Michalczew, and its mysterious church

The Church of the Holy Family, Michalczew, halfway between Chynów and Warka. The shape, the setting, the surroundings... are moft unusual. Note the painting of Jesus in the foreground; He is looking up at the Holy Grail, floating in a beam of light from the heavens. [Click to enlarge, then right-click to open image in new tab, then click again to enlarge further for detail.]

An unusual structure that has long piqued my curiosity, I visited it on Sunday afternoon. The gates surrounding the church were all shut fast, the grounds deserted. Clearly not your average Mazovian place of worship. What secrets hide under the Cone and Cross? (It looks like it's lifting off, leaving a trail of bubbles behind it...)

It transpires that indeed there is a mystery – and it's a dark one.

Father Tadeusz Stokowski was parish priest in Michalczew since October 1957. Born in Łowicz in 1923, Tadeusz Stokowski received Holy Orders in 1955, and was assigned to create a rural parish for the nine villages between the existing parish boundaries of Warka and Chynów. Despite a significant number of faithful, the communist authorities blocked the construction of a proper parish church for over 30 years, so Holy Masses were held in a makeshift wooden hut. Permission was finally given in 1978 after the election of Cardinal Wojtyła as Pope led to a thaw in relations between communist state and Catholic church.

Designed by Fr Stokowski, the church was built by parishioners with their own efforts during the materially challenged years of the late communist era. The parish church finally opened in 1982. Built on raised ground to resemble the Jasna Góra monastery in Częstochowa, the building has two levels, ramps leading to the upper one; each level has its own altar; there's also an altar in the grounds, along with statues at all the Stations of the Cross in the grounds. 

******

On the morning of Sunday 3 June 1990, parishioners were gathering for the Confirmation ceremony of local teenagers. The church had been specially decorated for the occasion. A bishop from the Warsaw diocese had just arrived – but where was Fr Stokowski? 

People started to search. Within minutes, inside the presbytery, across the road from the church, they discovered the dead body of his housekeeper, Marzanna Kubiak, 59, lying in a pool of blood. And no sign of  the parish priest. The search widened, but Fr Stokowski was nowhere to be seen. The Mass went ahead, officiated by the bishop, but without the Confirmation.

That afternoon (according to one account, according to another, three days later), while feeding the flock of sheep that Fr Stokowski kept in a barn behind the presbytery, neighbours found his dead body under a pile of hay. The police determined that he had been strangled.

Money and commemorative coins were found lying around on the floor; there was no sign of anything stolen from the presbytery. Nor were there any signs of a break-in; the housekeeper seems to have let in the murderers. Fingerprints were taken, but despite extensive efforts to find the killer or killers, no suspect has ever been arrested. And so – a mystery endures.

I should like to return to Michalczew to see the interior(s) of the church, though without camera, using only my phone to take photos. Is there a clue in the church decorations?

This time last year:
Spring explodes in Jakubowizna

This time seven years ago:
Litter makes me bitter

This time ten years ago:
Lent's over - now what?

This time 11 years ago:
Completely in the dark

This time 12 years ago:
Ruch Palikota - a descent into populism

This time 13 years ago:
I cross two unfinished bridges

This time 14 years ago:
What's the Polish for 'grumpy'?

This time 15 years ago:
Do not take this road!

This time 15 years ago:
Seated peacock, Łazienki Park

This time 17 years ago:
Spirit of place: 1930s Kentucky - or Jeziorki?

April, a treacherous month

T.S. Eliot's "cruellest month"; Chaucer's bringer of "showres swoot", April is usually dodgy. In Polish, kwiecień plecień, bo przeplata trochę zimy, trochę lata, means "April's the braider, because it braids a little winter with a little summer." That intertwining of seasons can be treacherous. For the farmer, a late frost following hot sunny days can have a drastic effect on crops. 

I planted some field corn last weekend, against the advice of the website of the Virginia State University's College of Agriculture. "Plant corn at the end of April" it said. "Hah!" I laughed. "That advice evidently pre-dates global warming!" Having had over a week of hot (one-layer) weather, I judged that the time was ripe to till the land, water the soil and plant a few rows of corn seeds. And then, the weather turned. Cold rain, cold winds, overnight frosts, day after day, right on into next week, with a low of -2C forecast for Monday night. From one layer to four. My parka, which I was about to store for the summer, is back in use, hood up. I don't know whether the corn will germinate, or will I have to replant in a week's time.

