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.

285/365:Hiding from the wraith

285/365:Hiding from the wraith, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

October 12th

A walk around the old stocking factory leads to an overgrown path, and the Bałutka river...the day is sunshine but there are things hiding in the shadows.

(it was a lot sunnier back in the field)

255/365 Hats

255/365 Hats, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

September 12th

Because it was Sunday, and it had rained a lot, and it is the season for mushrooms, my flatmate and I decided to go to the forest to engage in that well established traditional Slavic pastime, mushroom hunting.

Alas we were too cavalier about the whole enterprise and thus left too late, without any baskets, got lost along the way and finally decided that exploring the lush Rąbień forest was more fun than actually looking for edible funghi. We did see many families with full baskets, though.

But when you go to the woods this autumn, even if you are not harvesting, you should keep your eyes open and look low to the undergrowth.

Because there is so much more to a forest than mushrooms...

Of course, if you do not find any edible mushrooms, you can still admire the less desirable ones.

And then, when you least expect it, you may stumble upon a forest ghost story.

In conclusion, mushroom hunting definitely deserves its high rank among treasured autumn activities.

Even if your harvest is nothing worth bragging about.

185/365: Bzzz

185/365: Bzzz, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

July 4th

A beautiful summer day in my parents' garden, and so many creatures about if you just pay attention.

52/365: Green and Black's

52/365: Green and Black's, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

February 21st

My cousin is visiting from London and she brought me a box of tiny little Green&Black's chocolate bars. Organic, Fair Trade, delicious.

Following are other pictures of delicious chocolate. I apologise to those of you who gave up sweets for Lent. I haven't- my fourty-day fast comprises only procrastination.
And yet despite this noble goal I haven't given you any interesting stories recently. Project 365 is fantastic, but not without its hurdles, and there are periods of time when you just don't feel like making any extra effort beyond taking the picture and uploading it to the site. I wish this blog was popular enough to make such a casual attitude inappropriate, but I know so far no one really minds if I lapse.  The other problem is that my knee still hurts. I'm getting an x-ray done tomorrow, but until I know what's wrong I'm not going to go running around looking for photo opportunities. Sorry. ;)

Let's have a few random facts about chocolate, since that's the photo subject. The stuff first came to Europe with Christopher Columbus towards the end of the XVth century. In 1737, Linnaeus gave the cocoa plant the name 'Theobroma cacao'. Theobroma is greek for 'beverage of the gods'.

The word 'chocolate', however, comes from the Aztec language called Nahuatl. The word is xocolatl, and means bitter water.

The first chocolate bar was produced in England in 1846 by a certain mr. Joseph Fry. In 1875, milk chocolate was first created in Switzerland by mr Daniel Peter, who cleverly thought to use condensed milk invented by a certain Henri Nestle.

The average Pole eats about 3.6 kilos of chocolate yearly, which is not much compared to the 12 kg/annum consumed by the average citizen of Switzerland.

And that's all for tonight. :)

48/365: Pencils

48/365: Pencils, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

February 17th

Today wasn't the day for photos. Here's some pencils. A cop-out picture which I've been guilty of before: