Building and the human living space

Every space we've inhabited is a man-made enclosure of space that was once a part of nature. Where you are sitting, right now, reading these words, was once a field, a meadow, a forest - then man came along, levelled the ground, laid foundations, and erected four walls with a roof over them. Building is but the first stage of that magic act of habitation.

As our house was being built, from 1999 to 2002, we'd come over from the house we were renting (it lay less than a kilometre in a straight line from the plot); we'd observing the progress phase by phase, walking into walled-off spaces that would soon become the rooms in which we would be living. An upstairs emerged, accessible at first only by a ladder. And then an attic, under a roof that took shape as the rafters were installed.

This is a process happening all over Poland, sometimes at a faster rate, sometimes pausing for a breather. Big developers, small developers, individual families. And not only houses - offices, shops, warehouses, factories, roads and bridges too. And when finished, when people move in, buildings literally encapsulate the human spirit. The drama that goes on inside, the joy, the pain, the day-to-day activities - as we go about our lives, we slough off dead skin, bacteria; we breathe in and we breathe out, - atoms of us, that were once in us, part of us, mingle with the wallpaper, the carpets, the floor. A shell of brick and wood absorbs us - who knows - our thoughts maybe, and becomes our abode. It's a bit far to go the whole supernatural thing with ghosts and that, but I believe that our houses absorb our personalities, the longer we live there, the stronger the effect gets.

Below: new houses in Jeziorki. It will be a while before they are finished, before families move in. Who will they be? How will the environment shape their lives? How will they shape Jeziorki?

Below: ten years ago - June 2007, across the tracks from the old rampa na kruszywa, new houses going up in Zgorzała. Now inhabited, a dormitory estate with one shop and little by way of character.

Below: ten years ago - June 2007, soon after take-off from Okęcie, the viaduct carrying ul. Poleczki is under construction; no sign of the S79 expressway nor of Poleczki Business Park. Ten years later, those who witnessed the construction have got so used to the way it is now that we've largely forgotten how it once was. Those who moved in, never seeing it being built, have no frame of reference.

Back to the rampa na kruszywa - you can see it in this shot from June 2007, below, at the end of ul. Nawłocka (then still unpaved). Today a large Biedronka sign in the car park is what you'd see if you stood here.

Below: more change in the built environment round these parts: ten years ago, ul. Puławska was being widened between Warsaw's boundary and Piaseczno. While this was happening, traffic was being diverted through the abandoned PGR Mysiadło. Today, Puławska's as busy as ever, these buildings remain abandoned.

Sitting here in my study, looking across at a mature garden, I can still remember when this 45 cubic metres of space that constitute the room I currently occupy, was the outdoors. A field. I can step out, walk around to the side of the house, over the fence - and I'm back in a field. But the bit of field that was once here has lost its field-like quality.

Where we live shapes our worldview.  It helps determine whether or not we're happy. Spirit of place is so important. Choosing exactly where you set down your roots should be determined by your soul, not by a pushy estate agent.

Google Earth updates Warsaw

Hurrah! The latest release of satellite photos of Warsaw on Google Earth is always a cause for excitement, and the latest iteration shows just how quickly Poland's capital is developing. I will focus on Jeziorki, that cool, cult, iconic, exclusive, south-south-western corner of the Hipster City Among Nations. To live here is to live the Chosen Life. [I await a feature about Jeziorki in a forthcoming edition of the FT's monthly How To Spend It supplement.]

Below: my immediate vicinity - note presence of new Biedronka and Lidl, adding variety, value. convenience and proximity to my retail needs. Biedronka for mature Cheddar cheese at a knock-down price, Lidl for kiełbasa polska długodojrzewająca. And the flood retention ponds - Pozytywka and Nosal - have been deepened and enprettified. (Not even the word remont does justice to the improvement.) Click to see both images at 100%.