Meanwhile, the cherry and apple blossom for which this district is famous, has passed its peak; the dandelions have gone to seed, and the vegetation, advanced by about three weeks compared to last year, is having to cope with unseasonal cold. A light hail shower accompanied me on the start of my walk this morning. Below: out of the woods, towards Machcin II.

Below: the unasphalted track between Machcin II and Dąbrowa Duża. Little by little, these stretches are being surfaced; one benefit of such investments is that apples carried in trailers towed by tractors arrive in storage unbruised by journeys over bumpy roads.

A few weeks ago, while it was still hot enough to ride my motorbike (end-March!), I noticed that the entire road surface between Widok and Marynin – all six kilometres of it – had been ripped up, awaiting new asphalt. It was laid down at the Widok end the week before last; now Barcice Rososkie (below) has brand-new blacktop. "This the road to Ittabena?"

Below: changing light, Barcice Rososkie. The fresh asphalt awaits new road-markings.

Below: a pond between Barcice Rososkie and Krężel. In the distance, a downpour is sweeping the forests between Gąski and Konary. Fortunately, I managed to avoid a soaking. Today's weather shows the value of the hailstone-netting that more and more orchards are protected with. None, however, are visible over the apple trees in this photo.

Below: further on up the road from Barcice Rososkie towards Piekut and Krężel beyond. Some rare rays of light illuminate the blossom. Were this an English landscape, the white building on the corner would be the Royal George pub, pouring frothy real ales, drawn from the wood with a hand-pump, served with a platter of bread and cheese and pickle. Sadly, I covered more than 15,000 paces (12km/8 miles) on today's walk without passing even a small village store. Piekut no longer has one, Krężel never had one, nor Barcice Rososkie, nor Gaj Żelechowski, nor Dąbrowa Duża, nor Machcin, nor indeed Jakubowizna.

Back on the działka, yet another tree in the forest next door was blown over. Once again, it fell eastwards. Had the wind been blowing the other way, it would have fallen onto my land, crushing the fence (just visible at the top edge of the photo). "Aspens are brittle," remarked a tree surgeon sent by the electricity company to ensure that none would topple onto the power lines that cross my land.

The mercurial nature of April weather is brought home to me when I checked my electricity usage for the past week – it's three times higher than for the same period last year, whilst electricity produced by my photovoltaic panels last week was only two-thirds of that generated the same week last year.

Looks like the ice saints have come three weeks early this year. Despite the weather, an aesthetically rewarding walk. Music on the move today from James Brown and the JB's, Fat Wood (Pts I and II), a brisk marching tempo. (Isn't it wonderful to have moved on from fiddling with a Walkman or Discman or iPod to a smartphone where you can call up any music you want to hear from wherever you are?)

This time four years ago:
Pandemic, then drought

This time five years ago:
Lent 2019, a summing up

This time six years ago
Spring polarises into existence

This time ten years ago:
The Road to Biedronka

This time 11 years ago:
Lighter, longer lens

This time 14 years ago:
Making sense of Polish politics

Pics from Poznań

To Poznań for my third business trip of 2024. As with my two January trips to Łódź, I have been focusing on architecture, as it is a city's architecture that most impacts its klimat. Poznań's period under German rule is still visible in its older buildings. Below: Ulica Bukowski 31.

Below: ul Bukowska 32, the building next door, catching some intermittent sunlight between passing clouds. Fancier in style, some Art Nouveau decoration, recessed balconies. Overhead, planes are coming into land at Poznań's Ławica Airport (officially named after some musician or other; can't be bothered to check), which is at the far end of ul. Bukowska.

Below: built in 1902 for Adam Jeski, the sołtys (village elder) of Święty Łazarz, when it was a separate village rather than a part of central Poznań. It's falling apart now, as the developer and the city authorities can't agree as to the provision of car parking. [My view: sod the cars, install bicycle racks.]

