Many Ways to "Skin the Cat"

One of the lessons one learns when traveling is that there is more than one way to solve or deal with a problem. In the middle of this picture one can see a spire. This is the top of the "Palace" that Stalin ordered built in Warsaw. Every Polish person has an opinion about what should be done with this building. At the time of freedom in 1989 there was a great bit of sentiment favoring knocking it down. The more recent strategy, however, seems to be building around it and soon no one will be able to see it. This strategy seems to be favored by the under 25s that I know, and one that appeals to what I call the "wicked" Polish sense of humor, -- and I mean that all very respectfully.

Still Looking for the Sun

November is the gloomy month in Minnesota. Pictures have sun! This is one of the granaries in Torun. The building is now used by the university there. This park is between the Rynek and a busy street where the buses and trams stop.

Green rather than Gray

It is November, and that means gray, gloomy days. Today was a cloudy day so even the sky is gray. Time to remember other colors. Upon arriving at Reymontowka last summer, I noticed buildings up the road that weren't there in 2007. In 11 months a barn for horses and a home for a stablemaster had been constructed. The horses were enjoying a cool summer evening. Now, I wonder what I'll find different next summer.

Planning Adventures

I've made all my hotel reservations for Summer 2009 in Poland. I intend to fly into Warsaw on June 24 and have reservations to stay at the Boutique Bed and Breakfast on ul. Smolna. I made this reservations by e-mail during the past 12 hours. What would we do without e-mail?

I'll have my same room back. Here's a photo of it.

Adventures with the Computer

Oh, it's been one of those times. Suddenly I couldn't access my personal e-mail account from my home computer. I could do anything else on the net, and I could access my personal e-mail from other computers. I tried rebooting the modem. That didn't work. I tried emptying out the cache, that didn't help. So I called Comcast, and the technician helped me really clean out the cache. Now no internet memoray. I've been very bad at book marking sites I use all the time, just scroll down and there they are. Now I've got to reconstruct all this again, but at least my e-mail works again.

A Real Adventure

Still working on editing pictues from my summer trip in Poland. I have called this a "real' adventure because these are the colors of that July evening, not a Photoshop invention. We were watching a kids' program at language camp when I saw the color of the sunset. I excused myself saying this was simply too good to miss.

The house is just up the road from Reymontowka. For me it is a special house because I watched its building progress from between 2004 to 2007. My team members in 2007 were all new to Reymontowka and couldn't/didn't share in my delight in seeing it all done. Seeing the changes over time is one of the things I've enjoyed during my various trips to Poland.

Photography Adventures with the Stork

The change of seasons made me think of the storks I saw this summer in Poland during my stay at Reymontowka. I imagine the stork is now enjoying warm weather somewhere in Africa. At Reymontowka, there is a nest board on the historic cottage. Of course, the storks decided instead to build their nest on one of the lodging buildings. I could not believe it, when the first time I was being driven to Reymontowka, I heard there were storks in the area. Since then I have seen them in the fields many times, as well on chimneys at nearby farms.

This summer gave our best view when a pair decided to nest at Reymontowka. I watched for days and days following advice to up and about at 6:30 AM. Then while doing a teaching activity my students on the patio, I suddenly got this view of the stork instead in the mid-morning. The approach of winter is a good time to begin to relive summer memories. I'll be back in 7.5 months -- not that I'm counting.