August 2014

April 2011

Moving further north, Jeziorki's fabled wetlands have been tamed and are now Warsaw's largest body of standing water.What was a boggy marsh, incapable of soaking up the floodwaters that our rapidly changing climate delivers with greater frequency, has now become civilised, a lovely place for recreation and an effective sump for water running off local fields. Note the late-summer algae bloom on the middle pond.

August 2014

April 2011

Let us move north once again to see how the junction of the S2 and S79 look today, and how they looked back in April 2011. And the viaducts carrying ul. Złote Lany, Hołubocowa and Poloneza over the S2.

August 2014

April 2011

And finally, let's move north once again to look at ul. Poleczki - this time going all the way back to March 2007, just before this blog was launched, and comparing it to how it looks now. Note the doubling of Poleczki, the viaduct over the railway line, the S79, Poleczki Business Park and many other new developments. Despite all this new activity, the number of buses serving this thriving area has actually decreased since then.

August 2014

April 2007

So then. Huge progress wherever you look. Something worth considering when voting locally or nationally.

Below: dusk falls upon God's own suburb, Jeziorki.

This time last year:
Liverpool's waterfront (a city worth seeing, cheap and easy to get to from Warsaw)

Rain on a freezing day

A most unusual phenomenon. It is -7C this morning; it is damp (93% humidity) and windy (gusting to 40 kmh). As a result the perceivable temperature (temperatura odczuwalna or wind-chill factor - erroneously so, as it doesn't include the effect of humidity) feels like -12C.

I'm walking along ul. Poleczki; it feels very cold; my gloved hands are buried deep in the pockets of my M-65 parka. And yet - rain, not snow, is falling on my face. Which makes me think that it shouldn't feel like -12C, but rather +2C. Weird! This rain has been falling since yesterday morning, settling on the earlier snow and instantly turning to ice. Walking over grass covered with snow and then such an icy crust is unsettling - a 'slip-crunch' with every footstep as the foot goes through the ice.

Thanks to Martin Earle for pointing out via Twitter that this phenomenon is called (unsurprisingly) freezing rain - there's a very good Wikipedia article about it - particularly interesting is the way this occurs. Snow falling from a cold air mass passes through a warmer air layer, where it turns to rain, which does not have the chance to re-freeze as it enters a colder layer before finally hitting the ground in liquid form - and only then freezing.

The pavements would have been dreadfully slippery, but for the efforts of the urban roads department, which ensured that most of Warsaw's thoroughfares were treated with road salt, the pavements with sand too. So I walked a kilometre and half from Poleczki Business Park to ul. Puławska without any skids or slips (below).

Today of course was Blue Monday, a bit of pop-science that's struck a chord with the media and the general public as the most depressing day of the year, the Monday of the last full week in January. It is when Christmas has been long forgotten, and yet when spring is still a long way off. Leaden skies, howling winds, pervasive dampness and bitter cold have helped lower spirits, but my take is - we're over the worst. Spring may be two months away (or more - we had snow in Warsaw at Easter last year) but the days are getting longer. But there's more cold on the way - Thursday morning promises to be -18C (perceivable -24C).

This time last year:
Jeziorki in the snow (a much nicer day than today)

This time two years ago:
Winter's slight return

This time three years ago:
Unacceptable

This time four years ago:
Pieniny in winter

This time five years ago:
Wetlands in a wet winter

Poloneza - asphalt at last!

A lovely surprise when I cycled to work on Monday morning - lo and behold the promises made by Ursynów mayor Piotr Guział have been fulfilled, and ahead of time. At last there is asphalt on the 240-metre long stretch of road between the new viaduct carrying ul. Poloneza over the S2 Southern Warsaw By-pass and ul. Ludwinowska. At last it will be possible to drive or cycle over this bit in all weathers without fear of being bogged down axle-deep in mud.

Below: looking north from Ludwinowska, Monday morning. Click to enlarge; you will see many vehicles using this road. Some are using Poloneza as an alternative route to jammed-up ul. Puławska, but I guess the majority of the drivers work around ul. Poleczki, the new Business Park, or Platan Park, or the DHL depot, or the new office developments of Służewiec.