Below: plinthed steam locomotive, standing forever outside ... an H. Cegielski Poznań-built Ty51 2-10-0 engine stands outside the Enea stadium. (For a side view, plus photos from Poznań's old town, click here.)

Left: Poznań's most iconic landmark? From the point of view of the city's visitors, it is – my first visits to the city after moving to Poland were all involved with the international trade fair (Międzynarodowe Targi Poznańskie, MTP). The tower at the eastern end of the complex dates back to 1928. The trade fair premises were used as a Focke-Wulf factory during WW2, which led to its bombing by the allies. Rebuilt after the war, MTP remains Poland's premier trade-fair venue. 

Below: Poznań's old post office; as with Szczecin, Opole, Gliwice and other cities of the former Reich, the building was meant to be imposing and project administrative efficiency to the local populace.

Below: the western end of Poznań's sprawling main station, Poland's busiest. Whilst the eastern side of the tracks is now a giant shopping mall, the original entrance to what was Poznań Zachodni station has been retained and renovated. Note the winged wheel on top. This is the Flügelrad, a symbol denoting the railway in common use across German (and then Central and Eastern) railway systems from their earliest days, regardless of operator. 

In September 2022, Poznań Główny had its platforms renumbered in the interests of clarity. Platform 1 is the easternmost; Platform 11 the westernmost. It used to be a confusing jumble (from east to west, the numbers used to run 3, 2, 1, 4, 5, 6, with Platforms 3A, 2A, 1A, 4A and 4B thrown in to make the whole thing more confusing still). Twice I missed connecting trains here, rushing for Track 4 Platform 5 rather than Track 5 Platform 4 or something like that. But still infrastructure operator PKP PLK persists in using track numbers, rather than platform-edge numbers. Below: logically, these should be Platforms 22 and 21, rather than Track (tor) 58 and 56 on Platform (peron) 11. Still confusing. Track numbers are only of value to railway workers.

Below right: the new-style digital timetables dispense with track numbers, on the basis that it's more important to guide passengers to the right platform; once there, they can work out from which track their train will depart. Below left: traditional printed timetable still tells you the platform (top) number, with the track number beneath it. The trouble is, station announcers still state the track number before the platform number. Track numbers must die. They only serve to confuse passengers. 

My trains are all on time in both directions; PKP has improved greatly over the past 26 years since I moved to Poland. The interchange at Warsaw West could be easier (it will be once the new station is completed); and punctually I'm back at Chynów. The evening sun is streaming in. It's good to be back, even after just one night away. The brief sunshine brings a touch of warmth to an otherwise chilly spell. April's like that – see next post – summer one day, winter's return the next. Last year, I also visited Poznań at this time; on my walk from the station to my hotel, it was so warm I have to take off the thin Gore-Tex cycling jacket I had on over my suit; the next morning walking from my hotel to the conference venue, I was shivering in suit and jacket and walking fast to keep warm. An overnight fall in temperature of around 20°C. This year, it was cold when I set off, so my parka rather than anything thinner!

This time last year:
The price of stuff and the cost of living

This time two years ago:
Post-Lenten photo catch-up

This time three years ago:
Qualia memories – Edwardian railways

This time eight years ago:

The great taste of Polish India Pale Ales

This time nine years ago:
Lublin – pearl of Poland's East

This time 11 years ago:
70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

This time 12 years ago:
Tarkovsky's Stalker: a zone of my own

This time 13 years ago:
Warsaw's big billboards

This time 15 years ago:
Pace of development falters

Short catch-up, photos not to be overlooked...

Although cooler, the past few days have seen the blossom continue to explode across the orchards of Chynów, the trees becoming heavier still with flower. Below: the corner of ulica Owocowa (the end of my street that's in Chynów rather than Jakubowizna).

[Update, 15 April. The dandelions are still yellow in the above photo, have already gone to seed outside my house. In this post from 2013, the dandelions are in flower on 8 May, and gone to seed by 17 May. An entire month later.]

Below: my favourite local view, with blossom – looking up from Chynów towards Nowe Grobice and its mobile-telephone antenna tower. A passing patch of sunlight moves swiftly across the land.

