Days such as this will come back

Seize the day! Up at half past six. A sunny start, expected to cloud over before too long, a Zoom call at 9am, so time for a quick breakfast and an early walk. Assuming I can get my act together, a morning walk is worth two afternoon walks when it comes to setting down those qualia memories. Morning walks are simply more memorable. And they trigger more memories of morning walks in the past. The senses tingle with the optimism of a new day. No danger of dozing.

Below: walking towards the crest of the low hill between Jakubowizna and Grobice, I spot a pair of ears moving towards me, like the masts of a ship beyond the horizon. I freeze. It's a hare. Slowly I raise my camera (with 70-300mm zoom) up to my eye. Because I'm still, the hare does not notice me at first, and continues along the farm track towards me. As its eyes distinguish me from the background, it stops to assess the situation. The wind is in my favour, blowing from the north. The hare turns sideways. It sees me with its right eye to the south; its other eye detects a woman and her rather large dog, approaching the hare from the north. To the west, a chain-link fence. To the east, an unfenced orchard. The hare took the logical course of action and bolted off between the apple trees. For a moment there, I stood eye to eye with the hare.

Below: a few minutes earlier, around half past seven, further south along the same track, orchards to the right. And an impeccably cloudless sky. The glorious sun, unfiltered by clouds, all-powerful in the eastern sky, connecting all things to the cosmic consciousness.

Below: the forest, on the way out... superbly green. The sun's already quite high; sunrise was at quarter to five. I whip out my bird-song app to record the sounds. The forest is alive to the song of blackbird, thrush, blue tit, blackcap, willow warbler, chaffinch and chiffchaff. 

Below the forest on the way home; I have to pick up the pace, make time and get home to prepare for my call. I make it with ten minutes to spare. So – first walk of the day: 7,300 paces.

Call done, office work under control, kitchen chores sorted – time for the second walk, to the Deko Market in Chynów for porridge, bread and cat food. A different walk, through the village rather than forest and fields. Nostalgia, but of a different sort. Below: ulica Słoneczna, looking north. A Stella-Plage vibe.

Below: ul. Wspólna, looking east. America in the 1950s, loud and clear. Just replace the Hondas and Peugeots with Hudsons and Studebakers and I'm there.

Below: repainting the Jesus outside the wooden church on ul. Główna. The hands look a wee bit small if you don't mind me saying.

Approaching home, over the level crossing, I get that sublime feeling – the sun and wind together on my face. The afternoon warmth makes it slightly too hot under two layers, but the wind's blowing from the north-west just hard enough to bring pleasing comfort, and the combination sparks those familiar exomnesia moments from beyond the here and now. Another 7,100 paces walked.

This time last year:
All along the watchtowers
[coincidentally, another close encounter with a hare!]

This time two years ago:
Blossom, sunshine and trains, Chynów

This time three years ago:
A better tomorrow for the soul

This time four years ago:
Blossom time in Jakubowizna - the apples

This time six years ago:

The Ice Saints - right on cue

This time ten years ago:

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

This time 12 years ago:
Reflection upon the City Car

This time 14 years ago:
Biblical sky

This time 15 years ago:
Travel broadens the spirit

This time 16 years ago:
Welcome the Ice Saints

This time 18 years ago:
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).

This time six years ago:
Classic car show, Nadarzyn

This time seven years ago:
Classic vehicles at London's VE-Day 70 celebrations

This time nine years ago:
Malodorous passengers on Warsaw's public transport

This time 11 years ago:
Inside Filtry - Warsaw's waterworks (Museum Night 2011)

This time 12 years ago:
Warsaw's Museum Night 2010

This time 13 years ago:
On Transcendence

Goats and hares, Jeziorki

An unusual sight befell me on ul. Kórnicka today - a pair of goats, grazing free! Below: a female goat looks up at me from across the road. Looks a bit like a horned giant sloth trapped in a Pleistocene tar pit.

Below: a second female goat, nibbling on the grass of the old football pitch. It would be nice to think that locally-produced mature goat's-milk cheese would available around these parts in a year's time.

