Springy Soks

Getting my way through the old photos, here we are hitting the East of the country at the very start of spring. Low sun, fog, frost and buds. Was a great start to the post winter days.

When we went to plant some bulbs we found a hibernating frog.

I got chills, they are multiplying

So as I type this, the temperature outside is -13.3C. Normally around the January/February changing of the months it is the coldest in Warsaw. This year with the very mild winter we have had then plunging into the double figures of minus temperature has been a really huge shock. If you are ever interested in the weather in little old Warsaw then you can check it here, at the website of the technical university. It updates every 5 minutes and, being technical boffins, I am sure they are accurate.

So with all this coldness about I thought it was time to show some photos that reflected this.

Frosty trees

Frosty bits

Frosty tips

Frosty twigs

Frosty tips

ok I am running out of rhyming things - Frost

Frosting points

spikey sticky

Spiken and Lichen

Everything will be all white

Setting sun

All blue

Will it be the end of winter?

And now for something completely different.

I know this blog is supposed to be about Warsaw and I do tend to get distracted often, sorry, but once again I am going to get a little off track again.

Since being in Warsaw I have been able to read more, take more photos (of different things), eat a wide variety of things as well as smell, see, hear and feel differently. One thing that has happened due to all this cerebral, some would say cereal if referring to my brains, excitement and stimulation is that I have been a little more creative. Not so much with photography which would be the most obvious of things, either that or cooking I guess. No, it has been more in "artistic" ways. I have tried to paint, and please let me emphasise the word try here. I have also taken my free time between classes to try my hand, quite literally, to writing. I have written a short children's story about a fictional creature that created the Germanic Umlaut. I will release that to the world at a later date when I can figure out a good way to illustrate it. As let's face it children's books are doubled in fun with pictures!

The one story I have finished, apart from the editing process, is called Mr. Frost; here is a brief extract:

" “The weather had been sub zero but not to that extent”, many had thought. It had been the constant topic of conversation at The Peak and Trough. Many in there were talking of this the coldest winter, where the owner/barman and ex-Athletic goalkeeper from ages sixteen to fiftysix, listened to his clients. From his job and his long time living in the town, he had accumulated a lot of knowledge and information. This latest gossip and conversation was certainly making him grin.

“What d’ya make of it all Keep?” As a bar keeper and goal keeper the nickname had been sure to stick, where as his real name, Gary Winterbottom, was probably more apt to the current weather that the town had been experiencing.

“This world moves in mysterious ways”, he would reply being as non-comical as possible. Of course, Keep had his own suspicions, suspicions which would later turn out to be correct. However, it not being his nature to really divulge his thoughts on many such topics, he would keep retain these thoughts for his own pleasure. It has been honestly hard to get him to talk about idle gossip unless of course it was about football or beer. The only things he voiced his opinion on and normally with strong authority and passion. "

Ok, so I won't be winning a pulitzer prize, nor any prize at all. But what I thought I would do is let you all know about it. It's nearly finished from the first edit and I thought if any of you actually wanted to read it then just send me an email (garfy_masters@hotmail.com) to let me know. Then I can send it through and you can give me some feedback, it would be nice. Marty thinks it is a fun story, but then again, she has to say that!

Do you think living away from home makes you more creative? Leah Hyslop does here. Kind of makes you wonder how is best to stimulate the ol' noggin. Any ideas will be taken on board :)

There's no business, like snow business

Well,with the weather outside making polar bears shiver and hide in fear of frost bite, it gives me a great chance to try and catch up on some of last year's happenings.

Time to go back to the old days in Autumn when we were working on our larder. Ok, maybe not a larder, but more a cellar. It was more about liqueurs than long term foods. So previously, you saw apple and pear liqueurs and the last real Autumnal post was about the frosts kicking off in Sokolka.

So first things first was to harvest.
After the frost, the grapes have a nice sweetness as well as some more complex tannins.We had to harvest before Hagus the grape eating dog got to them.Ok, it is getting heavy now.But I will need some help to get it into the box from here.So then we have a box full of fresh Sokolka grapes.
So we get home and remove the grapes from the bunches and start the mashing.
We keep mashing.......Till we can mash no more!
This pulp then gets mixed with equal measures of vodka and brandy and a small amount of brown sugar dissolved in warm water. It was then set aside in a large preserving jar to sit and release its flavours. It was shaken at least once a week and kept in the dark. The next post will follow this.

Also on the same grape harvesting day, we attacked the remaining plums. As you can see, the trees have lost all of their leaves due to the intense cold snap. So this meant that the plums were much easier to see!
They just hung around waiting to get picked.
Collecting plums must be fun according to the glee on Marty's face anyway.So upon the return to Warsaw, I washed the plums.
Then removed their stones
and cut them in quarters
Next I put them into a small pot and added a cup of brown sugar, as they were a little tarty.
Then after about 3 hours of simmering them, enough to remove lots of excess water and make it quite thick, I was able to bottle it, or is that jar it?

I must admit that this plum jam, or sliwkowy dzem as it is in Polish, is untried. I am thinking we will crack it open sometime around my birthday. A vintage dzem!

More of the Autumn

So as you saw Autumn was smaller for me this year rather than last. It didn't involve me travelling a crazy amount, nor did it involve the many colour changes that I had the chance to snap in 2008. I really should have been better at it. But alas that was not the case. Part of the reason was a rather abrupt and rather vicious, in my eyes, cold snap.It came in the middle of Autumn, ruining the beautiful leaves on many trees as the more delicate of them decided to drop their leaves ASAP to enable them to continue to survive.
The moss continued to grow though as it was rather damp, and then, later it was warm again. So the lichens were wild and crazy around the place.There was plenty of rain to keep the grasses growing though, so I am sure it would be a great time for the dairy farmers.

Hence forth, I will endeavour to do this, however, I was able to do some other things.

In Sokolka, we had the chance to pick wild fruits for the making of whatever our hearts desired. One other great thing about this was that there was quite a heavy frost. This frost makes the fruit extra sweet and means that anything you want to do with them in the future now allows you to use less sugar.
Next will be what we took from the wild fruit trees. Also of course the end results.