Below: looking south from the viaduct towards Ludwinowska in the distance. Four lanes go down into one-and-half; the newly asphalted section is not very wide. Still, traffic tends to flow north in the morning rush hour, south in the evening, so no great problem. Speed bumps here will be useful in slowing down the sad maniac element.

But there's more. Mr Guział has promised to asphalt the 1km-stretch of ul. Poloneza north of ul. Krasnowolska, passing the Grabów cemetery and linking up with the civilised stretch at the north end of Poloneza by Platan Park. This will happen next year, presumably before the local government elections.

Before Mr Guział gets to smug, let me remind him about the 1km stretch of ul. Hołubcowa between ul. Poloneza and Sztajerki (below). This bit, next to W-wa Dawidy railway station, is an utter disgrace. Behold. Puddles spanning the width of the road, rubbish and building waste unceremoniously dumped, a stretch of public road, well within Warsaw's (and Ursynów's) boundaries, that is totally impassable to all but pedestrians in wellington boots or heavy-duty off-road vehicles. This, Mr Guział, is a bloody disgrace and deserves attention before you stand for re-election. Before long, the viaduct carrying Hołubcowa over the S2 will be ready, but as with the Poloneza viaduct until now, it will be connected to the outside world by muddy dirt-tracks.

More good news for cyclists, in another part of town: one of the three north-bound lanes of ul. Spacerowa, between Gagarina and Goworka has been turned into a cycle path (below). This is a steep and laborious stretch up the Vistula escarpment which is a part of my regular journey from the TokFM studios to my office. Not having to jostle with cars makes the half-kilometre climb safer and more pleasant.

This time last year:
A welcome splash of colour to a drab car park

This time two years ago:
To Hel and back in 36 hours

This time four years ago:
Honing the Art of the Written Word

This time five years ago:
Of castles, dams and brass bands

Along ul. Hołubcowa to work

With the move of  my client's offices to Poleczki Business Park (see previous post), I'm discovering new ways to work. This morning - on foot. Instead of walking down Poloneza to the end, I cut across along the Metro spur (the rarely-used line connecting Warsaw's Metro to the outside railway network), below. Looming out of the fog is the new viaduct being built to carry ul. Hołubcowa over the S2. It's quarter past seven and workers are already busy on the building site, along the length of the S2.

Ul. Hołubcowa is very busy at this time of the morning. Poloneza may have re-opened, but uncertainty as to whether the boggy, 240m-long dirt-track section of the road will swallow their cars before their get to the new bridge persuades most drivers to stick to Hołubcowa. Below: the crossing of the S2. My guess is that the road-builders will want to close this crossing to traffic before the viaduct is ready. This will cause huge problems to drivers; there will be no alternative but to use the treacherous ul. Poloneza.

Having passed the handful of houses at the far end of ul. Krasnowolska, I proceed through Grabów (which starts at the Metro railway line and continues as far as ul. Pląsy - a fearfully boggy track linking Poloneza and Taneczna beyond to the DHL depot on ul. Osmańska. We are less than six miles (9.5km) from the very centre of Warsaw, and yet the landscape is entirely countryside. Below: mugwort, the characteristic plant of these parts, turns black and brittle when it dies; the result looks like the fields on either side of Hołubcowa have been scorched by fire.

Below: fewer cars use the northern end of Hołubcowa, but I suspect traffic will intensify as more corporate employers move into Poleczki Business Park. Every single car that passed me was clearly marked as a company vehicle; private car owners would not risk their pride-and-joy along this road. It looks OK now, but we've have several dry days.

Near the end, out of Grabów and into Wyczółki. Hołubcowa ends abruptly on ul. Jakuba Mortkowicza; in theory Hołubcowa should join Poleczki; in practice it is cut off by the business park, and stump of road calling itself Hołubcowa runs between the buildings and out on the main road. There's even a bus stop called Hołobcowa on Poleczki, though it only serves the northernmost outpost of this 4km-long thoroughfare.

