A Zone of My Own II: Mysiadło

It's been a while (five years) since I last wandered into the site of the former state farm PGR Mysiadło. After a failed privatisation ending in the bankruptcy of the new owners, Eco Mysiadło, in 2000, the site, straddling ul. Puławska just south of Warsaw's border, has gone to seed. This used to be a large tomato-growing business, with many greenhouses, with boilers heating the crops via large underground pipes.

Some time since my last visit, in 2007, most of the buildings on the site were demolished. Today started rainy and grey, a worthy klimat in which to pay homage to Tarkovsky's Stalker and enter a little zona of my own.

Above: the main internal road running through the east site of the PGR. This was a temporary thoroughfare while Puławska was being widened back in 2007; traffic for Józefosław and Auchan was diverted this way.

Left: not a place to wander through after dark; all the manhole covers have been stolen (presumably sold for scrap) and so, without lighting, the chances of falling into one of the heating conduits, strategically positioned in the centre of the paths, are high. There are thousands of empty vodka and beer bottles strewn all over the place, suggesting this is a popular hang-out for the local alcoholic community.

While both sites are fenced off, there are plenty of routes in, some must be big enough to drive cars through. Large amounts of household waste and building rubble attest to the fact that many locals routinely use the site as a refuse dump. Right: this child's chair looks like it came from a local primary school.

Only a few structures remain of what was once an intensive complex of greenhouses and ancillary buildings. One, at the eastern edge of the site, seems to have been a pumping station (below).

Below: still securely padlocked and grilled, what looks like the old electricity substation.

Below: pipes coming out of the boiler house and disappearing into a clump of young trees. In the distance, houses along ul. Geodetów.

Two golden rules of photography - number one: get close to the subject, number two: get closer still. With the 10-24mm Nikkor, you can indeed get very close and still get everything in frame. Below: the whole building, with decorated with colourful street art. The sides of the building are clad in asbestos - don't breathe in too deeply around here!

Below: close-up of the another piece, at the other end of the building. Nicely done - I wonder if the artist works commercially in graphics.

I take a wander round; a plane is on final approach to Okęcie airport overhead, the sky is brightening. It's still three-layer weather.

Below: crossing now to the other side of ul. Puławska, I walk down ul. Katarynki, cross a field and climb through a tumbledown fence, and enter the west site of PGR Mysiadło.

Here, all the buildings have been flattened. It was once quite an interesting place (see the lower photo on this post from five years ago), now, there's literally nothing. Empty scrub land, evidence of recent flooding, and, fleeing in the distance, a hare.

Below: near the western edge of the west site. Nothing's going on; no sign of any future development. There was talk of a large Orthodox church being built in the corner of this field by ul. Puławska, but that all seems to have gone quiet. The PGR Mysiadło site is likely to remain undeveloped for the immediate future; not a bad thing.


This time last year:
What's the Polish for puncture?

This time three years ago:
Welcome the Ice Saints
[and on cue, temperature falls from 30C yesterday to 12C today at noon]

This time four years ago:
Like a Kodachrome

This time five years ago:
The future of cities

Slow work wastes money

On 1 May, 2010, a set of temporary traffic lights was placed in lieu of the closed footbridge across ul. Puławska linking ul. Jagielska (for Las Kabacki forest). A week earlier a chunk of it had fallen onto the bus stop below; no one was hurt, fortunately. Since then, for the past two years, traffic on the hyper-congested Puławska is regularly brought to yet another standstill every time a pedestrian wishes to cross.

The old bridge was dismantled in August 2010; work on a new bridge started the following April. By the autumn of 2011, I thought the new bridge was ready to be opened - but no. A cycle ramp (excellent idea) was put up, like the ślimak or 'snail' on the footbridge over Al. Niepodległości by Pole Mokotowskie. Very good - it will make getting the bike to Las Kabacki easier and safer. By January it was almost ready. But the closer the footbridge got to being completed, the slower the work progressed.

So here we are in May 2012. As you can see, its so very nearly ready - yet no hurry to finish the job, remove the 'temporary' traffic lights and remove one pinch-point on a road so ghastly at rush hours that its barely moving. To give you an idea; on Monday, my journey by bus from home to Platan Park (5.6km away) too exactly one hour. It takes only 55 minutes on foot. The three bus stops from Karczunkowska, past these traffic lights, to Łagiewnicka, less than 2km, took 17 minutes - walking speed.

