Chynów station – the clean-up begins

The pace of progress and improvement of infrastructure continues at pace. It is clear to me why Poland's economy is growing so fast – the nation is getting on with it!

I wrote in late-September about rail-infrastructure operator PKP PLK's Dworce Przyjazne Pasażerom ('passenger-friendly stations') project that would include Chynów station. By late-November, a contract had been signed between the local authority and a general contractor. And earlier this week, work got under way. Super fast! From project announcement to spades in the ground in less than three months! (In the UK this would be dragging on for years, with appeal courts upholding the rights of one householder to block the construction of a pedestrian crossing.)

The scope of work includes: laying down nearly one kilometer of new pavement from ul. Wspólna to ul. Wolska (brilliant!), new asphalt and (I hope) a pavement from the level crossing at Jakubowizna to ul. Wspólna (hurrah!), new parking spaces, including a 'Kiss & Ride' zone next to the station building, cleaning up the area around the railway station – demolishing three disused outbuildings opposite ul. Wspólna, removing the old fence, clearing undergrowth, and generally cleaning up the area between the station and level crossing. The vast number of empty vodka bottles and beer cans suggest that this was a popular hang-out for the local enthusiasts of outdoor drinking. 

Below: accommodation for station staff. It still looks inhabited... interesting to see whether it survives the bulldozer, and if so – will it be renovated? And if so, how will it look?

Below: the building in the foreground looks like an agricultural outhouse, in which the stationmaster's family kept livestock and farm equipment to tend the small plot adjoining their house. It was common for Polish stationmasters and other railway employees living in official railway housing to keep livestock. This practice was primarily a necessity for food self-sufficiency, though it faded away in the 1980s and '90s.

The area around the Chynów railway station has been a bit of a mess for years, and the contrast between the new platforms and the parking chaos outside is stark. A lack of parking spaces results in commuters  often parking in a way that obstructs access. There's also a lack of sufficient numbers of places to secure bicycles; these end up being tied to fences and handrails. Pedestrians have to put up with the discontinuity of pavements and unpaved access to platforms, which is particularly troublesome – and dangerous – in autumn and winter, what with the unlit road.

Below: the old goods yard forms a huge makeshift car-park, yet it is unasphalted/unpaved, and is currently ankle-deep in mud in many places. And there's no direct access from this car-park to the platforms, other than walking the long way around the station building. There should be a gate for passengers at the southern end of the platform (around the middle of the photo). This would encourage more local motorists to leave their cars here and take the train to town. In the meanwhile, rubble from the demolished outhouses and fencing is collected here prior to removal.

More semi-fast (przyspieszone) trains calling at Chynów would also boost that encouragement. Twenty-three minutes from here to Warsaw Służewiec station? That's amazing. We have four such trains into town in the morning, and four back from town in the evening. But the two semi-fast trains to Warsaw in the afternoon/evening don't stop here.

Currently, around 1,500 people use Chynów station on the average weekday, more than double the 600-700 passengers using it before the modernisation. So the adage "built it, and they will come" is true. Will work to further improve the station environs boost passenger numbers? I hope so...

What more's needed here? A small shop and café. The footfall from passing trade would make this location an attractive one for a local entrepreneur. A restaurant, maybe? But above all, a bus service that meets the trains and connects with Grójec, 18km to the west, stopping at the villages along the way.

But there's a heritage note to all this. The Warsaw-Radom line that passes through Chynów, was built in 1934; though the original platform has gone when the line was modernised, the station building and outbuildings were from the time. The warehouse by the goods siding went long ago, the goods siding itself was lifted in 2020. So some snaps are in order to catalogue what is about to be demolished. The price of progress.

Tomorrow: the 2026 railway timetable, with a sleeper-train focus.

This time last year:
The November/December 2024 UAP flap

This time two years ago:
Impressions of Zielona Góra

This time three years ago:
Kraków to Jakubowizna in the snow

This time four years ago:
Frustration for the local wozidupek community

This time five years ago:
Small local milestones, Chynów station

This time six years ago:

Brexit: what next?
[Britain's economy is screwed – that's what]

This time nine years ago:
Kick out against change - or accept it?

