below: A storm drain in Łazienki park, about to be overwhelmed.

Below: the last sight of fresh, crisp, white snow under a blue sky this winter?

Łazienki Park, midwinter

Returning to the office from the studios of TokFM on foot, I chose to take a brisk walk through Lazienki Park (3.6km) rather than to wait in the intense cold for a bus and then another bus.

And on a day as beautiful as today, why not. The park is again looking perfect in its mid-winter finery. Above: The New Orangery, home to the Belvedere Restaurant, a great place for fine food any time of year.

Above: For some reason, when calling to squirrels in Polish, you address them (regardless of gender) as 'Basia'. The park's squirrel population is as hyperactive as a council estate-full of radio-controlled toy cars on Christmas Day. They will charge up to any passing human and demand food. If not forthcoming, they will scamper off to the next one. Or ransack a nearby bird table.

Below: through the trees, the Old Orangery. Moments, lost in wonder.

Another haul of winter wonderfulness

To my lunch appointment I go on foot across the Łazienki Park. Splendid views abound; I never miss an opportunity to visit this magic place. Above: The Temple of Diana.

My afternoon meeting is postponed by an hour - an excellent excuse to revisit the park. Over lunch, the sky has cleared; for the first time this year there's sunshine.

Right: Al. Ujazdowskie. When the sun appears in winter and shines on crisp new snow, the effect on the soul is immediate and wonderous. Below: Sunset is 25 minutes later than on the year's shortest day.

Right: The Zamek Ujazdowski (Ujazdów Castle), built on the Vistula escarpment, which today houses the Centre for Contemporary Art.

Below: Trasa Łazienkowska dipping down towards the river, looking down from the footbridge. In the distance, the tower blocks of Praga, Warsaw's right bank district, bathed in late afternoon sunlight.

Below: Across the road from my destination, the corner of ul. Krucza and Wilcza. Krucza has some impressive examples of socialist realist architecture, though not on the same scale as Plac Konstytucji. Dirty snow is piled up on pavements in heaps over a metre high.

In the afternoon, temperatures plunge. After a week of oscillation between -2C and -4C, we're suddenly down to minus ten.

Autumn gold, Powiśle, Łazienki

The day began with blue skies and strong sunlight, ideal conditions for catching autumn at its finest. Top: Łazienki Park, near the Bagatela entrance. Sun streaming through the leaves, much greenery still in evidence. Below: As I hopped off the bus at Rozbrat, this wonderful riot of colour caught my eye.

The Śmigły-Rydz park (below) a mixture of trees in different stages of shedding their leaves. The one in the foreground is quite golden - but look how many leaves are already on the ground beneath it.

Below: The cycle path crossing Śmigły-Rydz park winding past red bushes, trees of yellow, amber and green, and neo-classical architecture. Above this scene, the skarpa - the Vistula escarpment, leading up to the Sejm (Polish parliament).


Returning via the Łazienki park, the sun had gone in, so a bit of fill-in flash was required for portraits of the park's most famous fauna - the peacock and the red squirrel (left). The squirrels are getting quite aggressive - one darted up to me then climbed up my trouser leg, before jumping off, clearly annoyed that I had no food for it.

Imagine being just eight inches tall and getting into a fight with the fellow. Look at those powerful forepaws that can dig a trench in seconds. Those powerful shoulders and strong hind legs, that steely determination in those eyes. You wouldn't stand a chance. As an eight-inch human.

The peacocks can get quite stroppy too - crossing the park one morning last summer I had my way barred by a gaggle of five or more large males, tail feathers extended and sounding aggressive. But this guy (right) was more interesting in posing for the photographers (everyone in the park today seemed to be wielding a camera!) I managed to get eight shots at different exposures and flash settings before a child running past caused the peacock to move. As you will have noticed, the peacock has moulted; no goregous tail feathers to display. Behind the peacock, the Palace on the Water.

Good graffiti, bad graffiti

A stone's throw from my office is the Trasa Łazienkowska viaduct leading to the Łazienkowski bridge. Until last month, the pillars holding up the viaduct were a typical inner-city landscape of brutalist concrete spattered with primitive tags and statements about the parentage of Legia football club's chairman, directors and owners. In other words, not a place one would like to be.

Last week, a group of street artists has reclaimed this area and has painted dozens of excellent pieces of art on what were until now filthy, malodorous, urine- and obscenity-stained surfaces.

Above: Not sure whether this is meant to be the late Michael Jackson in his prime, but it is certainly a whole lot better than how this particular wall looked before. The mix of techniques suggests the amount of care and time taken to do this work. To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, "what is painted without effort is looked at without pleasure".

Left: Stalin's gift to the people of Warsaw, immortalised. With a raccoon peering around it (rather than King Kong on the Empire State Building) and a rather fat cosmonaut in orbit overhead. Humour and localisation. Pure Warsaw. I like it. It's great having a free contemporary art gallery so close to my place of work.