Today I cycled from home to Platan Park - a mere... 17 minutes. This shows just how truly awful Puławska can get. So every obstacle, such as temporary lights, needs to be removed as quickly as possible - the city authorities should see to it. Especially now that the new footbridge is so close to completion.

Below: with a single push of my finger, I can stop hundreds of cars and a bus or two. Just think of the waste of petrol revving up to get going again, not to mention the aggregated time lost.

Below: the ramp needs to be levelled with the ground - some 15cm or so - and yet this is taking forever. Quite why the slow pace of work, or who is responsible for the slackness and the resultant economic loss that city and its workforce has to put up with, is unknown.

This time last year:
Lost in the wonder of it all

This time two years ago:
Bicycle review

This time three years ago:
A Celebration of the Garden

Going home by train with a superwide lens

Whichever form of public transport I take home, I must pass the Patelnia (below), the area between Rondo Dmowskiego and Metro Centrum. On Monday the sky was glowering over Warsaw, low evening sunlight picking out the colour. The new Nikkor 10-24mm lens is put through its paces, yielding outstanding results.

Yesterday it was sunny - to get to W-wa Jeziorki, I board my train at W-wa Śródmieście station (below). Socialist Realism to match the Palace of Culture to the left of frame.

The train passes through W-wa Ochota station, a nice piece of architecture, like W-wa Centralna and W-wa Powiśle, the work of Arseniusz Romanowicz.

Onwards, uneventfully, until we get to W-wa Śłużewiec, where the S79 will intersect with ul. Sasanki. On the left side of the southbound train, here's the new Netia building (below)...

...and to the right side we see the flyovers that will connect the new road to Sasanki. Soon, there will be a rail connection via this station to the airport.

Below: further south, where the main Warsaw-Radom railway line crosses what will be the S2 (Southern Warsaw Bypass). Right now, work is under way to tunnel under the line.

Finally, I reach W-wa Jeziorki (below), about half an hour - if all goes well - from W-wa Śródmieście. It is 3.3km from Okęcie sidings, from where the coal trains run down to Siekierki power station, over the unelectrified line in the foreground.

The last 800m or so I hop on a bus - one stop to ul. Trombity. There are four buses an hour from W-wa Jeziorki station headed east towards home, two coincide with train arrivals. Usually. Otherwise, a 12 minute walk.

This time last year:
Loose Lips Sink Ships - part II

This time two years ago:
Jeziorki in the infra red

This time three years ago:
Some rain, at last!

From Warsaw's highest bar

From the top of the highest publicly accessible bar in Warsaw, the views are spectacular. The 40th and 41st floors of the Marriott are the best place to see the sun going down over the city. Below: looking down (a bit) at the viewing gallery on the 30th floor of the Palace of Culture.


Left: looking across at Złota 44 (192m), we can see that the highest storeys are above the Marriott's 40th floor. Cladding is being applied to Złota 44's external surfaces; once finished, this will be a splendid addition to Warsaw's skyline, standing between (to its left) Rondo ONZ 1 (also 192m) and (to its right), the Inter Continental hotel (164m) and behind it, Warsaw Financial Center (165m).

Below: the new National Stadium dominates this view looking due east, along Al. Jerozolimskie, as the thoroughfare leads to Most Poniatowskiego, and sophisticated Saska beyond (left of frame).

The chimney to the left of the stadium belongs to the Kawęczyn power plant in Rembertów. It's 300m high.


Right: turning my gaze towards the Vistula once again, there's the Most Świętokrzyski; to its right on the Praga side, a hot air balloon, featuring the logo of Orange "Błąd: 734". Note how green Praga is.

Below: Most Siekierkowski, linking Siekierki with Gocław; to the left, the chimney in Wawer. Siekierki power station is just out of frame, to the right of this pic.

If you get a chance to pop by the Marriott's 40th floor bar, do - especially around sunset. And take a long lens with you!

This time last year:
Loose Lips Sink Ships - Part One

This time three years ago:
Driving home at the end of the working day
[in the days when it was still socially acceptable to do so]

This time 25 years ago:
Poland's worst aviation disaster
[just across the road from Jeziorki]

Warsaw's city centre: a Deli-free zone

Here I am, in the very centre of Warsaw and I can't get a lime or pot of fresh mint anywhere! Right now, with the sun back out in a clear blue sky, I am suffering from a strong craving for a mint tea with lime [one spearmint tea teabag, a few leaves of fresh mint and two slices of lime, pour boiling water and leave to brew and cool to room temperature] - a stunningly refreshing drink].

