May forever

The most beautiful month of the year, May. Thursday morning saw the commercial orchards dripping with icicles; that would be the last frost of the year. A mere 48 hours later and dawn broke with 10 degrees on the thermometer.

Below: my front garden, early afternoon. Forget-me-nots, apple blossom, and brilliant blue sky. The ground is exploding with vegetation; the late-winter garden work is over. Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow. No mow May, no intervention. Let the leaves produce oxygen for our planet.

Below: this must be the best apple blossom, across the tracks on ulica Słoneczna. The pink will soon fade, the petals will soon wither. Last days of perfection. It is dry, however; rain is much needed.

My stroll today takes me into Chynów, then on to Sułkowice.

Below: roadworks along ulica Kolejowa continue. The old asphalt between the level crossing and the old stationmaster's house has been removed ahead of a resurfacing. Signs have gone up at the bottom end of ul. Wspólna saying that the road will be closed from 30 April to 5 May; today is 2 May and the road's been open for the past three days. I hope the work will be done on time.

Below: with the top layer gone, we can see some local history – the old 'kocie łby' (literally cats' heads) – cobblestones. A reminder that the station, and indeed the entire Warsaw-Radom railway line was built in 20 months, opening in November 1934.

Below: looking north from outside the main station building. The first parking spaces (kiss & ride?) have been paved; waiting now for the pavement to connect station to level crossing.

Below: from zero local eateries to three within the space of 18 months – that's progress! Here comes the latest one, days away from opening. Loft Chynów – "Lunch Pizza & Burger by Pizza Park". Beer on tap. Will definitely be visiting!

Below: on to Sułkowice, along ulica Ogrodowa, near the elementary school. Note the neatly coppiced trees lining the fence.

Below: approaching the police-dog training school on the left. Note the traffic speed monitor on the other side of the street. The display (on the other side) shows how fast vehicles are going – and how many points on the licence that would be. But it's just performative. Local drivers have learned to ignore it (and the other one further along ulica Ogrodowa nearer Chynów). 

Below: Sułkowice's new three-story block of flats, an unusual typology for Polish rural residential development, which shows how supply and demand are being matched.

Home by train (one stop, 2.73zł with senior's discount – that's 55p for a journey just under 3km / 2 miles). Beautiful day!

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In and out of Germany via Świnoujście

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Full blossom

This is it! The peak of the apple and cherry blossom, coinciding with a day of perfect clarity of sky. Time to snap the fruit trees in flower, the glory of the neighbourhood!

Below: where the orchard ends and the forest begins.

Below: a young male deer between rows of apple trees bedecked in blossom. Note the dandelions in a line along the grass. Today and yesterday I spotted several deer and a similar number of hares. 

Below: a trio of hares between the trees, near Gaj Żelechowski yesterday. And a propos of wildlife, I cannot ignore the birdsong; blackbirds, blue tits and the Eurasian black cap (Sylvia atricapilla, kapturka). Most beautiful and complex at this time of year.

Below: even the commercial orchards, neat rows of apple trees under hailstone-proof netting, are blooming. This one is in Adamów Rososki. Overhead, an Emirates airliner is on its way from Stockholm to Dubai.

Below: not every fruit tree is in blossom this year. These biennial-bearing cherry trees that are not tended the year round bear fruit (and indeed flowers) much less profusely every second year. My apple trees, which produced a bumper crop last autumn, are showing no blossom this year.

Although the sky was perfectly clear from dawn to dusk, it was rather a cool day, with the top temperature not exceeding 18°C, and a night-time low of just 1°C forecast. It's like the Ice Saints have come early! Tomorrow will also be an optimal day for viewing the apple blossom of Chynów and district. Unlikely to last until next weekend. The cold means the scent is not as entrancing as it was on warmer days, when the head swims in the perfumed air.

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Jeziorki in full bloom

Short catch-up, photos not to be overlooked...

Although cooler, the past few days have seen the blossom continue to explode across the orchards of Chynów, the trees becoming heavier still with flower. Below: the corner of ulica Owocowa (the end of my street that's in Chynów rather than Jakubowizna).

[Update, 15 April. The dandelions are still yellow in the above photo, have already gone to seed outside my house. In this post from 2013, the dandelions are in flower on 8 May, and gone to seed by 17 May. An entire month later.]

Below: my favourite local view, with blossom – looking up from Chynów towards Nowe Grobice and its mobile-telephone antenna tower. A passing patch of sunlight moves swiftly across the land.

Looking up at the sky I saw an airliner heading north-east pass in front of the quarter moon. By the time I'd changed lenses, it had flown by, leaving a condensation trail. I snapped what I saw (below) and decided it was a good image. So I raised the camera back up towards the zenith, and snapped again (second pic below). The two images were made just six seconds apart (at 17:05.09 and 17:05.15 UTC respectively), yet look how much distance has been added between the moon and the contrail in that short space of time. Yes, it's the moon orbiting the earth, but to a greater extent it's the winds in the lower stratosphere pushing the contrail – and yet it maintains its form. (Strong vignetting appears when using Photoshop's autotone function on images taken against the sky.)

Below: heading into town on Friday through Chynów station. The 09:10 limited-stop service takes a mere 35 minutes to get to W-wa Młynów; change there to the Metro, and I can be in the office 15 minutes later. So, działka to office, door to door, is now just 1 hour and five minutes. 

A lucky bonus (below) – while changing trains at W-wa Rakowiec station, I catch this PKP ST48 goods loco/shunter passing through with a single wagon. It was going slowly enough for me to scramble up to the top of the grassy embankment, changes lenses to my 10-20mm Nikkor, and catch the whole scene.