This time ten years ago:
Warwick University alumni meet in Warsaw

This time 11 years ago:
Pluses and minuses of PKP InterCity

This time 12 years ago:
When transportation breaks down

This time 17 years ago:
Full moon closest to Earth

Solving problems, not winning arguments

The by-election to choose a new wójt for gmina Chynów (leader of rural municipality council) resulted in an overwhelming victory for Piotr Bernaciak, the youngest of the three candidates – the one associated with neither PSL nor PiS. 

I was surprised by the turnout (57%) – astonishingly high for a local by-election – and by the scale of Piotr's victory (55.6% with the other candidates, Stanisław Mróz on 30.6% and Zbigniew Sobieraj on 13.8%). Local media had conducted an opinion poll which placed Mr Sobieraj first on 34% and the others on 30% each. My own observational polling (based on the number of banners hung out on fences) had Mr Mróz on first place.

But it's not just banners. Piotr Bernaciak was active on social media. Change is in the air, even in the Polish countryside. There seems to be a desire for a break with the old ways of doing things locally.

So hearty congratulations to Piotr Bernaciak, whom I'd met picking up litter, before the sudden death in September of the previous wójt, Tadeusz Zakrzewski, had triggered the by-election.

What I liked about Piotr's CV was the fact that this was a young man who has been active in local politics since the age of 18 and who was born in the gmina, in Sułkowice. He had also set up Stowarzyszenie Przyjaciół Gminy Chynów (the association of friends of the Chynów municipality), which organises those local clean-up events – I took part in three of them this year and Piotr was present at each one.

There's something inherently practical about local politics; it's about outcomes rather than worldviews. It's about getting things done, solving problems, rather than winning arguments or scoring party-political points. Listening to Polish Radio Trójka, I get sick listening to the perpetual mudslinging between representatives of political parties and simply switch the radio off when these dreadful bores take to the air. What does matter locally is practical stuff like pavements, water-treatment plants, street lighting, waste recycling and zoning/planning permission.

Local leaders (wójt, burmistrz or prezydent miasta depending on the size/population of the administrative unit) tend to stay on in power for many terms of office if they deliver development and order. Those that focus on ideology at the expense of practical achievements quickly get the boot. The previous wójt, Tadeusz Zakrzewski, was on his fourth term of office, for which he'd won 78% of the vote. He was well-liked because he'd been delivering tangible results since 2010.

Gmina Chynów has come a long way since I bought my działka here eight years ago. In fact, it had already been moving rapidly in the right direction before that. The fact that there was asphalt up the lane and proper drains rather than septic tanks was crucial in my decision to buy here. Since then, plenty of new asphalt has appeared here and there, improving life for drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and farmers. New shops, new eateries are opening up, and generally things are getting better and better.

I'd say the biggest issues facing the new wójt will be handling the two big infrastructure projects that hang over the area. These are the route that Warsaw's orbital motorway will take south of the capital, and the railway part of the grand CPK project as it runs through Chynów. Both are ultimately decided at national level, but the interface between the works and the local population as these projects as they are rolled out over the coming decade will have a huge impact on quality of life. Will, for example, my two local level crossings be closed? Will pedestrian access to the station be improved?

Personally, my local issues are the fight against fly-tipping and litter (this disgraceful view, left,  I snapped today on Chynów's ulica Główna – literally our Main Street), better connectivity for walkers (more footpaths through fields, forests and orchards) and a clearer gmina website where you can see what infrastructure projects are being discussed and which ones are being proceeded with, and when. And improvements to the bus service. Sure, there are new bus stops and new buses, but they run empty because there's little information on the bus stops themselves and no app for local services. Sure, PKS Grójec does have an app, but only for its bus routes going into Warsaw; Chynów and Góra Kalwaria don't even get a mention. Want to buy a ticket online? Sure, but only for the next day and print it off before you board the bus. This needs to change. I'd like to be able to buy a bus ticket to Grójec with the same ease I can buy a train ticket to Warsaw.