Below: barakowóz (barrack-wagon) parked up along ul. Jakuba Mortkiewicza, named after printer, publisher and co-founder of newsagent chain RUCH. Beyond the sheet-metal fencing, Poleczki Business Park, where more new office blocks will soon spring up.

Along with ul. Poloneza, ul. Hołubcowa is yet another example of a road that the city authorities have ignored despite hugely increased traffic volumes. The development of the Służewiec office district, the growth of cargo businesses (such as DHL on ul. Osmańska for one) around the airport and the suburbanisation that's occurred south of Warsaw's borders mean that these two dirt-tracks, once exclusively used for moving tractors from one field to another, have taken on a new significance for the city's traffic flows. And yet the authorities have done next to nothing to recognise this.

Welcome to Lemingrad

Office moves can be a bit of a wrench, especially when to a less pleasant location than the one you've moved from. My corporate client for morning English lessons has moved one bus stop down ul. Poleczki, and while the new office is more modern and, I dare say, prestigious than the old one, it's missing something - soul.

Welcome, then, to Lemingrad; a sterile, soul-free place where the unthinking PO-voting electorate - in the mythology of the Polish right - work. The corporate hamster wheel. Though I don't share the PiSites' ideology, there is something in what they say regarding the rat-race and its participants.

So here we are, in the biurowcowe zagłębie (translated as 'office region', the phrase lacks the emotional punch the Polish phrase has).

This is no Central Business District, such as the one between Śródmieście and Wola, with modern Class A office blocks built around existing government buildings, theatres, parks, museums, restaurants, shops, cinemas and art galleries. This is a wasteland consisting of modern Class A office blocks - er, that's it.

I suppose the theory is that if you had to look out on this all day long (below), rather than have the view I have - overlooking the towers of Pl. Zbawiciela, the Palace of Culture, the National Stadium etc - you'd be more focused on your work.

Getting here's a bind. Walking from ul. Puławska's no longer an option (as it was when I was getting to ul Poloneza); the buses are few, unevenly spaced in time and overcrowded during the morning rush hour. Although the railway line passes close by, there's no station serving these blocks. PKP could place a new station 1.5km south of W-wa Okęcie. But the State Railway does not move as quickly as the market. Extending the tram line from Wyścigi to Poleczki is feasible but costly. Putting on more buses is the only real option. Note lack of official path from bus stop to the offices. People trample the grass, because architects and city authorities failed to tie up loose ends.

Put up the blocks first, rent them out, let the employees worry about getting to work. From ul. Domaniewska (where hundreds of businesses share one address - Domaniewska 41, a number that covers several office blocks named after planets, where public transport is terrible and car parking spaces non-existent after 7:30) in the north to Poleczki Business Park in the south, the Służewiec business district covers some four square kilometres of less-than-prime real estate just east of Okęcie airport, yet a long way from the centre of town.

I pity the workers who have to trudge here, day after day, deprived of culture and cuisine, working on the corporate treadmill. It's so much finer for the quality of life to work in the city centre, surrounded by what it takes for city life to be civilised. I'm glad I only have to come here for just a few hours a week.

Imagine driving here from, say, Wola or Praga, spending the whole day here, then - what do you do in the evening if you want to go to a concert in town, say - drive home, get changed and head off for Centrum?

This time two years ago:
Dream highway

This time three years ago:
The Days are Marching

This time five years ago:
First snow, 2007

Bad news for Jeziorki rat-runners

As I've written ad nauseam, ul. Puławska is one barely-moving parade of steel, glass and rubber, trying desperately to disgorge tens of thousands of suburban and exurban Varsovians into their place of work - and failing. It is, then, only natural that drivers should seek alternatives to this near-stationary three-lane highway (traffic lights every two hundred metres).

The alternative route is marked on the map below (click to enlarge).

The yellow route, between ul. Karczunkowska to ul. Poleczki and its business parks is all well and good - except it's been severed by the ongoing roadworks (S2 southern Warsaw bypass between Węzeł Lotnisko and Węzeł Puławska). It's been like this for two years now. No problem for the all-terrain cyclist or pedestrian-in-wellies, but motorists must detour the road closure with a zig-zagging 2.3km detour over some of the worst roads in any EU capital. From Ludwinowska to Krasnowolska is a mere 900m.