While Warsaw's suburbs are full of Reals, Almas, Piotr i Pawełs, Auchans where these essential ingredients (as well as items such as fresh tuna, fillet beef steaks, fresh coriander, cous-cous, extra virgin olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes, Roquefort cheese) are readily available.

Not so the city centre. Indeed, there are dozens of shops within short walking distance of our office on ul. Nowogrodzka calling themselves "delicatessens", but venture in and you find they sell little more than bread, tomatoes, apples, crisps, chocolate bars, packaged ham and rubbery cheese. Even the Carrefour in Złote Tarasy disappoints (but then all Carrefours in Poland disappoint, I find). Kuchnie Świata is great for sauces and groceries, but not so hot for fresh produce. There's a little supermarket in the underground passage by Dworzec Centralny that offers a slightly wider choice of products, but that's now two tram-stops away and I'm not going all that way on the off-chance of a lime and some fresh mint.

Throughout Lent, seeking alternatives to meat and dairy products, I found the shops around our office woefully lacking compared to the excellent fare offered by the Mini-Europa on ul. Górnośląska, round the corner from our old office on Fabryczna.

I watched Jonathan Meades' three-part series on France (thank you Marek!); a point he makes about Paris is that because the French elite lives in the city centre, its parks are well tended and it remains beautiful. No doubt Poland's elite, living in Konstancin, Magdalenka or Izabelin, is well catered for with edge-of-town delis. But the Warsaw's city centre is a gastro-shopper's wasteland.

Can anyone with a good knowledge of central Warsaw suggest to me a real delicatessen that sells a wide variety of fresh produce? If there isn't one - surely this is a golden opportunity for deli chain or entrepreneur to open one in the centre of the capital city of the EU's sixth-largest member state (and the world's 20th largest economy)?

This time last year:
Patching up the holes

This time two years ago:
In search of the sublime aesthetic

This time last year:
Flying in from the Faroes

Early morning thunderstorm, early May

I awoke to the sound of thunder, shortly before five. The sky looked particularly threatening, so I grabbed my camera and rushed outside to capture the impending storm (below). It had been a hot night up to now, but the temperature suddenly plunged.

The dawn had approached, the sun was rising behind me and the sky was no longer dark, it would be difficult to photograph lightning as the necessary exposure time (at 100 ISO, f22) was short - a mere three seconds, not the 30+ seconds you can do at night. So - would I be lucky enough to capture a flash while the shutter was open at random?

Well, the storm was so intense - I did - below. Perfect! Open shutter - one, two, FLASH, three, shutter closes. On a tripod, of course.

Below: and again! Open shutter, one, FLASH, two, three, shutter closes. Digital photography allows you to validate the result immediately after taking the shot, a boon to the weather photographer who can alter settings accordingly.

The storm was accompanied by a short burst of hail, drumming on the roof and temporarily carpeting the lawn. The hail had done for the beautiful blossom on the fruit trees; after it had passed on the blossom was lying sodden and lifeless under the trees. Within quarter of an hour the storm had moved on; the sun rose, the day looked to be set fair. Soon clouds gathered from the west, however, changeable was the final outcome.

This time last year:
Men at work

This time two years ago:
What's the Polish for 'to bully'?

This time three years ago:
Making plans for Jeziorki: Hołubcowa bis

This time four years ago:
The stirring sight of sunset

This time five years ago:
Blessed rain - after two dry weeks

A wide-angled look at progress on the expressway

A lovely cartoon by Andrzej Krauze in last Friday's Rzeczpospolita said it all; a wild-eyed urzędnik bursts into a government office shouting: "Minister! The motorways haven't built themselves!" Indeed.

Today's another public holiday, so an opportunity to see how much remains to be done on the S2-S79 expressway (or 'Elka'). The complete lack of security guards means I can indulge that perennial desire to explore the Zona; I walk into the underpass (below) which will take the northbound carriageway of the S79 to the airport. Emerging at the other end of the short tunnel, I see a total lack of asphalt between the tunnel entrance and ul. Gordona-Bennetta and the airport - just churned-up dry soil. No tweaking of saturation or vividness of image

Below: a grader sits on the northbound carriageway of the S79 minus a wheel. Above it, the flyover that will carry traffic from the airport towards town.

Below: corner of ul. Wirażowa and Narkiewicza. No visible signs of progress since my last visit here some three weeks ago. Overhead the viaduct that will take traffic from the airport to the southbound lane of the S79. Beyond, the footbridge...