Below: I hope the DK50 does not end up being turned into Warsaw's orbital motorway. 

Update, Saturday 13 December: a nice touch; Piotr Bernaciak thanks his voters – simply sticking the word 'dziękuję' on his banners gives them extra shelf-life.

This time last year:
Twanged!

This time four years ago year:
The ego and evil

This time six years ago:
Warsaw's Christmas lights 2019-20

This time seven years ago:
Pawlikowski's Cold War

This time ten years ago:
"Extreme weather events are now a feature of the British climate"

This time 12 years ago:
Cheaper public transport for Varsovians

This time 13 years ago:
Swans on ice

This time 14 years ago:
Cars 

This time 15 years ago:
What's the English for kombinować?

This time 16 years ago:
The demographics of jazz

This time 18 years ago:
A day in Poznań

Wenus

Morning, Monday, 1 December. All five kittens and their mum, Wenus, spent the night in the kitchen. In the morning, I fed them as usual – two sachets of wet cat food, some dry cat food, and some milk. There was the usual feline hubbub as the food was laid out. Wenusia watched as her brood chomped on its breakfast, then as the commotion was abating, she moved in to eat something herself. There was some hissing and paw-waving; she seemed unhappy at having to share the kitchen, once her exclusive domain, with her five adolescent children. Having eaten and drunk her fill, Wenusia jumped onto the windowsill and indicated to me that she wanted to be let out. Wenusia – my cat-colony starter-kit.

She did not come home that day, nor that night. Nothing to worry about unduly; she'd been gone overnight before, not to return until the following evening. Except this time she didn't. 

No sign of her on Tuesday night. Or all day Wednesday. Had she decided that she'd had enough of sharing her house and her human with five other cats? Did she take umbrage at me for having had her sterilised? Was she having nightmares that I'd inflict more surgical procedures upon her? Had she followed someone else home, the same way she'd followed me home 11 months ago? Had she fallen victim to a fox – or a wolf? (Earlier this year there were reports of wolf sightings in the forests behind Sułkowice.) Had she returned to her original home, wherever that was? Had she simply ranged too far and got lost? 

By Thursday, I was sufficiently concerned to walk around the back way to Grobice and call out to her every few hundred metres or so. Nothing. I walked back to the spot where we first met on 5 January, walking to the end of Jakubowizna and back. Nothing.

Losing Wenusia now that she had produced a happy and healthy gang of kittens was not the tragedy that it would had been had she been my one and only feline companion, but even so. Not having been able to say farewell to her before she slipped off... Sad. Friday came and went. Still no sign. The kittens didn't seem unduly troubled by their mother's long absence. Maybe this is how it's meant to be in the cat world? Bring your brood into the world, then drift away to a new life... Maybe she's found (or been found) by some elderly person who needs Wenusia more than I do right now?

Should I put up notices around Jakubowizna, "Missing Cat, Mother of Five, Children Upset" sort of thing? Or just start with a post on the local Facebook community?

Saturday morning. There being no Wenusia in the kitchen as I wake up has become my new normal. I'm off to town, some literary work to do. The cats have to be moved outside for several hours, so their second meal of the day is delivered on the patio as I leave. All five were happily munching away at their lunch as I sidled off to catch my train. I was back at seven pm, returning in darkness. As usual, I am met on the drive by several feline shadows darting this way and that, welcoming me home. 

Reaching the front door, I became aware that the number of cats swirling around my feet was... six. Once inside, I switched on the hall light. Indeed! Wenusia was there! Back among her children! Six days and five nights away and she's back! I was delighted. As the five kittens were being fed in the kitchen, I took Wenusia into the front room to eat a celebratory tin of tuna mousse, her favourite. 

I think about the things I no longer have to do because they've done themselves.

It was wonderful to have her back among the brood. Having said that, as I write these words, with her five kittens lying, sated, on my warm kitchen floor... Wenusia is, once again, out. Never be complacent. Be grateful.

But just as I'm about to press 'publish', there she is at the window!