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Early blossom, Jakubowizna

A hot and early spring this year; no surprise then, that that blossom is already out, nearly three weeks earlier than last year! With perfect skies, I rushed to get all my work done before closing my laptop and going for a walk.

Below: part of my front garden (the orchard side). Forget-me-nots coming up nicely, as are the dandelions. I hope for a better apple harvest than last year.

Below: one of my two cherry trees, heavy with blossom. 

Below: stunningly beautiful under a perfectly cloudless sky, cherries blossom before apples, and fruit far earlier.

Below: my walk takes me mostly between orchards today, to make the most the visual splendour. Out through Adamów Rososki and Machcin, back through Nowe Grobice and Jakubowizna. The perfume of flowers is rich and from time to time, the scent is like walking in the wake of an elegant woman.

Below: a young apple orchard, Machcin. Note the protection around the saplings, to stop deer from nibbling at them.

Below: on the way back, the sun is starting to approach the horizon, sunlight streaming through the blossom. Adamów Rososki.

Below: local state forest, noticeably thinner for all of the logging carried out by the previous government. I expect more responsible use of natural resources now.

Below: eight minutes walk from home, another cherry orchard, Jakubowizna.

Below: field between two orchards, Jakubowizna. Bright yellow from dandelions.

Bonus shot from yesterday, when I walked from home to Krężel station, and caught a train back to Chynów from there. This is a southbound train headed for Radom Główny.

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Blossom, sunshine and trains, Chynów

Ah, most gorgeous day. Blossom under blue skies. Chynów station stands between Chynów and Jakubowizna; a few passengers await the 09:19 train to town.

Below: the morning sun illuminates the pedestrian tunnel linking the platforms, linking Jakubowizna and Chynów.

Below: on the corner; Chynów's ulica Wspólna to the left meets ul. Kolejowa. The building serves as a gentleman's and ladies' hairdresser.

Below: rural shoppers cycling home from the shop (something that Jakubowizna, sadly, doesn't have).

Below: Jakubowizna, looking towards Nowe Grobice. The sky remains perfectly azure.

Below: The Witos is one of just three pairs of loco-hauled InterCity express trains that passes Chynów each day (there are also five InterCity services operated by multiple-units, but they are modern and consequently less interesting). The Witos runs from Przemyśl on the Ukrainian border to Warsaw, taking under seven hours, with over 20 stops along the way, including Warka and Piaseczno. The train is composed of just three coaches (the rear one being split first/second class). Sadly - no restaurant car. The current timetable has no night services serving this route. Today's Witos was headed by an EP07 locomotive. The loco's origins date back to the mid-1960s, based on a British design. Top speed: a mere 78 mph /125km/h.

 

Below: earlier in the week, I snapped the Witos, this time hauled by an EP09 loco. More modern than the EP07, it's still a 1980s design. (E = electric, P = passenger, 07/09 = design number).

Below: I was hoping for this - despite an overcast evening, the clouds would be blown east, their trailing edge leaving a gap for the setting sun to descend through. Result.

Left: the sun edges towards the horizon, in the foreground young apple trees in blossom, their trunks protected against being nibbled by the hares and deer that can be seen round here.

This for me is the best time of year. Warm, not hot; sunny with the occasional rain; green, not parched with the risk of deluge; plenty of wildflowers.

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Blossom time in Jakubowizna - the apples

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The Ice Saints - right on cue

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Then and now: Trafalgar Square (recreating my father's photos)

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Reflection upon the City Car

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Biblical sky

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On the farm next door

Prime spring, Jakubowizna

Spring is the best season of the year; nature is fresh and green, exploding into life, and the warmth returns. Today, St Sophia's Day, is traditionally considered the end of the mid-May cold snap brought about by the Ice Saints (St Pancras, St Servatus and St Boniface - in Polish the 'cold gardeners' (zimni ogrodnicy). This year, temperatures exceeded 20C for four of the last five days, hitting 27C on Wednesday. Time to pop down to the działka and sample the joys of spring.

Below: setting off from W-wa Jeziorki this morning; I'm waiting for the southbound train to Chynów, approaching in the distance, while a train from Radom bound for Warsaw makes its way northward.

Below: landscape with orchard and railway, north of Chynów station

Below: one of the XII Canonical Views of Jakubowizna - the house on the corner of my street.

Below: another of the XII Canonical Views of Jakubowizna - the farm track coming off my street.

Below: a cherry tree buzzing with bees. I felt no discomfort in their presence; they were just getting on with their work, me - continuing on my walk. Click to enlarge.

Left: a lapwing (czajka), one of about nine or ten individuals I saw today flying around over the orchards to the east of the railway line between Chynów station and the DK50 at Nowe Grobice. 

Today is only the second time I've seen them around these parts; they used to be seen regularly in Jeziorki and Dawidy Bankowe, before work started on the S7 expressway extension. 

Very characteristic shape, call ('peewit') and flight characteristics.

Below: from my first ever visit to these parts back in 2014, I have come to associate hares with these orchards. This pair seemed elderly, but could still put on a burst of speed.

Below: market gardening, between Nowe Grobice and the DK50, much quieter now that the S2 tunnel under Ursynów has been opened and sanctions against Russia and Belarus start to hit trade in goods.

Below: the foreshortening effect of the 70-300mm zoom lens pulls together meadow and orchard in blossom, railway line and housing.

Below: quintessential Jakubowizna, the 'road' to Machcin II. I last walked this stretch six weeks ago when it was ankle deep in virgin snow.

Below: the farmhouse on the junction - if you are here, you're on the right road.

Below: my działka, looking its finest, full of forget-me-nots (which in Polish are niezapominajki - literally 'forget-me-nots'; they symbolise memory right across north-west Europe).

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