To make things worse, this week, ul. Ludwinowska (marked in red running horizontally from the end of ul. Jeziorki towards the railway line) has been well and truly cut by some sewerage pipe-laying (below), marked as a black line on the map above.


This leaves two options open for those who use this way to work: put up with the frustration of Puławska, or chance it over Poloneza's potholed surfaces and take a risk over the almost- but-not-quite completed viaduct. No work has actually occurred here since July, its still waiting for final layers of asphalt, one bit of pavement and some minor finishing off.

Locals have taken matters into their own hands and have forced the viaduct open by pushing apart the concrete barriers at the north end (below) and dismantling the no-entry signs at the south end.

But I wouldn't chance in a car without high ground clearance, there are big jumps where the road surface changes. Still, as it is, I can cycle the 5.6km from Karczunkowska to Poleczki faster than a car taking the long route.

This time last year:
Death on the tracks

This time four years ago:
From Łady to Falenty

One Stop Beyond

For some inexplicable reason*, my bus journey to Platan Park this morning was 20 minutes shorter than usual for the time of day. Large numbers of drivers taking an long weekend or what? I decide to travel on an extra stop and walk back. The purpose - see how Poleczki Business Park is coming on, get some exercise, take some snaps.

Modernist simplicity - Mies van der Rohe would have been proud. Building complete, not many tenants as yet. Perhaps getting here is putting off prospective clients. How about PKP building a new station between W-wa Dawidy and W-wa Okęcie and calling it W-wa Wyczółki?

Having said that, ZTM, the urban transport authority, has significantly increased the number of buses coming this way; as well as the established 148, 165 and 306 routes, there's now the rush hours-only 331 that links Wilanowska Metro with this part of Warsaw, while the 575 running between Wilanowska and the airport now calls at intermediate stops rather then ferrying fresh air. And a cycle path (although did planners seriously believe that cyclists would cross ul. Poleczki twice rather than continue along the pavement between ul. Tango and ul. Taneczna?).

Below: a string of buses turning onto Poleczki from ul. Łączyny. Note the hot-water pipes, right foreground.

And on, towards Platan Park, past the site of a new Holiday Inn (due to open in Autumn 2012, after the football finals), close to the airport, convenient for the new south Warsaw business district. Below: looking west towards Poleczki Business Park.

Below: Platan Park looking south - in the distance (click to enlarge), new warehouses are emerging from the soil. And there's Hoover - a familiar name to one who spent so much of his life in the UK living near to the Hoover factory in Perivale...

* Thanks to the Młochów Blog, I discover that today was Teacher's Day, most schools closed. That explains it. Shows how many mummy's boys and girls get driven to school.

This time last year:
Who am I? (Kim ja jestem?)

This time two years ago:
First snow, 2009. Ghastly!

This time three years ago:
Train links to town improving

This time four years ago:
A beautiful Sunday, south of Warsaw

Better news on the commuting front

The new PKP Koleje Mazowieckie (KM) timetable sees an increase in the number of morning rush hour services from Piaseczno and beyond into central Warsaw from five to seven. From the new year, Warsaw public transport tickets will be valid on KM trains all the way out to Zalesie Górne. These improvements should, I hope, lead to an increase in people commuting into town by train, and a decrease in the number of cars on ul. Puławska. Which is good, because in early 2009, the authorities plan to paint a bus lane down Puławska from ul. Karczunkowska all the way up to ul. Poloneza. Hell for drivers! (Can it get worse? YES.) Above: Corner of ul. Farbiarska and ul. Ludwinowska on Tuesday morning.

Click here for the PKP timetable website

At the same time, today's drive from home to Platan Park (up the notorious ul. Poloneza, a street named after the rickety and unreliable car of the same name), was a doddle. Traffic was quite heavy, but it was civilised. No nutters emulating the Paris-Dakar Rally today. Just a steady stream of cars heading up ul. Trombity, ul. Kórnicka, ul. Jeziorki and ul. Poloneza at a sedate 30km/h, as the Good Lord had intended.