This time four years ago:
Nocturnal monochromes

This time five years ago:
The Darkest is upon us

This time six years ago:
The Body – A Guide for Occupants

This time ten years ago:
Extreme weather and the British climate

This time 12 years ago:
Cheaper public transport for Varsovians

This time 13 years ago:
Swans on ice

This time 14 years ago:
Cars

This time 15 years year:
What's the English for kombinować?

This time 17 years ago:
The demographics of jazz

This time 18 years ago:
A day in Poznań

Early-December moods

Still sticking with the early-to-bed-early-to-rise routine and finding it extremely beneficial in terms of mood. Well, that and cats. My routine continues to be to go to bed before ten and wake before six, catch the sunrise, and go for my walk(s) during the daylight hours, to make the most of the sunlight. Today, the day was eight hours long, we'll lose another 15 minutes by the Winter Solstice (which falls on 21 December this year), and by 7 January the day will be eight hours long again. We are still in astronomical autumn (until the solstice), but as of the beginning of the month, already in climatic winter. Having said that, other than the snowfall on 23/24 November, there's been no snow or frost since then, nor is any forecast for the next seven days.

Below: the view down the lane to Grobice. Usually waterlogged and boggy about a third of the way down, right now acceptably dry. 

Below: "Oak, hazel, hawthorn, gorse and sandy tracks/ Better for sport than farming, I suspect." Echoes of Chorleywood Common, as described by John Betjeman in Metro-land.

Below: the hunting season traditionally kicked off on 3 November (the feast-day of St Hubertus, the hunters' patron); at weekends, I can hear to occasional crack of rifle fire in the forests. Having said that, the hunters' pulpit in Machcin shows no sign of use, no spent cartridges or empty małpki (100ml vodka bottles) in evidence, no tyre tracks in the vicinity.

Below: well, they never did manage to lay down that asphalt before Sunday's election... The road to Gaj Żelechowski and Dąbrowa Duża is due for a proper surface, which will be hugely beneficial for local traffic. It will form a direct route towards Konary and the DK79 south, cutting over 2km from the journey which currently meanders through Machcin, Dobiecin and Rososz.

Below: low sun, leafless trees. Just think – in six months' time, it will be early June! Again!

Below: around the corner from home. A new house is being built along this stretch of farm track, while another is being extended upward with a second floor. Gmina Chynów is on the move. People want to live here.

Below: portraits of my cats as they transition out of kittenhood. From the left – Arcturus, Pacyfik, Scrapper, Céleste and Czester. Everyone a character, conscious and agential. 

This time three years ago:
 Matter, materialism, metaphysics and magic

This time four years ago:
Short roads to nowhere

This time five years ago:
Mole control

This time six years ago:
Poland's education paradox

This time seven years ago:
What I was going to say at COP24 (but didn't)

This time eight years ago:
Milton Keynes

This time nine years ago:
Warsaw by night, early winter

This time 12 years ago:
Burn less gas and do Ukraine a favour

This time 15 years ago:
Early evening atmosphere

This time 17 years ago:
Toponyms – how many names has Jeziorki?

This time 18 years ago:
On the road to Białystok

It's been a long time coming

Friday 28 November 2025. The opening of the passage under Warszawa Zachodnia (Warsaw West) station. I came on Sunday to cast mine eyes upon this marvel, for which I had waited so long.

Goodness! When did work start? Six years ago or longer? It's become a blur. So many memories; of the old underground passage, reeking of the 1980s, cigarette smoke and burnt casein, and its closure; of years of inconvenience, thumbing through back-dated magazines sold for a quarter of their cover price, trying to read the printed timetables in dim light, garbled station announcements saying that my train will be arriving at a different platform to the one advertised... A commuter hellscape that... finally... is over.

In its place, a modern, bright, civilised, convenient station; escalators, lifts, digital signs showing departures in real time; and the promise of modern retail and gastronomy replacing the dives and dinginess of what I considered at the time Poland's worst railway station.

Below: lots of space in this mall....

Left: ...Disco pants and haircuts. This place has got everything!