Strange-looking beast, the goat. Those rectangular pupils - I can't make out what it's thinking.

Below: Jeziorki, as contemplated by a goat. Feline - cat. Canine - dog. Equine - horse. Bovine - cow. But goat? Caprine or hircine.

Below: between ul. Baletowa and Kórnicka, a pair of hares square off. On the left, an older male, sure of himself; to the right a younger male, holding his ground but ready to flee. The face-off continued for a couple of minutes until I took a step towards them. Each turned 180 degrees and fled in the opposite direction.

Hares are most noticeable at this time of year. They are timid creatures and keep at a distance from humans. Ah - and the adjective? Leporine. Which Google unhelpfully underlines with a red squiggle.

This time last year:
On Gratitude, and loving life

This time four years ago:
Edinburgh views

This time five years ago:
Halfway through Lent

This time seven years ago:
Swans on ul. Trombity

This time eight years ago:
Papal anniversary, Warsaw

This time nine years ago:
Sowing oats, Jeziorki

Face to face with Mr Hare

It was a lovely morning, I had time in hand so I decided to walk to W-wa Dawidy station (a half-hour journey rather than the 15 minutes to W-wa Jeziorki). My route takes me to the end of ul. Trombity, then along ul. Kórnicka, across the railway tracks and then parallel to them all the way to ul. Baletowa and the station. And while on the track that runs alongside the tracks, I espied this character bounding up towards me. Here, hare, here. Unusual behaviour for a hare. Note the gait; quite unlike that of a rabbit - all four legs off the ground. Much larger, too. The size of of a large terrier.

Suddenly, the hare pauses, looks at me. I'm still, fixing him with my 300mm lens. Note his eyes. Unlike the irises of cats or goats - round, like those of humans. He stands there for a while...

...then decides to bravely run away through the cabbage patch. Why is it, I thought, that humans domesticated cats, dogs - rabbits even - but not hares? These guys would make interesting pets...

If Jeziorki's four-legged mammalian wildlife is represented by the hare, in Ealing it is the fox. The fox is now a very common sight in West London, rummaging in dustbins, quite unfazed by human presence. Here's one I saw earlier this month on Haven Green by Ealing Broadway, late in the evening, surrounded by humans waiting for buses home.

This time two years ago:
Central Warsaw vistas

This time three years ago:
Future of urban motoring?

This time six years ago:
On foot to Limanowa

This time seven years ago:
Crumbling neo-classicism in Grabów

This time eight years ago:
Bike ride into deepest Mazovia

A hare in Wyczółki

So there I was, waiting for the 165 bus from Osmańska to Metro Wilanowska, when a hare rushes past on the other side of the street. Fortunately, I had my new 55-300mm lens on my camera, and was well placed to catch the hare's antics on pixel.

Below: the hare, for whatever reason, was heading towards town, northbound up ul. Osmańska, a street that begins in fields, passes the DHL terminal and ends on ul. Poleczki, a busy dual carriageway. We are barely five and a quarter miles (8.5km) south the very centre of Warsaw - in London terms, the equivalent distance of Streatham from Centre Point.

Below: the hare, realising the futility of continuing northbound into the face of heavy traffic, stops in mid-stride, turns around a full 180 degrees and heads back the way it came.

Below: a lovely shot as the hare proceeds along the access road leading out of Poleczki Business Park. Note the hare's ever-changing gait, its pricked-up ears and its coat, which still shows remnants of winter colouration. Click to enlarge - it's a treat!

Below: a sudden turn of speed, to get out of the way of an oncoming truck, then the hare slows down to a trot as the danger passes. Its mad dash hither and yon has attracted the attention of everyone at the bus stop. The hare saunters back to the relative safety of the grass between ul. Osmańska and Zatorze, disappearing from view just as the 165 bus arrives.

I feel a sense of gratitude for having seen it, and for being ready for it with my camera and the right lens.

