Saturday, May 22, 2010

Friday, May 21, 2010

140/365: Trellis

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

May 20th

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

Thursday, May 20, 2010

139/365: Pinwheels because I'm tired

139/365: Pinwheels because I'm tired

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.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

138/365: Sprout!

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.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

137/365: Disappointment

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.

Monday, May 17, 2010

136/365: Guinness

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:

Buttercup

An eye of blue

In the fields

Guinness

White tree

Snail in forget-me-nots

Armchair

Dandelions

Growing

Carpeted wall

Forget-me-nots

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Saturday, May 15, 2010

134/365: Bean plant

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.

Friday, May 14, 2010

133/365: Broken branch

132/365: 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...

Thursday, May 13, 2010

132/365: Dinner

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.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

131/365: Lily of the Valley

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.

Monday, May 10, 2010

130/365: On the way home

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.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

129/365: Three trees

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.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

128/365: A pond full of tadpoles

128/365: A pond full of tadpoles
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...

Upside down forest


The artificial lake in Arturówek:

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.

Chapels in Łagiewniki


And here are the twins:

The twins

127/365: Evening games

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.

Friday, May 7, 2010

126/365: The factory

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.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

125/365: Dandelions in the garden of Isengard

125/365: Dandelions in the garden of Isengard
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.

Revolutionaries

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".

Monument in Zdrowie park

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

124/365: Ślimak, ślimak...

124/365: Ślimak, ślimak...

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.

Monday, May 3, 2010

122/365: I wanna dance with somebody

122/365: I wanna dance with somebody

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.



Billy Jean

I want to break free

Like a Virgin

Wannabe

Bear Pit Karaoke

You Spin Me Round

Sweet Child O' Mine

Saturday, May 1, 2010

121/365: The Radomes

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.

You go girl

The NSA Field Station

All out of shape

Document shredders

The radomes

Elevator shaft

A green place

More photos in the Flickr Set.
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