Though we'll still wait for the cafés and stores to open, soon there'll be a choice of a Starbucks, Costa and a CoffeeToGo; there'll be a Żabka (naturally), an Aldi (wow! I've never been in one, in Poland or in the UK! Wonder if they are licenced to sell alcohol, or is the shop deemed to be too close to the platforms?) A Subway, a Paul, a 1minute SmaczneGo and a Gorąco Polecam (the last one for me), and a second Scottish Restaurant (one at either end of the tunnel), a Relay, a Rossmann and a HeBe. Travellers will not be left wanting for choice, though I wonder what the opening hours of these shops and cafés will be, given that there's a gap of just 68 minutes between the last train of one day and the first train of the next.

Below: if not, there are several sets of these well-stocked and reliable (contactless card) vending machines dotted around the premises.

Below: looking west, with the old tunnel from Aleje Jerozolimskie behind me. The dip in the tunnel ahead leads down to what will be the underground tram stop when the tramline is finally completed (2026? 2027? I neither wish to believe the press releases nor to speculate). Once done – this will be marvellous. To be able to descend from your train and board a tram heading north to Wola or south to Mokotów will be a huge improvement in the travelling lives of Varsovians. For now, the passage down to the tram tunnel to the left is fenced off (and probably will continue to be for some time to come).

Below: to reach other platforms you no longer have to go up via the footbridge. Stairs, escalators and lifts now take you down to the tunnel. This is Platform (peron) 3, serving two tracks, one eastbound, one westbound. Try not to get confused by the track (tor) numbers, one aspect of the old station that's not been reformed. Track 23 eastbound, track 21 westbound. I think. 

Below: the western waiting room/booking hall on the ulica Tunelowa side. Smaller than the one on the Aleje Jerozolimskie side (but less busy). 

Below: here you'll find the 'Neighbour Area Plan' which nicely shows  central Warsaw's railway stations. Not 'train stations', not 'neighbor'. The Radom line terminates at W-wa Gdańska station to the north and skirts the city centre through which it used to go. Much to my annoyance.

Below: access from the booking hall to the platforms is via stairs, escalators and lifts. No more having to walk up 50 steps, then down 50 steps, then down another 50 steps, and finally up another 30 steps to get from Platform 3 to Platform 9. Real-time digital timetables everywhere.

For my purposes, the opening of the tunnel marks a huge leap forward in being able to change trains at W-wa Zachodnia. From a 20 minute walk up and down stairs and ramps, through mud, across the busy road at the back of the station and along a corrugated canyon to reach Platform 9, cut to 15 minutes with a shorter route, down to eight minutes when the western section of the tunnel was opened in October 2024, the interchange now takes six minutes. But ultimately, the Radom line should really go back to serving W-wa Ochota, W-wa Śródmieście and W-wa Powiśle like it always had done. Changing at W-wa Zachodnia is no longer the monumental pain in the arse that it once was. 

Poland is getting on with it; works take a long time, but in the end they get there (hello HS2) and things get noticeably better. Repeat consistently over a couple of decades, and the contrast between then and now is stunning.

Ultimately, vast improvements like the ones I've seen here and elsewhere across Poland's railway network over the past 28 years, demonstrates that it is possible to make rail travel more attractive to passengers. Just don't privatise it. British trains are worse than Poland's and vastly more expensive.

Below: bonus photo – Last Train to Warsaw, just leaving Chynów.

This time last year:

Biorhythms are nonsense. And yet...

This time four years ago:
Twilight rambler

This time six years ago:
Late-November pictorial round-up

This time seven years ago:
Artificial Intelligence vs Artificial Consciousness

[In retrospect, an interesting and prescient piece!]

This time eight years ago:
Viaduct takes shape in the snow

This time 11 years ago:
No in-work benefits for four years?

This time 12 years ago:

Third snow-free November in a row

This time 13 years ago:

Another November without snow

This time 13 years ago:
Snow-free November

This time 15 years ago:
Krakowskie Przedmieście in the snow

A doctor in the house

Doctor, 1: A physician; a member of the medical profession; one who is trained and licensed to heal the sick or injured. 

