Late summer, sublime

As summer slips away, my usual injunction to make the most of it. My daily routine is changing. With the sun now rising well after six am, I am no longer dropping the blinds in my bedroom. I am finding that the early sunsets mean I feel like going to bed earlier, and thus I get out of bed earlier.

Two walks today, a total of 16,000 paces.

I set off for my first walk just after 8am, the sun still low in the sky. The benefit of rising early.

Below: the orchards are groaning with apples again; despite the late frost and dry spring, the harvest looks like it's going to be a good one.

Below: the top end of the farm track from Jakubowizna as it reaches Grobice. One sad piece of news – the small grocery store just around the corner from here seems to have closed for good. I would occasionally pop while on walks, for water, non-alcoholic beer or indeed beer. And salt snacks. But never any bigger grocery purchases. The recent opening of two supermarkets in Chynów may have contributed to the closure of yet another small local shop within walking distance of my działka, the fifth since I bought the place.

Left: the bottom end of ulica Słoneczna as it joins ul. Główna. Just gone midday, and I'm on my way to Chynów for a few tins of cat food and some cleaning materials – and lunch.

Below: driving to the supermarket car park in a four-wheel-drive, Chynów style. Note the digger at work on the left; there's been a major remont of the water mains in Chynów for the past few weeks. Today I got an SMS from the local water utility that there'd be limited water pressure or even no water from 11:00 to 16:00; a good excuse not to cook lunch but to dine out at Loft Chynów.

Yesterday's morning sky was entirely cloudless. By the early afternoon, thin wispy strands began slowly moving in from the west; by the evening, drops of rain began to fall. The forecast for the coming week is rain, rain, rain and more rain. 

My aesthetic is sunny. Blue skies I love, any time of year. Grey skies = less photography. 

BONUS SHOTS:

Friday 18 September, another lovely day. Making the most of it! Below: over the hill to Grobice.

Below: the apple harvest is underway, the sound of pails being filled is omnipresent as I walk past the orchards.

Below: a field ripe for development, I fear, Grobice.

This time last year:
Flying the flag in Wola

This time two years ago:
A further step towards energy autonomy

This time three years ago:
Plenitude in the Year's Fruition

This time four years ago:
Behold the wonder of the commonplace

This time five years ago
The force-field of fate

This time six years ago:
Hot in the city

This time seven years ago:
Resting with the heroes

This time nine years ago:
Polish employers' demographic challenge
[Immigration and AI seem to be solving the problem today...]

This time 14 years ago:
The rich, the poor, the entrepreneur

This time 15 years ago:
Bittersweet

This time 16 years ago:
Commuting made easy

This time 17 years ago:
Work starts on the S79/S2 'Elka'

This time 18 years ago:
Warsaw's accident-filled streets

This time 19 years ago:
Return to Zamienie

Kodachrome moods

Visually, the most beautiful time of year? The whiteness of the clouds, the blueness of the sky, the greenness of the land. Bathe in the qualia, wallow; relish. Out with the camera, polarising filter fixed, giving a true representation of what I see through my sunglasses. No tweaking of saturation or vibrance in Photoshop – only a slight tweak of dehazing  and texture sliders to pull out more detail from shadows and highlights. The most important thing with landscape photography – to faithfully capture what I saw and felt at the moment.

Below: approaching the end of my lane. Agriculture abounds. It is dry for the time of year; farmers need to irrigate.

Below: to quote Charles Trenet: "Au ciel d'été confond/Ses blancs moutons/Avec les anges si purs". However, to quote George Michael, "All that's missing is the sea". Somewhere south-east of Jakubowizna.

Below: along asphalt new from Machcin II towards Dąbrowa Duża (left) and Gaj Żelechowski (right)

Below: classic Chynów landscape; verdant vegetation of late May, flawlessly blue sky and the dusty track that leads on to Adamów Rososki and Grabina.

Below: round the corner from home, the road to Grobice. New houses are being built here. But just look at that sky... that dreamy sky...

Back in the old days of film photography, my favourite stock for days like this used to be Kodachrome 25 ASA, ultra-fine grained film, or failing that, the 64 ASA version. The film needed to be just slightly underexposed (by a third or two-thirds of an f/stop) to get the best colour saturation. Once taken, the film was sent to Kodak's labs for processing and returned by mail in the form of 35mm slides, in cardboard mounts. For use in slideshows. Getting a print from the slide was horribly expensive and in 95% of the time, disappointing. Today, you can digitally tweak colour temperature, exposure, saturation – dozens of parameters – in Photoshop until you end up with an emotionally satisfying image that precisely matches your qualia at the moment you took the photo. Back then, you got one chance to get it right.