This time last year:
Warsaw by night

This time two years ago:

Tales of the Riverbank

This time three years ago:
Okęcie before the funerals

This time four years ago:
At the General's house

Spring explodes upon Jeziorki

A beautiful weekend; hard to believe that just a week ago I looked out of the same window to see snow. Today's temperature reached +18C in the shade; in the sunshine it was T-shirt weather.

Left: from my bedroom window I espy a hare dashing across the field. At first, I thought it was a dog; hares are quite sizeable; the gait, however, is unmistakable.

The sun now rises around ten past six - what with the clocks going forward last Sunday, there's now plenty of light. And now comes the feeling of warmth on the skin; the smells of spring in the air; the sounds of wildlife.

A Trombitious kind of day; no point of wandering further afield when there's so much going on in my immediate vicinity.

Above: the southern end of the wetlands between ul. Trombity and Dumki. I'm in wellingtons and the water around me is teeming with frogs and frog spawn. It's the mating season, and the frogs are croaking loudly, and enjoying the sun's warming rays. Some are browny-green, others are pale blue. Toads and frogs? Male/female frogs in mating colours? Anyone know?


Bird life is also abundant. I spotted a heron in flight, many black-faced gulls, a pair of marsh harriers, a trio of mallards circling the reedbeds; this bird (right) caught my attention with its song. Even with the aid of a 400mm lens, it took me a while to actually see who was singing. This is (I am informed) a blue-tit, sitting on a willow tree, feeding on catkins. Every now and then, he'd pull one off and it would fall lazily to earth. When not feasting, he'd be singing his little heart out, with a shrill, clear, voice loud and clear.

This time two years ago:
Along the way for Warsaw's southern bypass

This time three years ago:
Quintessential Warsaw vista

This time four years ago:
Jeziorki on Google Earth

Q: When is a street not a street?

A: When it is an ulica. Here we are, on ul. Dumki, well within the city limits of the capital of the EU's sixth largest member state. And yet, within the last week, along the western end of ul. Dumki, not a vehicle has passed. Indeed, not a single human being has stepped foot here.
Above: Since the last snowfall over a week ago, there's not been any new human footprints. I'm the first person to walk along this suburban street for at least seven days. Underfoot, the snow has the texture like sorbet covering a thin, crisp wafer of chocolate, under which there's yet more sorbet. Plenty of animal tracks - fox, hare, and birds.
Above: Talking of hare - there's one! I startled this specimen which took off across the fields. Sadly, I was not armed with my 80-400mm lens, so the 18-200mm had to suffice. The hare's gait is quite unlike that of the rabbit - indeed, here it looks like more like a large cat with antennae or antlers

Above: Still on ul. Dumki. Not a single sign of human activity. Remarkable, since we are just over 100 metres away from ul. Baletowa (below), a busy thoroughfare. Note passage dug into the snow by the householder. One's civic duty done (of course it helps having a pavement; Baletowa is paved from end to end, unlike ul. Karczunkowska).

And finally, a note for Polish -> English translators. Ul. Dumki is not translated as Dumki Street, any more than Bahnhoffstrasse is translated as Bahnhoff Street or Rue St. Michel as St. Michel Road. Yes, the Polish word ulica does mean 'street', just as Platz means 'place' or 'square'. But Alexanderplatz is how we'd say Alexanderplatz in English. It's a proper noun. So let's stop translating ul. Marszałkowska as Marszałkowska Street, please.

Mister Hare comes to call

I've never seen this in seven springs living on ul. Trombity - a hare so close to our house. I spotted him in the field behind our garden from the bathroom, fortunately, the Nikon D80 with 18-200mm lens was close at hand. (The 80-400mm would have been a better option - still no. 1 on my photo wish list!). It's wet outside, the hare looked bedraggled leaping through the long wet crops.

Here hare here

This hare (lepus europaeus) was startled by our progress across the field and tore away towards the marshes. There may be one or two families of hares living in and around ul. Trombity, they're quite a rare sight. Note the cantering gait and the erect ears. Hares are noticeably bigger than rabbits.