Doctor, 2: A person who has attained a doctorate, such as a Ph.D, conferred by a college or university.

From the Latin, doctor, the agent-noun from the verb docere, to teach.

Well, for the first time in family history, there is a doctor in the house – daughter Moni successfully defended her doctoral thesis at the Łódź film school today, 14 years after she began her screenwriting studies there. We are all proud.

The process that took almost three hours and involved three academic reviewers and five members of the PhD commission who cross-questioning her on her 300-page thesis, entitled Autorzy, zawodowcy i  współtwórcy ('Auteurs, professionals and co-creators'). This is the first detailed analysis of the way Polish screenwriters carry out their work.

Moni's thesis includes quotes from a series of 12 interviews with working screenwriters from different generations, and shows how the profession changed over time, particularly with the transformation from communism to market democracy after 1990. She looked at how the market and the opening up of streaming and series had shaped the way screenwriters operate. 

From this, Moni developed the notion that there are three basic archetypes of screenwriters working in Poland, the visionaries who drive the creative process from beginning to end, the 'hired pens' on whom directors and producers can rely to turn out a competent script, and the collaborative partnerships that depend on a shared vision of the final product.

The third model is trickiest to get right; trading ideas to create higher value than one person could do on their own. These often fail because of a lack of leadership and of a shared vision. With nine out of ten scripts failing to make it onto the screen. The professional – who is not emotionally tied to the project – can be relied upon to turn out a commercial hit. The auteur, who doggedly pursues their own vision to the end, often creates an art-house or cult, hit but can sometimes cross over into the commercial mainstream.

Collaboration is trickiest. Getting it right means mutual understanding of each other's roles, openness and honesty, feedback and empathy – as well as the importance of the contract. Who should lead? The writer, the director, or the producer? Whose artistic vision is it in the first place – and what should be the role of co-creators or collaborators? Should they be script-doctors, merely there to tweak and improve, or are they there to lift the work to a higher level?

Moni has the green-light to turn her thesis into a book, which will hopefully serve as a valuable asset for aspiring screenwriters.

This time two years ago:
Szczecin dawn

This time three years ago:

Win-win-win-win-win
(in praise of charity shops)

This time four years ago:
Comfort, discomfort and winter cold

This time five years ago:
Frustration as completion of Chynów station draws near

This time six years ago:
London in verticals

This time nine years ago:
Castro's death divides the world

This time ten years ago:
London to Edinburgh by night bus

This time 11 years ago:
The Regent's Canal, London

This time 13 years ago:
An end to the entitlement way of thinking

This time 14 year:
West Ealing - drab and sad suburb

This time 15 years ago:
To Poznań by train

This time 17 years ago:
Late autumn drive-time

Qualia compilation 12: moderne living

As a child, we lived in a 1930s end-terraced house that my father (inspired by BBC's Barry Bucknall) modernised in the 1960s. My parents were sociable people and would often visit their friends, the majority of whom also lived in 1930s or Victorian houses. The latter made a different impression on the five-year-old me; they had higher ceilings, ornate carvings, ceramic floor tiles, stained glass and draughty corridors. By the mid-1960s, even the Victorian houses were starting to look different inside, with wall-to-wall carpets, brightly coloured curtains and patterned wallpaper. But the world I was born into was still somewhat drab and austere.

I remember two houses I visited with my parents that stood out and triggered anomalous familiarity. Memories of these two will flash back to me from time to time.

Both were newly built and served as harbingers of a new style of interior space. One was a maisonette in Hanwell, another was a terraced house in Hemel Hempstead New Town. This would have been sometime in the early 1960s; these new homes were quite unlike the fussy cosiness of pre-war or Victorian/Edwardian housing. We drove there in our Morris Minor along a short stretch of the newly opened M1 from Watford, my first ever motorway journey – very exciting, and futuristic.

I can't remember the people we were visiting. It could well have been a colleague of my father from work. I do remember, however, that he was keen to show off his new hi-fi, and that my father was very keen to see it. This was an entirely new concept to me, and when we saw it, at first I thought I was looking at a radiator or some form of domestic heating. Then the man took out a record and played some modern jazz. Whenever I hear Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, I get that vibe; maybe that's what he played. 