I like this pop-art style (right); the artist known as Simpson has a fine line in 1930s and '40s Americana; this Disneyesque laughing horse, roller brush in hand. The technique used (Ben-Day dots) harks back to the comic books of the day and to artist Roy Lichtenstein.

Below: Street art takes on a political dimension - Lukashenka, Europe's last dictator and hilarious mustachio'd comb-over merchant, is sent into orbit by the people of Belarus.


A peacock (left), symbolic of the nearby Park Łazienkowski. Behind, on another pillar, more street art. This is such an improvement over what was here before - guys, keep it up!

Prior to this sudden outburst of quality street art under Trasa Łazienkowska, Warsaw's main claim to fame in this area is the eastern wall of the horse-racing track at Służewiec, running alongside ul. Puławska. I'm surprised I've not blogged this one before.

Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, this has become legendary as Europe's longest unbroken stretch of street art.

It's been here for as long as I recall - I first remember seeing this back in 1995, and by then it was already established as a local landmark. However, 70% of the content is boring big tags - a few distorted letters, a bit of shading - nothing new or original, but colourful and infinitely preferable to grey concrete. The city gets its public art for free.

Above: This wall goes on for one non-stop kilometre. Here and there, you will find interesting pieces. But they are rare, and typically, works don't stay on for long, they get painted over (so the wall is fresh and lives a dynamic existence). Although the elderly fabric is crumbling.

Right: my current favourite on the Słuzewiec graffiti wall. A reference to American WW2 feminist icon Rosie the Riveter? Work signed Simpson.

As a society, we need to distinguish between primitive graffiti and decent street art. A mindless tag on someone's property, the visual equivalent of a dog peeing up against a wall, deserves punishment: 100 lashes, or being made to inhale the content of your spray can, or being chained to the nearest railing for 48 hours with a sign around your neck saying 'VANDAL'. Yet street art, which elevates passers-by, causing them to pause and reflect, and which brightens otherwise brutalistic grey expanses of concrete, is a social GOOD.

My tips to those wishing to go out and do some:

* Know what you want to do before you start
* Seek to enliven drab expanses of grey concrete but-
* Don't paint on brick or stone
* Don't paint on private property
* Leave public transport - trains and stations - be
* Graffiti in pedestrian underpasses frightens people
* I really don't care who your favourite football team is
* If you can't do anything more advanced than a tag, don't bother.

The street art pictured below fails to make the grade. It's in the wrong place - the beautiful Most Poniatowski bridge, vandalised by graffiti; it's derivative – a second-rate Banksy rip-off, and it's in poor taste.

Another large, charismatic fowl

Work and weather gave me my first opportunity this year to stroll in the Lazienki Park (our annual conference was across the road in the Hyatt hotel). The peacock, close relative of the pheasant, is also in mating mood and its loud cries resound throughout the park. The chap on the right was content to sun himself in the April sunshine (not much of it this month so far), rather than displaying his feathers for the ladies.

This time last year:

Sunset across the tracks, between Jeziorki and Dawidy

Golden autumn

I can never resist a chance to take a lunchtime stroll through the Lazienki Park, especially when the weather is so clement. In contrast to the damp of Ireland and the heat of Spain, early autumn in Poland offers the right mix of sunshine and comfortable temperatures. Today it was +15C in the early afternoon. The colours of the vegetation are starting to take ever-more golden hues. Compare with the park in mid-September, and in mid-July (Left) Rushes backlit by the sun.


(Right:) The presidential Belweder palace seen from Lazienki park across the ornamental lake. The park is a haven of peace and civilisation, even though there are many tourist groups still pouring through.

Endless summer

This morning's weather forecast was for cloud, rain and thunder. Leaving the office for a business lunch appointment just before 1:00 pm, the weather was still perfect. So a walk across Lazienki Park was in order. The park was still basking in a seemingly eternal summer; lunchtime strollers, foreign tourists, students with their books, and of course strutting peacocks and cheeky squirrels posing for the passers-by. The air smelt of pine resin and high summer. Just look at the greenery in the picture above; no trace of impending autumn.

It was still fine as I returned to the office (27 degrees on the car thermometer), but by 4:00 pm the sky had turned black, rain was pelting down like stair rods and loud cracks of thunder rumbled through the air. Is summer over? I'm certainly counting on some fine weather by the end of the week for my road trip to Luków (some 60 miles from Warsaw) on Friday.

Peacocks wow tourists in Lazienki Park

Not far from my office is Warsaw's Lazienki Park. I often stroll across the park to get to business meetings. Today I chanced upon this proud peacock showing off to tourists. The photo (above) shows not only the huge size of the peacocks, but also how tame they are - and how much they love showing off!

Below: Later today the sun emerged as I crossed the park for a dinner engagement. I caught this guy hanging out. Like the peafowl, completely relaxed about passers-by.