I'd like to single out for special praise the driver of a silver BMW X5 on WI plates, who drove in front of me all the way to ul. Poleczki. Steadily, safely, considerately. Were there more like him.

This time last year:
Complexities of time and place in the pre-postmodernist millieu

Grading Poloneza

My first meeting of the day is usually at the far end of ul. Poloneza, where it runs into ul. Poleczka (the Platan Park business centre). So unlike many people who use Poloneza as a convenient though dirty back double running parallel to the unspeakably clogged ul. Puławska, I'm actually taking the shortest route from home to office.

As I've recounted here, Poloneza is one of a diminishing number of unmade roads (well) within Warsaw's borders. Potholes appear, sometimes the width of the road, deep, filled with water after heavy rainfall. Negotiating Poloneza when muddy in a two-wheel drive Nissan Micra on its 15" wheels requires skill. Go too slow (like many nancying novices, afraid of dirtying their car's bodywork) and you risk ending up axle deep in soft, churning mud. Go too fast and muddy water gets everywhere. Including in your alternator. When the water evaporates, mud remains.

The Micra's alternator finally failed and was replaced yesterday with a reconditioned one. To prevent future failure, the auto-electrician (Pan Czesław, ul. Fabryczna 7) suggested getting a moulded plastic floor pan to fit under the engine bay. Otherwise, he said, the winter - mud, salt, grit - will get into the alternator and it will seize up again.

The old alternator was well knackered. The two ball bearings inside could barely rotate, the carbon brushes and copper windings fractured into bits and fell apart when the alternator housing was removed.

This morning en route to Platan Park, my journey was interrupted by a grader coming down the other way, scraping the dirt surface smooth, removing the potholes for a month or two. This might be the optimal solution - the minute Poloneza gets tarmacked over, it will become a solid jam end to end. Leaving it dirt track but scraping the holes out of it every now and then is good for me. Until the rains come.

This time last year:
The Bishop and the Crumfel
Google Earth updates map of Jeziorki

Ul. Poleczki sorted at last. Or is it?

Ten months since they started work, the drogowcy (roadmen) have finished dualling up ul. Poleczki. Throwing a bridge over the railway lines took far less time than widening the road leading to this bridge. Still, the work's done. To a decent European standard, with cycle paths, acoustic screens, filter lanes, signs (I think one gathers that the red path is for bicycles, without having to put one signpost every ten metres). Later on, I saw landscape gardeners planting grass and bushes on the soil between footpath, cyclepath and bus stop.

But lovely as the new ul. Poleczki will be, there are a few shortcomings. Some can be easily rectified - the timing of the traffic lights. There are lights at the junction leading to Netia's car park. It's 9:30 am; no one is coming in or out of the car park. Yet still the lights turn red on Poleczki, causing 30+ vehicles heading to or from the airport to stop, wait... (nothing coming), wait... (nothing coming), wait... (nothing coming), then finally, when the light turns green, they all rev up at the same time, belching carbon dioxide, soot and other noxious emissions into the atmosphere. The strange thing is, I looked at the junction, and yes, it does have traffic detector sensors. So why change the lights if they detect no traffic? An easy fix, once the city's road engineers are alerted to this problem. (But like, when?)

The bigger problem, as I pointed out last November, lies on the other side of ul. Puławska. Now that the viaduct to the airport is complete, traffic from Ursynów wishing to use this route has doubled or tripled the number of vehicles crossing Puławska rather than turning left or right into it. This means that now, should you needto get from ul. Pileckiego to ul. Poleczki in the morning rush hour, it can take you up to eight minutes to get across this one junction. This one will take longer to sort out. An underpass is the only answer. And so it goes. (TOTAL ASPHALT! A MOTORWAY FROM EVERYONE'S HOUSE TO EVERYONE'S OFFICE!)

