Intimations of spring (3)

Just as I thought that spring was still a long way off, I spotted these flowers in the garden. The sunshine prompted me not only to take a short walk this morning, but also to go for the year's first bike ride with Eddie. We rode to Okęcie airport and back, crossing the new viaduct. Although temperatures did not quite hit double digits (+9.8C high today), it was most pleasant.

Last of the winter snow?

In our garden this morning to photograph the final remnants of the snow that fell on Wednesday morning (right and below). Other than the evergreens and a solitary willow, trees in the garden are not showing signs of bursting into leaf yet. The przednówek drags on and on.

By this afternoon, the temperature is expected to get into double digits. This should prompt nature to speed up the onset of spring.


That, I hope, is that. While snow in large amounts is natural and fun, it's rightful place is in December and January. We may still be getting snow into late April, although I'd prefer to see the back of it. If it does return, it'd most likely be another light dusting. When this lot melts, I'd be delighted not to see any more until late November.

Another light dusting

Rather than having a proper winter this year, we've been getting the odd dusting of snow that last a day or two. Winters are getting warmer. The temperature is above zero, having dipped below for only a few nocturnal hours. Above: The end of ul. Trombity where it meets ul. Kórnicka, early this morning. By mid-afternoon the snow had all disappeared in town, but in Jeziorki was still lying wet on the grass when I got home .

Four weeks into Lent

Twenty eight days gone, 18 to go... Lost another pound, so I'm down to 11 st 6lbs/72.8kg. Finally worked out how to make tasty soya burgers (fry two at a time on sunflower oil, lots of onion, chilli pepper, one clove of garlic, serve between three slices of fried bread cut to a round shape in the style of a Big Mac.) The sugary dried cranberries have been replaced by naturally sweet dried cherries (which the whole office is going mad for). Seedless white grapes are in season at the moment, so I'm devouring kilos of them. Sit-ups increased to 100 per day (two lots of 50). Generally feeling in good form with two and half weeks to go.

Got thinking about Ramadan - 28 days of not eating or drinking during daylight hours. I would not like to do that. Going without water for so long is unhealthy. And given that Muslims use a lunar calendar, Ramadan is a very movable feast. The month of fasting moves forward by 11 days every year. Bearable in midwinter in the northern hemisphere, when there's eight hours of daylight or less, Ramadan would be difficult to observe in midsummer north of the Arctic Circle!

Dramatic sunset

Photographed ten minutes before sunset from the attic window, today's sunset was quite magnificent (click on photo to enlarge). The strong westerly gales ensured the weather was continually changing, sunlight one moment, squally showers the next. Trees in foreground the same ones photographed this time last week (see entry for Sunday 24 February, bottom photo).

A bigger splash

Hurricane Emma had blown itself out by the time the weather system reached Warsaw; we had winds gusting to 70 kmh overnight, but the rain has slowed. Yesterday while driving I found that ul. Baletowa had flooded completely on the notorious stretch between ul. Sarabandy and ul. Farbiarska. Ever has it been so - I remember getting soaked here in the summer of 1999 while cycling home this way. While most drivers, thinking about the electrics under the bonnet, would drive slowly through the flood, this guy just went for it. Good thing there were no pedestrians or cyclists in the way!

Tourist trail through Jeziorki

Anyone familiar with Poland's mountains will know what a szlak turystyczny is. A recommended tourist trail marked with coloured lines (usually red, blue, black, green or yellow) on a white background. These are found painted on trees, posts etc.

Warsaw has scores of these heading out of the city to rural parts, dating back to the days when jolly workers from their state-owned zakłady pracy would set off on jolly hikes on their one free day a week to take in some fresh air.

One such trail passes Jeziorki on its way from W-wa Dawidy PKP station to the Las Kabacki forest and then on through Klarysew to Ciszyca bus station. Officially numbered MZ-5142-z, it's 16.4km long. Here's a full list of all szlaki turystyczne in Mazowsze province. There's more than a hundred in all, with a total distance of over 2,700 km. Administered by the PTTK, quaintly translated as the "Polish Tourist Country Lovers Society" (I'd go for "Polish Tourism and Sightseeing Association" myself), a body set up in Stalinist days as a kind of communist version of the Ramblers' Association.

Above: Tourist trail markers along ul. Dumki and the footpath linking it to ul. Sarabandy. Part of this stretch that runs through Jeziorki is visible from my bedroom window. Every now and then the trail falls foul of local landowners wanting to block it. Once, walking home I found a few metres of police tape stretched across the path. More recently, a building plot with a new house on it cut into the trail and the landowners on the other side blocked off the detour that hikers were making around the plot with logs. This situation has now been resolved and a little wooden gate now stands here.

SUPPLEMENTARY: A week later I'm came this way to find the gate chained and padlocked shut. I scrambled over without too much effort, but I think that blocking public rights of way like this is not on. Indeed, it's probably an offence against the Ustawa (Law) of 18 January 1996 on Physical Culture, which sets out all the Rozporządzenia (enabling regulations) regarding the marking and maintenance of szlaki turystyczne.

SUPPLEMENTARY 2: I've discovered another szlak turystyczny in Jeziorki! This one (MZ-5143-c) runs 9.9km from Pyry to Powsin, again through the Las Kabacki forest. This sign (right) is on ul. Jeziorki.

The Rozporządzenia to the Ustawa say that szlak turystyczny markers should be painted (in oil paint) 10cm high by 15cm wide, white-colour-white, and should be no more than 50m apart, from each one you should see one in front of you and one behind you (assuming clear visibility).

Sunrise getting earlier

For the first time since November, the sun rose before my alarm clock went off. Three weeks before equinox now and day's almost 11 hours long. Each day's now four minutes longer than the previous one - nearly half an hour's extra daylight a week. Although we had a few hours of clear sky yesterday morning, gloomy overcast dominates the weather pattern and looks set to continue over the weekend, with rain and a hurricane ('Emma'). I cannot wait for spring.