141/365: Morning forest

141/365: Morning forest, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 21st

On my way to work, early in the morning.

140/365: Trellis

140/365: Trellis, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 20th

Look at my bean plant! Look how it's growing!

139/365: Pinwheels because I'm tired

139/365: Pinwheels because I'm tired, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 19th

And I can't publish any photos I might take at work.

I got these pinwheels at the fair accompanying St. Wojciech's Feast. I have 20 pinwheels in my room so far and buy a new one whenever I get the chance. Love them.

138/365: Sprout!

138/365: Sprout!, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 18th

And here's the famous bean plant again. Like I said, lots of work leaves little time for pictures.

137/365: Disappointment

137/365: Disappointment, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 17th

I went to see Robin Hood and didn't like it at all, so here's a picture of my sock.

136/365: Guinness

136/365: Guinness, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 16th

Walking with Guinness is especially fun in the spring when we don't freeze to death. I like snow a lot but I like tall grass even better.

Other things I saw on the walk:

135/365: Radesh plays

135/365: Radesh plays, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 15th

The cat in question, in my mother's kitchen, playing for his dinner.

134/365: Bean plant

134/365: Bean plant, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 14th

I am growing a bean plant as a substitute for my cat who is away on holiday at my parents' house.

133/365: Broken branch

133/365: Broken branch, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 13th

From all the construction. Yay for smooth road, boo for hurt tree...

132/365: Dinner

132/365: Dinner, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 12th

It's been a while since I did a last-minute shot. I'm afraid there will be a lot of them in the next weeks. I have a steady job (sic!) which doesn't leave much time for photo excursions.

131/365: Lily of the Valley

131/365: Lily of the Valley, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 11th

Lily of the little jam-jar on my desk. This is my favourite flower.

130/365: On the way home

130/365: On the way home, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 10th

One of the best things about my new job is that the easiest way to get there and back is to ride through the biggest park in Lodz, formerly a forest- and in most places, still as wild and natural as it once was. I see such pretty things on my way to work.

129/365: Three trees

129/365: Three trees, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 9th

Spring is lovely in Poland. I missed it last year, and the year before, I'm very happy to be home this time.

128/365: A pond full of tadpoles

128/365: A pond full of tadpoles, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 8th

It was sunny and wonderful today, so we went on a spontaneous bike ride to the forest in Łagiewniki. I wrote about this forest before on my blog, but that was in winter.

This pond is just beyond the forester's house. It was very quiet and still, but I bet there was lots going on under the surface.

More photos: one of the larger ponds...

The artificial lake in Arturówek:

The chapels of St. Roch (background) and St. Anthony. It is said that in 1675 Saint Anthony himself appeared before a humble local carpenter and asked him to build him a chapel.

And here are the twins:

127/365: Evening games

127/365: Evening games, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 7th

Marta is covering her ears because Konrad is about to put his knife through a can of fudge. We wanted to spread it on the wafers we were eating as we played a game, which for lack of imagination we call 'post-it notes'. The idea is you write the name of a famous individual on a piece of adhesive notepaper and stick it onto your neighbour's forehead; they must then ask the group questions to figure out who they are. Only yes and no answers are allowed. If you get a yes, you ask another question, if you get a no, the next person gets a turn. And it is much more entertaining when everyone's had a bit to drink.

I believe in this round we had Lady Di, Gorbatschov, and John Paul II.

126/365: The factory

126/365: The factory, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 6th

This is where I work. No, I didn't get a job on the production line- this building used to be a textile mill, but now only a fraction of that enterprise is left. Now the space is rented out to a bunch of different companies- among them a stocking factory, a gravestone workshop, a gym, and the film studio I work at.

125/365: Dandelions in the garden of Isengard

125/365: Dandelions in the garden of Isengard, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 5th

Okay, not really- it's a monument from the seventies. This part of Poland used to lie under tzarist Russia and this field was where they buried the revolutionaries executed between 1905 and 1907 .

The monument has an interesting history. It was erected in the early 1970s to replace a different monument to the Revolutionaries dating back to 1923- that one had been destroyed by the invading Germans in 1939. Since then the pillar has been modified to replace the Soviet soldiers sculpted at its base with proletarian workers. Guns were turned into hammers, helmets into haircuts. This was meant to restore the sculpture's original meaning.

The author of the changes was the same artist who designed the monument in the first place. His original design was an arc, a rainbow- but soon after construction began the site was visited by a delegate from the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The official reviewed the plans and declared that the design must be changed.

Why?

Because "the socialist ideal ever rises, but never falls".

124/365: Ślimak, ślimak...

124/365: Ślimak, ślimak..., originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 4th

Ślimak, Ślimak, pokaż rogi,
Dam Ci sera na pierogi.

A Polish nursery rhyme, imploring the snail to show his stalks and promising him cheese in exchange- cheese which he may then stuff into pierogies. Obviously this particular gastropod was not hungry.

123/365: A failed relationship

123/365: A failed relationship, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 3rd

They tried, but it just didn't work.

122/365: I wanna dance with somebody

122/365: I wanna dance with somebody, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 2nd

There is a place in Berlin called the Mauerpark, a bit of green on what used to be the Death Strip just by the infamous Wall. There is a flea market there today, and music, and song, and waffles and beer. There are performers, picnics, swings, a stadium, and just by what is left of the Wall, a little stone amphitheatre which is host, every Sunday, to the Bear Pit Karaoke.

As my German friend linlen aptly put it, spending an afternoon in the park was like walking into a perfect Nokia commercial. An impromptu gathering of people of all races, ages and backgrounds dancing and singing together, with a crowd of hundreds to cheer them on no matter the quality of their performance. Magical.

121/365: The Radomes

121/365: The Radomes, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 1st

And we're in Berlin! Courtesy of wonderful people who work with me I got to see the abandoned NSA listening station on top of the Teufelsberg. This impressive elevation (called the Devil's Hill) is nothing but a mound of 12 million cubic meters of WW2 rubble piled on the carcass of an abandoned Nazi military college, overgrown with forest, and the cherry on the top is the spy station which the Americans used to eavesdrop on the Russians East of the Wall. It has been abandoned since the end of the Cold War and has suffered much decay.

You're not supposed to go there, but the three fence perimeter can't really stop the curious, and the payback in adrenaline is immense. You just need to be very careful not to injure yourself on any of the damaged construction, slide off a ladder, get lost in the creepy basement or fall into the open elevator shaft at the top of the main radome tower. Keeping all that in mind it is well worth the climb as the echo in the main dome is so strong, even your own breath is reiterated.

An unbelievable place.

More photos in the Flickr Set.