152/365: Children's Day

152/365: Children's Day, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

June 1st

It's children's day today. Runaway balloons all over my street!

148/365: Flowers at the Green Market

148/365: Flowers at the Green Market, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

May 28th

Tinted marguerites, and my neighbourhood beyond them.

70/365: Meat.

70/365: Meat., originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

March 11th

Your guess is as good as mine. I think it was a ham hock. What it was doing in the street at night is not clear.

I don't have any photos for March 10th- I took some, but something strange happened. I think I got confused and instead of importing them to my computer, I edited them straight from the CF card and then formatted it, not realising the photos hadn't been copied. Shame and bother. :(

54/365: Bar

54/365: Bar, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

February 23rd

There's no bar there anymore. Just the neon, which no longer works. It took me a good year to first notice it was up there, even though I walk down this street very often.

36/365: Just about midnight

36/365: Just about midnight, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

February 5th

Phone photo. Had to run out to get some necessities. What I love about this neighbourhood are the 24h shops, if you want something in the middle of the night, you got it. Alcohol, medicine, food, flowers.

12/365: The milk machine

12/365: The milk machine, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 12th

A small farm arrived at our market with a milk machine. They milk their cows, they bring the stuff over in a special fridge, and you can pay to fill a re-usable bottle. :) Fresh milk from that same morning, bypassing the big dairies and a whole lot of packaging and processing on the way. More money for the small farmer, tastier milk for me. I love it.

They invited me to visit their farm in the spring- I'm up for that. It's a nice 60 km or so round trip, perfect for biking, and I want to see the cows. :)

333/365: Snow on my windowsill

333/365: Snow on my windowsill, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

November 29th

And in just one day, we got about ten inches of snow. Lovely, lovely winter. :)

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.

225/365 Music at the market

225/365 Music at the market, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

August 13th

These musicians show up at the market near my place on most Saturdays. They play what are called courtyard songs, songs from the city streets about love, adventure, and urban legends.

I always drop a few coins in their hat. I love music in my neighbourhood, and street bands like this one have become rare.

212/365: My neighbourhood

212/365: My neighbourhood, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

July 31st

Particularly glorious in the sunshine. You can get anything you want on that corner- there's a daily market with everything from bread and eggs to beef and eggplants, there's a confectioner, a bakery, three tanning salons, six florists, a butcher shop, two pharmacies, two herbal remedy stores, two Asian take-aways, a watchmaker, a bookmaker, three 24h liquor stores, two electric supply shops, a gardening store, a fake flower shop, a scrap metal buyer, two cobblers, a photo print shop, a second-hand clothes shop, a jeans store, a discount tchotchke shop, and four or five little grocery stores which somehow still hold on despite the raging competition.

I love living here.

182/365: In the neighbourhood

182/365: In the neighbourhood, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

July 1st

I like my neighbourhood. It's like a little town in the middle of a big city. Quiet and busy all at once. I don't know what's in those bags.

117/365: Crash

117/365: Crash, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

April 27th

...and burn. I don't know what happened exactly but my flatmate who bikes this same way to work says it's been there for a few days now. It looks painful.

100/365: Mourning

100/365: Mourning, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

April 10th

Our president and close to a hundred other people were killed today when their plane crashed in Smolensk,Russia.

They were on their way to honour the 70th anniversary of the Katyń Massacre. Among them were members of Parliament, heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Special Ops , elite historians, leaders of organisations for the victims of Soviet repression, our last president in exile, the head of the Polish Olympic Committee, the head of the Rememberance Institute, the head of the National Bank...some of them were friends of my family- one, an actor, was our neighbour.

An unbelievable loss for our country. So many fine men and women lost all in one blink of an eye.

The flags are out with black ribbons to honour them. We're all in shock- this seems like the plot of a sci-fi movie, and not reality. Things like this just do not happen.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8612825.stm

96/365: Hole in the wall

96/365: Hole in the wall, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

April 6th

A hole in the wall! Is someone putting in a shop? I bet it will be a booze shop, there isn't one within ten feet of that building yet. :P

37/365: Anytime flowers

37/365: Anytime flowers, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

February 6th

Not a very good photo, not a very good day. This is a place I usually pass on my way home- the local vegetable-and-hodgepodge market, fronted by half a dozen or so flower kiosks. If you need a bouquet at two a.m. , this is where you should go. There is always at least one kiosk open all night long.

22/365: Angry icicles

22/365: Angry icicles, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 22nd

Winter is dangerous in the city. The sunshine (which we hadn't seen yet this year) doesn't help, it just melts the snow and ice on top of the roofs and it all comes sliding down on the passers-by...

This post is late because I couldn't make up my mind which photo to post. The sun came out today for the first time in weeks and though I didn't have the time to go to the park, the city is a wonderful subject, too. Here are a few more pictures I took on my very brief walk today:

9/365: You can't eat here

9/365: You can't eat here, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 9th

An abandoned oriental bar down the street. It's the most colourful building on that block, despite being boarded up and condemned.