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:

28/365:In the forest

28/365:In the forest, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 28th

Never ever use your built-in flash, they say. Well, I say otherwise.

I went to the forest again. Of course, there was no sunshine, but at least the temperature was just right. And it was snowing. My goodness, how it was snowing. Well, you can see for yourself in the photo. I was trying to get the falling snow with my flash without making the picture look cheap- I think I managed. I'm very happy with this shot, and pretty much all of the others, even if I didn't manage to get a good picture of the family of boars.

With all the snow walking I've been doing recently I'm seriously considering buying some snowshoes. Of course the problem is winters are unreliable- one year we're up to our necks in the stuff, the next it's all mud. Who knows if I'd ever use them again? But they would certainly come in handy. I had snow up to my knees more than once today.

24/365: Goodnight, forest

24/365: Goodnight, forest, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 24th

The Łagiewnicki forest is named after the XIth century settlement of Łagiewniki which supplied the nearby court in Zgierz with vessels of wood, clay and hide. Such a bowl or flagon was called 'łagiew' and the craftsman who made it a 'łagiewnik'. Hence the name.

Today the forest is a natural preserve covering almost three thousand acres. Almost half of it is composed of oak trees- a good twenty percent is birch, which you can see in the photo.

It is a lovely place to visit at any time of year. Unfortunately it's very cold right now, so cold that when I got off the bus I almost wanted to get right back on it again. Which means I was a bit careless with my photos. The thing is, when you've got a long walk ahead before you get out of the woods, night is falling quickly and your fingers are frozen stiff, you really don't feel like messing with the tripod and the f-stops.

I think I will try putting on more clothes sometime this week and going back for another shot.