Left: a Kodachrome, taken in... well, this is intriguing. The photograph was taken in 1939. In New York City. At the World's Fair. The Polish Pavilion. The tower standing outside the pavilion was a synthesis of a mediaeval fortress and modern skyscraper. Found on Wikipedia's page about... Kodachrome!

Experiencing such scenes, I get feelings of anemoia (nostalgia for an era I didn't live through) or exomnesia (memories from outside my time and place). Good. They bring deep joy and a sense of connectedness with the Infinite and Eternal.

This time four years ago:
These are signs, tokens

This time five years ago:

Am I a serious man?

This time six years ago:
Sunset's trip

This time 12 years ago
The importance of the rucksack for the body

This time 15 years ago:
How I almost saved Barack Obama

This time 17 years ago:
Some anniversaries missed

This time 18 years ago:
Twilight in the garden

This time 19 years ago:
Hissing of the summer lawns

Compositions in red, green, white and blue

The days are marching. Warmth is escaping back out into the cosmos; the nights bring a light frost. But when the clouds dissipate and the sun shines, beauty is everywhere.

Below: an explosion of colour in my back garden.

Below: bright red creepers run up and down the tall pines in the forest between Jakubowizna and Machcin II.

Below: one of the canonical prospects. Despite recent rain, the land remains parched.

Below: despite the drought, the top-fruit still ripens. It's the height of the apple harvest in the orchards around Chynów, the tractors are pulling trains of wooden crates laden with fruit to the collection points.

Below: approaching Dąbrowa Duża, corduroy fields separated from forest by a sandy track.

Below: approaching Machcin II on my return from Dąbrowa Duża.

Below: it's only quarter past four in the afternoon, but the sun's getting lower and lower in the sky. The forest behind Jakubowizna.

Below: gate guardians – Czestuś and Arcturus await me at the end of the drive, the rest of the gang is chasing my heels. Whenever I return home, the first thing I always do is to feed the cats; they see me as a successful hunter returning from the hunt.

This time time eight years ago:
On the internet, no one knows you're a dog

This time last year:
Low water mark

This time six years ago:
Łódź to Jeziorki by car in four hours
[See how Poland's road network has improved!]

This time sevenyears ago:
What's new on the manor?

This time eight years ago:
The funeral of Tadeusz Lesisz

This time nine years ago:
Socialist realism in the boardroom

The XII Canonical Prospects of Jakubowizna in Winter (Without Snow)

It will be a long time before the XII Canonical Prospects of Jakubowizna are finally agreed upon, and their order. No doubt there will be schisms along the way; which Prospects make the cut and which are relegated to the Apocrypha or judged to be Gnostic Prospects. Aesthetes and scholars will debate. Slowly though, the Canon will take shape; across the year's four seasons, across mornings, middays, afternoons, evenings and night. Each canonical image must, however, be linked to unalloyed, genuine qualia moments that resonate deeply with my soul, stirring unbidden memories.

Part I: The Western Canon

Below: takes me back to my strongest past-life memories. Road running alongside the railway track between Chynów and Sułkowice.

Below: one of my most favourite experiences is that of walking towards the sun, into the wind. The sun and wind, in my face. And with an interesting cloud formation that casts my mind back. 

Below: general view of the north-west corner of Jakubowizna, on leaving the station.

Below: up the lane from the station towards my działka. The familiar way. The way home.

Below: looking north from the lane into the side road that goes off towards Grobice; birches, pines, houses old and new.

Part II: The Eastern Canon

Left: looking north towards Grobice down the path from Jakubowizna, flanked on either side by orchards – apples, pears and cherries. The local council wanted to widen this path and asphalt it, but landowners wouldn't sell enough land alongside the path needed to allow for the prescribed width. And so grass triumphs, and I must say, I'm rather glad. Lack of asphalt means I live on what's effectively a no-through road to all vehicles except tractors and mud-pluggers.

Below: Foreclosed. "Are you men from the bank?" Deserted cottage on the path from Jakubowizna to Grobice. Moon rising. Jet overhead.

Below: the row of silver birches at the forest's edge. Darkness brings foreboding as one approaches, but in broad daylight an uplifting scene. 

Below: from Grobice the path rises towards Grabina. Dry. The soil is dry for the time of year. It's below freezing overnight, but no snow; no snow cover in winter presages drought in spring.

Below: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." (– Y. Berra). Left to Grabina, right to Adamów Rososki. 

Below: the path from Adamów Rososki to Machcin II. The debate is whether this view or the reverse view (from the end of this path) makes the grade as 'canonical'.

Below: the forest is much less dense than it was before the last government's state forestry service, Lasy Państwowe, felled as many trees as possible ahead of the election. Still, a beautifully wistful scene, any time of year.