Looking up at the sky I saw an airliner heading north-east pass in front of the quarter moon. By the time I'd changed lenses, it had flown by, leaving a condensation trail. I snapped what I saw (below) and decided it was a good image. So I raised the camera back up towards the zenith, and snapped again (second pic below). The two images were made just six seconds apart (at 17:05.09 and 17:05.15 UTC respectively), yet look how much distance has been added between the moon and the contrail in that short space of time. Yes, it's the moon orbiting the earth, but to a greater extent it's the winds in the lower stratosphere pushing the contrail – and yet it maintains its form. (Strong vignetting appears when using Photoshop's autotone function on images taken against the sky.)

Below: heading into town on Friday through Chynów station. The 09:10 limited-stop service takes a mere 35 minutes to get to W-wa Młynów; change there to the Metro, and I can be in the office 15 minutes later. So, działka to office, door to door, is now just 1 hour and five minutes. 

A lucky bonus (below) – while changing trains at W-wa Rakowiec station, I catch this PKP ST48 goods loco/shunter passing through with a single wagon. It was going slowly enough for me to scramble up to the top of the grassy embankment, changes lenses to my 10-20mm Nikkor, and catch the whole scene.

This time last year:
My Trinity

This time two years ago:
Spirit of Place and Metaphysics

This time four years ago:
Lockdown stroll, S7 roadworks

This time five years ago:
Construction updates

This time 11 years ago:
Pigeon infestation by Dworzec Centralny

This time 14 years ago:
Magnolia in bloom, Ealing

Early blossom, Jakubowizna

A hot and early spring this year; no surprise then, that that blossom is already out, nearly three weeks earlier than last year! With perfect skies, I rushed to get all my work done before closing my laptop and going for a walk.

Below: part of my front garden (the orchard side). Forget-me-nots coming up nicely, as are the dandelions. I hope for a better apple harvest than last year.

Below: one of my two cherry trees, heavy with blossom. 

Below: stunningly beautiful under a perfectly cloudless sky, cherries blossom before apples, and fruit far earlier.

Below: my walk takes me mostly between orchards today, to make the most the visual splendour. Out through Adamów Rososki and Machcin, back through Nowe Grobice and Jakubowizna. The perfume of flowers is rich and from time to time, the scent is like walking in the wake of an elegant woman.

Below: a young apple orchard, Machcin. Note the protection around the saplings, to stop deer from nibbling at them.

Below: on the way back, the sun is starting to approach the horizon, sunlight streaming through the blossom. Adamów Rososki.

Below: local state forest, noticeably thinner for all of the logging carried out by the previous government. I expect more responsible use of natural resources now.

Below: eight minutes walk from home, another cherry orchard, Jakubowizna.

Below: field between two orchards, Jakubowizna. Bright yellow from dandelions.

Bonus shot from yesterday, when I walked from home to Krężel station, and caught a train back to Chynów from there. This is a southbound train headed for Radom Główny.

This time six years ago:
Ealing under blue skies

This time ten years ago:
Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel

This time 11 years ago:
Warsaw 1935: a 3D depiction of a city that's no longer with us

This time 12 years ago:
Cats and awareness

This time 13 years ago:
Why did this happen?

This time 16 years ago:
Britain's grey squirrels turning red

A family 'what-if' and the soul

A thought struck me in the middle of the night. My father was one of three sons; my mother was one of three daughters. The age-range between the three Dembinski boys and the three Bortnik girls was about the same as the difference between me and my brother. 

What, then, if my parents had had another child – with the statistical probability of the child being a boy – between me (born in October 1957) and Marek (born in January 1963)?

I use Bayesian inference to suggest he would also have been given a Christian name beginning with an 'M' that works reasonably well in Polish as well as in English, so a Marcin/Martin rather than a Mieczysław. As I lay awake in bed, so many questions followed. Had my parents planned for such a family – and planners they were – to replicate their own childhood family structures, how would our lives had shaped up had a Marcin been born in late 1960? 

Would a third child have prompted an earlier house move – to a bigger house in a shabbier neighbourhood maybe – or would the extra expenditure on food (clothing being passed down) delayed a house move? Would Marcin have passed his Eleven Plus exam and gone to a grammar school as I did (by the time Marek finished primary school, selective education had been replaced by the comprehensive system)? And which university would he have chosen?