The maisonette was also a new thing. The very word 'maisonette' smacked of modernity. On Lower Boston Road, it looked like a two-story semi-detached house from the outside, with large windows, white siding and brick, but you had to climb stairs on the side to get in and it was only on the upstairs. A Polish woman lived there, a friend of my mother's; we visited her during a weekday, so maybe school holidays, most likely before my brother was born. 

I associate the this place with the new house in Hemel Hempstead; both were qualitatively different to the way most of my parents' friends (or indeed we) lived at the time; up-to-the-minute, spacious, clean lines, no clutter.

American style. That's what it was. Those two homes that felt instantly familiar; not from the sets of American black-and-white TV shows I watched (I Love Lucy etc), but a lifestyle that I felt I knew from before. The space age was entering the living room.

Below: I asked both ChatGPT and Google Gemini to illustrate the contrast between styles of homes. ChatGPT produced the result that resonated better with my childhood memories.

This time last year:
Springlike Autumn

This time two years ago:
Encouraging more cycle-rail journeys

This time three years ago:

Time's Telescope

This time four years ago:
Justify the buy: Nikon D5600

This time five years ago:
First frost, 2020

This time seven years ago:
Edinburgh, again and again

This time 11 years ago:
Ahead of the opening of Warsaw's second Metro line

This time 12 years ago:
Keep an eye on Ukraine...

This time 13 years ago:
Płock by day, Płock by night 

This time 15 years ago:
Warning ahead of railway timetable change

This time 18 years ago:
Some thoughts on recycling

Snow magic for the cats

Out into the snow they go... well, not all of them; Scrapper, Pacyfik and Arcturus spent several hours in the snow yesterday. Czester and Céleste spent yesterday inside my warm kitchen. This morning, Scrapper wants some more snow action, but Pacio and Arkcio have decided to stay in. 

Scrapper was first out of the door, before I could get out with my camera. Below: the start of the expedition – who's in and who's out? In the foreground, Céleste and Czester are about to follow Scrapper into the garden while Pacio and Arkcio decide that venturing outdoors is not for them right now. Wenusia was first out, and last back in.

Below: Scrapper is a natural in this environment. He's really enjoying himself, and was very keen to get out as soon as he'd finished breakfast.

Czester's autumn-themed camouflage not working very well here. He was the only kitten in the litter with a normal-length tail.

Below: Céleste (la bellissima) is attired for the snow. Coat by Courrèges.

Below: halfway down the garden. Scrapper is in the lead. He is bounding through snow in huge leaps, clearly very keen on the stuff.

We go to the end of the drive and turn into the forest next door. We regroup at the fallen tree, then go off to explore further. Below: Czester adds a dash of colour to the snow scene.

Below: heading back to the house, through a magical garden of wintery delight, the cherry trees covered with snow. Sgt. Scrapper leads the way

Evening falls, and it's time for me to set off for my long walk. Below: Céleste is at the window to bid me farewell. Ain't she pretty?

From the moment the kittens' eyes opened in late June, every day they've lived has been shorter than the day before. Summer reached its zenith, autumn crept in, nights became longer than days, and now snow had fallen. The kittens have no experience of the year's cyclical nature; they don't know that by next month the day will start to get longer again, and spring will come. 

This time two years ago:|
Kraków's symbol of transformation

This time three years ago:
First proper snow of 2022/23

This time four years ago:

Sleep – a portal to another universe?

This time six years ago:
A month and much progress at Chynów station

This time seven years ago:
Tram tips for visiting Edinburgh

This time eight years ago:
Warsaw to Edinburgh made easier

This time ten years ago:
Stuffocation: the rich-world problem of dealing with too many things

This time 13 years ago:
Heroes on the wall (for my father)

This time 15 years ago:
Tax dodge or public service?

This time 16 years ago:
Warsaw's woodlands in autumn

This time 15 years ago:
Still here, the early snow

This time 18 years ago:
Another point of view