Nearly home – from here, about ten minutes to my kitchen; on with the kettle for a hot drink and then make me some food. 

Which prospects will make the Canon?

This time six years ago:
Fairness, simplicity, taxation and a sustainable society

This time seven years ago:
Polish beer cans in the UK: new shit has come to light

This time nine years ago:
Lent, a time to cleanse and reflect

This time 11 years ago:
It was 50 years ago today... Beatles arrive in New York

This time 13 years ago:
Adventures in the Screen Trade – the truth about Hollywood

This time 14 years ago:
The sad end of Andrzej J.

This time 17 years ago:
Today's dose of wintery gorgeousness

This time 11 years ago:
First intimations of spring

Hipolitów

Villages are there to be discovered; here's one that's easy to miss being off the main roads - the tiny village of Hipolitów (population in 2018: a mere 38 souls); bordered to the west and north by forests, to the south by orchards and to the east by the Czarna river*, which has a tendency to burst its banks and spill over into the marshy meadows alongside it. To the east of the Czarna is the much larger village of Sułkowice, home to the famous police-dog training centre.

I called by last weekend and again today, to approach it from different angles and get a feel for the spirit of the place.

Below: a small farm in Hipolitów, as seen from the road running into Sułkowice, ulica Ogrodowa ('garden street').

Below: track running through the significant tracts of forest to the west of Hipolitów; sandy soil - birch, aspen and fir predominate. These are state-owned forests - Lasy Państwowe. Here and there, patches of heathland, where no trees grow, only low scrub.

Below: a homage to Ansel Adams' Aspens.

Below: descending from the forest into Hipolitów from the west. Unlike my local forest above Jakubowizna, there's no sign of recent tree-felling activity around here. Lasy Państwowe has felled as much timber in 2022 as in the past five preceding years.

Below: houses begin to appear, new ones at that - it's quite likely that the population has grown since 2018, with newcomers' cars bearing Warsaw or Piaseczno plates. The current online map of the local authority shows 24 individual plots - a mixture of brand new energy-efficient houses and tumbledown wooden cottages.

Below: altared states. Traditional wayside chapel, Hipolitów. Most villages around here will have one.

Below: view from the bridge, looking down the road towards Sułkowice. Note the yellow post by the side of the road, indicating the presence of a recently laid gas pipeline to Hipolitów.

Below: view from the bridge II - looking south towards Chynów beyond the treeline. The river Czarna flows north, eventually reaching the Vistula near Czersk.

Below: just across the bridge, around the corner, the border.

Below: if this were England, the building at the top of the lane would be a pub - the Royal Oak, the Fox and Hounds, the Crown - something like that; a place to rest my legs and sup back a frothy pint of ale before continuing my journey. A tin of insipid beer from a village shop isn't something I'd pause for - even if there were a shop here. Which there isn't, but then everyone has a car. I even spotted some electric cars!

Left: looking north from the edge of Hipolitów, towards the settlement's furthest-flung house. I am getting a strong vibe around here, that rural-USA-1940's feel.

Below: a bit more of that same vibe... a row of medium-tension pylons bringing electrical power to rural communities. The police-dog training school is behind the trees to the right of this picture.

Below: hard to believe that this is a river valley - the Czarna is down there somewhere... well before the treeline... Such flat lands flood easily.

Below: blink and you'll miss it - the roadsign to Hipolitów from  ulica Ogrodowa. The one way in by car.

One by one, I am visiting all settlements surrounding Jakubowizna to a radius of 5km on foot; still a few to go. Quiet, peaceful and pleasant.

* UPDATE, LATE SUMMER 2025. The Czarna has run dry. I have crossed it on foot in five separate places in the past few weeks. Not enough snowfall in the winter. Climate change is happening, folks!

This time two years ago:
Your life: a miracle - or just something that happened?

This time five years ago:
The evolution of the biosphere cannot be predicted

This time six years ago:
Jeziorki meltdown in the fog

This time seven years ago:
Health, happiness and wholeness

This time eight years ago:
Kicking off Lent again 

This time nine years ago:
Improving the procurement of Poland's infrastructure 

This time ten years ago:
Wait to spend or save lives now? An infrastructure quandary

This time 14 years ago:
It's not rich countries that build roads, its roads that build rich countries

This time 15 years ago:
Snow that was doomed to melt

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:

Classic car quiz, 2015

This time eight years ago:

Classic British Car Quiz, 2014

This time nine years ago:

The poet's gift - an exploration into Why One Writes

This time ten years ago:

Advertising H&M on Warszawa Centralna station

This time 11 years ago:

Jeziorki in the snow

This time 15 years ago:

Staying Underground: Piccadilly Circus