Friday, November 26, 2010

321/365: Fog factory

321/365: Fog factory
321/365: Fog factory, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
November 17th

The chimneys of the EC-3 Power Plant in the background (one of four in Lodz), in the foreground, a factory due to be torn down.

Two other photos from that dreary day:

Stripes

Fence

320/365: My new bedroom

320/365: My new bedroom
320/365: My new bedroom, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
November 15th

Up on the mezzanine. I still need to find a chest of drawers to hold my clothes. But this is something I had wanted to do ever since I moved in here. With the ceilings being approximately 3,50 m high, and myself standing approximately 1,56 m small, well, ample room for two levels. Of course, taller people cannot enter. :P If it weren't up high, it would be a hobbit's bedroom.

319/365: I love Lodz

319/365: I love Lodz
319/365: I love Lodz, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
November 15th

That's what I used to do before I had a full-time job...walk around town and take pictures! I remember now. I should do that again, since I'm not working anymore.

Walls are paintings


Północna street

318/365: Evening at Kasia's

318/365: Evening at Kasia's
318/365: Evening at Kasia's, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
November 14th

Flo, Kasia (with Findus), Olga, and Tytus.

317/365: Sleepy

317/365: Sleepy
317/365: Sleepy, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
November 13th

My mattress is standing upright while my room is being redone- I sleep on the couch, but Zulka perches right on top of the spring-and-foam monolith.

Zulka

316/365: Dinner at home

316/365: Dinner at home
316/365: Dinner at home, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
November 12th

With a guest, as usual.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

315/365: The fields

315/365: The fields
315/365: The fields, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
November 11th

A walk with Guinness, my parents' dog, in the fields behind their neighbourhood.

A gust of wind

Flowers

In the tall grass

More here .

314/365: Self portrait with family dog

314/365: Self portrait with family dog

November 10th

Last minute photo. Guinness is feeling lonely because mum is in London...

313/365: Winogrona

313/365: Winogrona
313/365: Winogrona, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

November 9th

Winogrona means grapes, and this is a vine growing on my parents' house, all nice and golden for autumn.

312/365: Rainy day

312/365: Rainy day
312/365: Rainy day, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

November 8th

Visiting at my parents' house. It rained.

311/365: Laundry

311/365: Laundry
311/365: Laundry, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

November 7th

And four years ago: Zielona 46.

This building was the first that caught my eye when I moved to this neighbourhood in late 2006. It used to be a laundry, the sign says, but now it's largely abandoned.

310/365: Buy five beers, get a book free.

310/365: Buy five beers, get a book free.

November 6th

No, really.

The weirdest special offer I've ever seen. And it's on one of the drunkest streets in the area (on which I've seen drunks falling asleep standing up, drunks sitting in the middle of the street while cars honk, drunks crawling (sic!) to the corner shop for another hit. I have to wonder what the books are, and whether the drunks read them, or burn them in their stoves.)

309/365: Fabryczna train station

309/365: Fabryczna train station

November 5th

Taking a shortcut behind the tracks to the electric plant. Łódź Fabryczna means Factory Lodz, and it is the main station for the city. Built in 1865, by allowance of the tsar Alexander II, it was to join Łódź to Koluszki and the Warsaw-Vienna railway, originally as an industrial transport route. Passengers began riding in 1866. The depot was designed by one Adolf Schimmelpfennig.

308/365:Yeah...well...you know.

308/365:Yeah...well...you know.
November 4th

THESE WRAP PARTIES NEVER END people won't you just go home already

307/365:Sleeping together

307/365:Sleeping together
307/365:Sleeping together, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
November 3rd

Radesh and Zulka. 'Nuff said.

But it's never safe...

Murderous thoughts

306/365: Another goodbye party

November 2nd

This one was for...oh, pretty much everybody. The departures are staggered so every other night is drinking goodbye night. (hence this is a phone photo, as I have mentioned before that I do not take my camera when I plan to drink. Basic caution.)Exhausting.

To clarify: I work with a lot of imported folks, and now that the project we were on is ending, they are all going home.

Friday, November 19, 2010

305/365: All Saints' Day

305/365: All Saints' Day

305/365: All Saints' Day, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
November 1st

All Saints' Day. A very important holiday in Poland. Instead of Hallowe'en, we celebrate a solemn remembrance of those who passed. It is around this day that the cemeteries are full of people, and flowers, and candles. Some people will never visit a family grave save for that one day, so it is very important to make it special. People will spend hundreds of zloties on decorating and lighting the tombstones.

All Saints' Day

Also, unusually, many cemeteries stay open all night. This photo was taken late at night at the Doły Cemetery in Łódź, which dates back to 1896 and holds catholic, lutheran, orthodox , baptist, pentecostal, muslim, mariavite, military and non-denominational graves. It is one of Lodz's largest necropoliae, and oddly enough, straddles a street called Smutna- which means 'sad'.

All Saints' Day

All of the lights you see in these pictures are candles. There was at least one on every grave.

All Saints' Day

I don't have any family there- I went to Warsaw early in the morning and visited my paternal grandparents' grave. We do it every year.

My grandparents' grave

304/365: Fashion Week

304/365: Fashion Week

304/365: Fashion Week, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
October 31

Sponsored by ŁKS football club. ;) Ah, those fans with their spraycans...

Here's another sign of their presence, the ŁKS flag:

Flag

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

303/365: Lay low

303/365: Lay low

303/365: Lay low, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
October 30th

The forest is dripping with gold. Yesterday, I walked through it and a doe ran past me. I didn't have my camera, of course, but it wouldn't have mattered. She was fast, limber, and vanished like a dream.

Curly leaves

Sunlight in the forest

Look up, again

Shadows

Liście

The forest

302/365: Safety first

302/365: Safety first

302/365: Safety first, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
October 29th

This is part of a sign painted on the wall at work. The space we were in used to be a large textile factory, and in the heydays of the People's Republic, motivational slogans were a favourite form of expression for the authorities and their pencil-pushing minions. This large mural proclaims the wonders of portable fire extinguishers, and warns factory workers against carelessness, which can lead to the loss of "our common goods". Because everything was common in the Eastern Bloc of the sixties.

A few more images from work...

No work


The sign (sin addendum) was supposed to hang in the main hallway and prohibit using spray paint in that area, but the art department decided it fit better in their workshop.

To explain, 'Bez pracy nie ma kołaczy' is a Polish proverb meaning, literally: without work, there will be no bread. Kołacz is an archaic, disused word for a loaf of bread; more precisely: a large, flat, egg-based loaf which the ancient Slavs used in their pagan rituals. The word is derived from 'koło', which means 'wheel', and refers to the round shape of the bread. Nowadays, we would only use it to describe a ceremonial loaf, such as one used at a wedding or other important feast.

Poppies

And those are just fake poppies scavenged from the art department, sitting on the windowsill of the riggers' corner.

301/365: I don't know why this plant died

October 28th

Maybe it was the stegosaur?

300/365: Behind the wall

300/365: Behind the wall

300/365: Behind the wall, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
October 27th

As I walked to work this morning, the cemetery was full of ghosts.

The road to work

Later that day, we took a walk on the other side of the wall.

Cemetery gate

Want to see?

The Mania Cemetery

A blanket of leaves

Rest in peace

Autumn at the cemetery

Candles

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...