I'm sure Marcin would also have been an 'Airfix boy', as Marek and I were, as well as joining the Polish scouts and going to Polish Saturday school. But would he have felt more Polish (as I did) or more British (as Marek did)? And where would Marcin have ended up living? Stoke-on-Trent or Sopot?

What would Marcin be like? Any extraordinary powers? A gifted musician, for example? A great chess player? Left- or right-brain-hemisphere dominance? On the autism spectrum or struggling with attention deficit? Or a bit of both? Slightly taller than Marek but slightly shorter than me? What about family dynamics? Would I, as a two-year-old, have been as jealous of Marcin's birth as Moni was of her brother being born when she was that age? (As it was, by the time Marek was born, I was already at primary school and a baby brother was a minor distraction rather than a rival for my parents' love.) Would Marcin have grown up siding more with me against Marek, or with Marek against me? 

And had there been a Marcin, would Marek have been different? Well of course! Far more different to how he is than how different I would have been to how I am, given the effect of male hormones in the womb after successive pregnancies; birth order is significant.

Marcin might have been christened 'Marek', the name 'Marcin' being used for Marek; how would my brother's personality been changed by the simple substitution of his name? Nominative determinism?

I have often pondered on whom I'd have been had my parents never met. Intuitively, my answer is – different ego, same consciousness. Different parents, different body; but fundamentally I'd have been the same register of qualia, experiencing the same anomalous qualia memories from another time and another place, with the same spiritual purpose. A different biology, and thus, a different personality, hence a different ego. A different biological container for an eternal consciousness, on its journey from Zero to One; a different shell of foam. Consciousness is key.

This time five years ago:
No God for those that don't believe; God for those that do

This time six years ago:
Work proceeding around Jeziorki

This time seven years ago:
Karczunkowska reopens to traffic

This time 12 years ago:
Goodness gracious!

This time 13 years ago:
Muddy feet, Warsaw 'pavements'

This time 14 years ago:

Cycling and recycling

This time 15 years ago:
Winter clings on to the forest

This time 16 years ago:
Toyota launches the iQ

This time 17 years ago:
Old school Łódź

Local elections, Poland, 2024 (Pt II)

As it happened, despite what I observed at Polling Station No. 626 (primary school on ulica Sarabandy), the overall turnout across Poland was disappointingly low at 51% (far lower than the 74% in last autumn’s parliamentary vote). In Jeziorki, turnout was 64%.

Warsaw's Rafał Trzaskowski won 57.4%, a resounding first-round victory for a popular mayor. He was one of four big-city mayors who won in the first round, along with the incumbents in Łódź, Gdańsk and Katowice. Other than Katowice’s mayor, a local independent, these are all Civic Coalition (KO) members. 

Kraków, Wrocław and Poznań will require a second round of mayoral elections as no candidate received more than 50% of the vote; the second-round mayoral elections will be on Sunday 21 April. 

In a result mirroring October’s parliamentary election, PiS won the largest vote share (34.3%) but lost power overall. KO won 30.6%, Trzecia Droga won 14.3%,  Konfederacja/Bezpartyjni Samorządowcy 7.2% and Lewica 6.3%. Trzecia Droga (including PSL, the agrarian party) really should have done better. The brand, now established as a part of the government coalition, was expected to push PiS aside across rural Poland, but failed to do that. Lewica was the real loser of these elections, maybe because so few young people bothered to vote. This will weaken them within the governing coalition, of which they are the junior party.

The next few days will see deals being made between parties at voivodship level to determine who will have overall control of them. Despite winning a higher vote share, PiS is likely to lose power in two or three voivodships, leaving the party with a majority in six of the 16 local parliaments (sejmiki), in the south-east corner of Poland. 

Once the deals have been made and the constitution of all local councils is known, there will be a clearer picture as to what effect the local elections will have on citizens' lives on a day-to-day level. 