Below: on the footbridge, looking westward towards the airport. As I mentioned before, the footbridge is a half-hearted structure; it should really have been extended by another 100m to reach the platform at W-wa Okęcie station. As it is, the footbridge, complete with its pair of wheelchair lifts, goes nowhere that any pedestrian would want to go.

As sharp-eyed readers may have noticed, I've just got a new lens and intend to use it! Yesterday I bought a Nikkor 10-24mm zoom, the widest lens I've ever owned (it's the equivalent of 15-35mm on a full-frame digital or 35mm film camera). Prior to this a 21mm Leitz Super Angulon was the widest lens I've used. Converging verticals can be dealt with using Photoshop, lens abberations with DxO Optics Pro.

And on to the S2. I visited the viaduct that carries ul. Złote Łany (lit. Golden Cornfields Street) over the expressway. Like the one on ul. Poloneza, it's 95% ready, but closed off to local traffic rather than simply be finished. To get from the airport to Dawidy, the only way is a terrifyingly undercarriage-scraping journey along the deeply rutted ul. Terlickiego, which still runs right across the width of the expressway. The S2 itself is easily accessible to vehicles, especially on days when there's no construction work going on. The bicycle is the best way to visit.

I fear that given the missed deadline for the football championships, the incentive to get on and finish this massive construction project quickly has dwindled to zero.

This time last year:
Snow on 3 May

This time two years ago:
Two Polands

This time three years ago:
A delightful weekend in the country

This time four years ago:
The dismantling of the Rampa
[Four years on, the developer's gone bust and Jeziorki's lost a landmark]

This time five years ago:
Flag day

May Day in the heat

Such glorious weather. Since returning home to Warsaw on Saturday night, the weather has remained perfect. Hot and dry - the weather one would wish for on the ideal holiday. And coinciding with Poland's longest public holiday - 1 and 3 May (both days off work) happen on a Tuesday and a Thursday, so by taking three days off work, you can get a nine-day break. Which many Varsovians have, judging by the reduced volume of traffic in town.

No mosquitoes or other insects to trouble one, low humidity. Time to step out and enjoy the midday sun. Are we getting to paranoid about it? An article in New Scientist (10 April 2012) suggests that we have become so worried about the risk of skin cancer brought on by over-exposure to the sun that we are missing out on the health-giving benefits of Vitamin D, made in the skin when exposed to sunlight.

Vitamin D seems to play a key role in keeping the immune system in check so that it doesn't react to things inappropriately. [There is a] higher rate of autoimmune disorders in parts of the world with less sunlight... vitamin D suppresses the immune system by inhibiting the proliferation of immune cells and the signalling factors that spur them into action. Sunshine's effects stretch beyond those of vitamin D. Melatonin – a hormone secreted by a gland in the brain in response to changes in light – stimulates immune cells. Vitamin D is also vital for calcium absorption and bone health. Unfortunately, growing awareness of the risks of skin cancer has led some people to shun the sun, hence a recent resurgence in childhood rickets. Skin cancer aside, vitamin D appears to protect against many other common types of cancer, including those of the breast, prostate and colon. One research group has calculated that in the US, more people die from internal cancers caused by lack of sun exposure than from skin cancer itself – possibly four times as many.

Now, as well as protecting myself from sun, my habit is to wear long trousers and long sleeves to protect myself against ticks (not a problem in the UK, but in leafy Warsaw suburbs, something to be aware of from April to September). Maybe I need a healthier dose of sunshine - but how much is healthy?

Michael Holick, a vitamin D researcher at Boston University in Massachusetts, says you should expose your hands, arms and face for a quarter of the time it would take to cause reddening two to three times a week.

This is just one scientist's opinion, but this does seem reasonable - to find a balance between pit-pony pale and lobster red. So today, I ventured forth into to the midday sun* for exactly one hour, in a T-shirt and jeans, to see whether there'd be any reddening... no. No visible contrast between skin under watch strap and wrist. So 15 minutes two to three times a week might not enough for me. (Next time an experimental 90-minute dose will be required).

And just how hot and sunny was it today? At 13:00 the temperature was 31C, air humidity a mere 24%! The sky was clear, with just some small fluffy clouds here and there.

Above: looking across the fields next to our house. I have selectively desaturated the photo to get the same look and feel as Roger Deakins achieved in the Coen Brothers' film O Brother Where Art Thou; at this time each year I feel an intense urge to see it again...

* Because of daylight-saving time, the sun is directly overhead at 13:00 rather than at noon for the seven months between the last weekend of March and the last weekend of October.

This time last year:
Bike ride across rural Poland

This time five years ago:
Mazovian landmark from the air