This time last year:
Autumnal moods, Jeziorki
Flamenco Sketches
Flamenco Sketches Alternative Take
Flyover EU

Viaduct to the airport

Yesterday Eddie and I went down to see the progress on the new viaduct that will open up a direct road route from Ursynów to Okęcie airport. As you see, the viaduct is ready - some finishing is needed - landscaping, traffic lights. Yet before it can open, ul. Poleczki, which links the viaduct with ul. Puławska and Ursynów beyond, has to be widened. Here progress is slower. The new viaduct will bring the airport some 10 minutes (20 minutes in peak times) closer to us.

The viaduct itself crosses no few than 14 (count 'em!) railway lines - the two mainline tracks down to Radom, Kielce and Kraków, nine tracks for the coal sidings and two more for the sand/aggregates sidings and one which eventually leads into the Warsaw Metro.

Above: View from the viaduct. Four coal-hauling electric locos stand in the sidings while a W-wa Wschodnia-bound osóbka heads towards W-wa Okęcie. The new viaduct is an excellent vantage point for both train anoraks and plane spottaz.

Below: Google Earth's current map doesn't yet show the new infrastructure. Viaduct and extensions of ul. Wirażowa shown in yellow.

Just before dawn, Ursynów

An early start this morning, leaving home half an hour before sunrise. At the end of ul. Kórnicka as it joined ul. Baletowa, I grabbed this snap (1/3 sec exposure), not expecting it to come out. But although blurred, it does have huge character; this is The Road, USA, Jeziorki-style.

Above: the junction of ul. Poleczki and ul. Pulawska. Traffic heading into town is not yet chock-a-block; by 8 am it will be.

Above: Ursynów's main drag, al. KEN, looking for all the world like some remote Russian city within the Arctic Circle on a winter's noon. Note the cycle path (behind the green pedestrian traffic signals) - it has not been cleared of snow and ice, while the footpath next to it has been. "Makes sense," I thought. "Not really the kind of weather for cyclists" - just then...

...WHOOSH!

Late autumn drive-time

Leaving the office this evening, the car thermometer showed +1C. Wet snow tipping down - deszcz ze śniegiem - the worst weather Poland can dish out. With four weeks to go before winter solstice, four weeks of deteriorating daylight, it's gloom, gloom and more gloom. Traffic is heavy and extremely slow moving; some drivers have not yet put on winter tyres (summer tyres lose adhesion below +6C). The wet snow is unrelenting, yet does not settle. The thermometer steadfastly refuses to drop to zero. Above: Along Al. Generała Władysława Sikorskiego the traffic manages to hit double-digit speeds (that's in kilometers per hour). Just three months ago, I was cycling home this way at this time. It still was warm and bright.

Above: Waiting at the junction of ul. Puławska and Poleczki. The journey home from here can take as little as five minutes on a clear weekend evening; today a further half-hour would elapse before I'd reach home. Below: Waiting at the junction of ul. Puławska and Płaskowickiej. It's snowing ever more intensely, but it's still above freezing.

Not In My Back Yard

Ul. Poleczki, which I consider to the northern border of my patch, offers this picture of what happens when the March of Progress ends up in one's back yard. Yesterday we learned that Pan Winkler's field behind our house has been granted planning permission for 12 detached houses. OK, it's not a telecoms centre (see above). Another such centre sprouted up behind the back garden of the house we rented on ul. Gajdy, so we've experienced having a building site in our immediate neighbourhood. Plus, the rural view from my bedroom window will disappear. "I remember when this was all fields" I will someday say to my grandchildren and they won't believe me.

Weather-wise, the last two weeks have been dull and gloomy. Temperatures between 0C and +3C, not cold enough to be crisp and frosty, but cold nonetheless. Three weeks after the clocks changed, we're back to waking up in darkness. And it gets dark around 4.00pm. The sun, when it makes a rare appearance, does so while I'm at work. This leads to what Poles label 'zle samopoczucie'. The standard remedy is to take magnez (magnesium). I need cheering up. My soul is heavy.