I am a great believer in the influence of local governments in shaping quality of life. Environmental quality (air quality, waste collection and recycling, traffic management, public transport). Poland today has advanced hugely over the country to which I moved in 1997, to the benefit of all in the above regards. I'd like to see better public transport, less dumping of household waste and litter, better air quality (less burning crap to warm houses), and more provision of pavements and footpaths for pedestrians. 

Compared to the UK, where local taxes ('rates') are astronomical, Polish land tax is laughably low, although this is augmented by income tax, which is collected locally and remains with the local authority in which you are registered. Corporation tax and VAT are collected and spent at the national level. 

Next up will be the European parliamentary elections – I hope these are taken seriously by Poles young and old, and that populism will not be given a free hand because of indifference and complacency.

This time seven years ago:
Conscious prayer

This time nine years ago:
History repeating - or is it?

This time 11 years ago:
Sunshine, snow, April

This time 13 years ago:
In vino veritas

This time 14 years ago:
Are we getting more intelligent?

This time 15 years ago:
Lenten recipe No. 6

This time 16 years ago:
Coal trains, Konstancin-Jeziorna

This time 17 years ago:
Jeziorki from the air

Local elections, Poland, 2024

This morning I travelled into Jeziorki to cast my votes in the Polish local elections. Four ballot slips – for Mayor of Warsaw, the Warsaw city council, the Ursynów district council, and the Mazovia provincial parliament. Polish democracy is alive and well; the polling station was full, maybe not as full as at the national parliamentary elections in October. Maybe of all the elections I have voted in since moving to Poland, this had the second-highest turnout. People with ballot papers were standing around waiting for a table to fill in the ballot papers. There were as many young people as old people voting, and the atmosphere was more festive than in October when voters were eyeing each other thinking "is he/she going to vote for the existential threat that is my political enemy?"

Today, in the spring sunshine, knowing that there's less at stake than the future of Poland (more autocratic or less autocratic?), the electorate still turned up en masse to take part in the due process of democracy. On the agenda today were bus lanes, rubbish collection and local infrastructure, rather than rule of law, women's rights and macroeconomic policy. Just as important to the way we live our lives.

Some local observations, then. Central Warsaw is booming. A modern, prosperous, safe, clean city (according to visiting Londoners), which has witnessed phenomenal growth. Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski was comfortably re-elected for a second term. Warsaw's outer suburbs – a story of sprawl. New estates, lacking in amenities, lacking even in asphalted roads in and out. No public transport, so everyone's condemned to car use, and cars are choking outer Warsaw. "We can't afford to live in Warsaw, because we've got the upkeep of two cars to pay for," is a usual moan. The idea of living in Warsaw, well-connected with public transport, but without a car, is too much of a stretch for most.

Further out, in Chynów, the pre-election campaigning, visible in the form of banners stretched out on fences, showed a strong preference for PSL, the agrarian party, now part of the PL2050 coalition. Posters and banners for PiS came second. Interestingly, a number of PSL banners were slashed – across the faces of the candidates. 

Decisions made at local level include planning permission, environmental protection, water, sewage and waste management, traffic management; these are all responsibilities of the gminas (municipalities).  At the poviat (district) level, powers include public transport, maintenance of district roads, land surveying and the issuing of work permits to foreigners. Powers at voivodship level are shared between the voivode (governor) appointed centrally by the prime minister; the sejmik (regional assembly) and the marshal, serving as the provincial chief executive. The voivode acts as the head of central government institutions at regional level (such as the police and fire services, passport offices, and various inspectorates). The sejmik passes by-laws, including the voivodship's development strategies and budget. It also elects the marshal and other members of the executive, and holds them to account. The executive, headed by the marshal, drafts the budget and development strategies, implements the resolutions of the sejmik, and deals with regional policy, including management of EU funding. 

Results tomorrow.

This time five years ago:
Morning flashback

This time eight years ago:
In which I learn to speak

This time nine years ago:
Sunshine and snow, Łazienki Park

This time ten years ago:
Shopping habits in the wake of Lidl's opening 

This time 11 years ago:
In vino veritas

This time 12 years ago:
Are we getting more intelligent?

This time 13 years ago:
Lenten recipe No. 6

This time 14 years ago:
Coal trains, Konstancin-Jeziorna

This time 15 years ago:
Jeziorki from the air