For God, family & country!

It’s unusual to find a moment in time when such a shout would seem appropriate but the occasion, last weekend, of babcia’s 95th birthday party was one of them. For God, it all kicked off with a church service. Despite being a big church the congregation had overflowed and it was standing room outside only.  …

Easter 2018

We now bask in the calm that comes after the hurricane that is the Easter feast. We had enough to feed the five thousand but there were just seven people and a week-old baby boy (Kostek). Approximate distribution was: 25% eaten, 25% taken home by guests, 20% wasted, 30% put back in the fridge. The …

Tale of Christmas

The carrot and star anise puree was behaving more like an indoor firework than a vegetable dish to accompany the mandatory brussels sprouts. It had taken a long time to heat up because it was focusing all the heat I gave it on the core of the gloop where it was attempting nuclear fusion. A …

Kurki – chanterelle mushrooms

Kurka (plural – kurki) is the common name given in Poland to the Pieprznik Jadalny, or in English (etc) the Chanterelle mushroom. You won’t see Pieprznik Jadalny used in any restaurant to describe them but this time of year you will see a whole lot of kurki – unfortunately! That last word will have 99.97% of …

End of school – year 4

Hard to believe Zosia will be in 5th class come September, the penultimate class in this school after which she moves on to a Gymnasium followed by a Lyceum and then perhaps college. She has done well this year, as she has in previous years, and we’ve come home from today’s ceremony clutching various certificates. …

Łowicz

By way of wishing everyone a very HAPPY EASTER here’s a long post with lots of pictures. (Pictures are way better if you click on them, by the way) In September 2009 a guy called Radek commented on a post where I was complaining that Warsaw is poorly situated in terms of options for a …

A fresh approach to recycling

We have a communal trash collection area up by the entrance gate. It’s a sort of extension to the blind security guy’s cabin but whilst the insecurity guys live inside Strangely Park the rubbish lives outside because it’s smelly and because the garbage collectors need to get at it without having to negotiate for an …