"An oddly comforting place"

This week's Economist namechecks the power station from which we get our electricity and which is supplied with coal by the trains that rumble past Jeziorki. The full article is here.

"Poland gets over 90% of its electricity from coal. The giant Siekierki power station in Warsaw provides electricity and heating to two-thirds of the Polish capital each winter. A mountain of coal next to its turbine hall holds 180,000 tonnes, enough for 18 days’ winter production. Ignore climate change, and it is an oddly comforting place. Almost all the coal is Polish, and more arrives on trains from Silesia every day. On an autumn afternoon, the only smells are of fallen leaves and the sweet tang of fresh coal. The only noise comes from a bulldozer smoothing the coal-mound and the cawing of rooks. Its three chimneys run clear: you cannot see the carbon dioxide pouring into the sky."

So Siekierki burns 10,000 tonnes of coal a day in winter - that's four trains' worth (each one hauling 40 wagons, each wagon containing over 60 tonnes of coal). Top: PCC Rail 311D-18 hauling a rake of 40 empty Dumpcar wagons back to the sidings at Okęcie. Note to the right, a technical railcar (drezyna in Polish) heading south down the main line towards Radom. Below, the same railcar approaching the pedestrian rail crossing at ul. Kórnicka.

The short-term future of suburban development

Above: ul. Zlota running east from Nowy Podolszyn becomes ul. Raszyńska running west from Zgorzała. To the left of the picture - Zamienie, and in the distance, the new housing estate that's getting closer to completion. The dusty track has been turned into a quagmire further down by all the construction plant moving on and off site.

Above: The western fringes of the same housing development. When will the fields to the left of the picture fill up with houses? It may take a while. As the credit crunch sweeps eastwards, Poland's banks are tightening their home loan lending criteria (tight enough as they were, thank you!). And developers (especially the smaller ones) will find it harder to find cash for new developments. Falling house prices will keep potential owners hanging on, waiting for a better deal. And traffic jams on all the major arteries into town will act as a disincentive to those contemplating a move to the outer suburbs. All in all, after a few years of hectic development around these parts, I predict a slowdown.

Above: The way I prefer it. Single house development, not estates, each one different. The above house, in Nowy Podolszyn, is a modern take on the classic Polish dwór (manor-house) style.

Embarrassment of abundance

This summer has been amazingly abundant in fruit and vegetables, to an economically embarrassing extent. There's so much around that supply has quite outstripped demand, causing prices to drop so low that farmers in many cases are not bothering to bring in their crop. Right: apples on ul. Kórnicka.

A common complaint among urban taxpayers regarding farmers is that they moan whatever happens; last year's late frosts decimated soft fruit production, so they moaned, this year's profusion of crops has depressed the market, so they moan, cap-in-hand to the Ministry of Agriculture, looking for 'emergency intervention'.

Below: Cabbage field between Zgorzała and Nowy Podolszyn. These fields are fast filling with development (see post above).

Below: Rose hips on ul. Kórnicka. The medicinal value of this plant is amazing! All that vitamin C plus antioxidants - I can see why the NHS was so keen to have British children drinking rose hip syrop in the 1960s!

Below: Pumpkins near Nowy Podolszyn. There seem to be more and more of these growing around here; other than a spicy pumpkin soup with coconut milk, I can't think of any appetising uses for these giant vegetables, nor do I see them in our shops. I guess they go to the food processing industry as filler for ready meals.

The weather today, as you can see, was beautiful, with a +14C maximum temperature.

This time last year:
Autumnal moods, happiness at 50

Puławska by night

Returning from work after a futile attempt to buy toner for our laser printer, I ended up waiting for a 809 bus home on ul. Puławska by the King Cross* (!) shopping centre. This bus comes once every half an hour (a reason more people don't use it?), so while waiting I took this long exposure (20 seconds at f22) photo. As the 20 seconds came to an end, a 709 bus pulled into the frame. I was interested to see the result; as you can see, the basic shot (traffic, neons) is augmented by the ghostly light of the bus and reflections of neon signs behind me. A fortuitous compostion, much better than the one I'd planned!

[*What twit named it King Cross (as opposed to King's Cross)? And was that person not aware of King's Cross's seedy reputation?]

Socialist Realism in the Boardroom

At a meeting today, I came across this painting taking pride of place in a corporate boardroom. The style is evidently Socialist Realism, the dominant state-sponsored artform of Poland's Stalinist period (late '40s - early '50s). Note the clumsily-drawn figures, the drab colours (State Oil Paint Factory Nr. 4 in Chelyabinsk skimped on pigment), the cliched theme.

After the post-Stalinist thaw, this style of art was quickly forgotten, but now it has taken on a certain trendiness. I'm amazed there isn't more socialist realist painting around, given that canvasses of this style were commissioned by the square kilometre in the post-war period by the party sponsors. Architecture and sculpture, there's lots around; the Palace of Culture of course, Plac Konstytucji and the MDM. The Socrealizm museum in Kozłówka, near Lublin, is worth a visit, for sculpture, painting, photography and posters. See also this article about Socialist Realism in Poland.

Photo taken on my Nokia N95.

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

Autumn gold, Zamienie changes

This is more like it! Weather-wise, it's such a lovely day. Fourth day in a row with clear blue skies, in the afternoon at least. Temperature +16C. We all set off en famille for a walk, when we bump into by Darek and Ewa, old friends from London with a place in North Wales, who are now on the verge of a return to Poland. Their new Warsaw house will be just up the road from us, in nearby Grabów. Above: ripening pumpkins at the far end of ul. Trombity.

The walk extended towards Zamienie, where changes are happening fast. The vaccine factory buildings have been demolished, leaving just a handful of buildings still standing, including the fire station and the admin block. The boiler house, labs and stables have all gone. Meanwhile work on the new estate to the north of Zamienie, Polne Maki, is rushing ahead, a showhouse is now open to potential customers. Above: The view from Zamienie looking west towards Zgorzała. Click on the label 'Zamienie' below to see how things were.

Well-shot pheasants

Across the tracks, just off ul. Kórnicka, I could hear some pheasants in the undergrowth. Moving towards them, they obligingly broke cover and blam blam blam blam! I potted some for your visual delectation. Above: a hen pheasant, below, a cock pheasant. Unlike our other large birds - swans, herons or storks, the pheasants do not fly south for the winter. They're not good flyers anyhow, and once out of danger, they'll glide into some nearby cover.