What was missed last weeks...

Was probably the golden Polish autumn – the warm and sunny days, when Poles can enjoy the last rays of sun which really heats the air up. This year, after a clement September, October brought the first attack of winter and temperatures below month’s average.

Yesterday I strolled through Pole Mokotowskie Park to search for the signs of golden autumn. The pictures outwardly bear out the view that this year nature also goes through the phase, but the sun wasn’t accompanied by the mass of hot air blown from over Sahara desert, but by the arctic air pumped into Poland by the high stationary east of my country…


Picture 1 – some trees are already bare, thanks to others the park is still ablaze with colours. In the background – some remarkable elements of Warsaw’s skyline – the big shopping mall Złote Tarasy (EN: Golden Terraces), Palaces of Culture and the skyscraper of Polish Airlines.


Picture 2 – panorama of colourful foliages east to the artificial pond in the middle of the park. Few people walk around – probably the weather put them off…


Picture 3 – an alley next to Polish National Library – notice the trees in the background, still much in leaf, in all shades of red, ginger and brown…


Picture 4 – a carpet made from maple’s leaves. Quality of the shot staggeringly good as for the photo taken against the sun



Picture 5 – here a comparison. The photo was taken last year, on 30 October. The temperature in the afternoon hit fifteen degrees. Yesterday it barely crept above zero and the feeling of cold was heightened by the gusty wind. What is quite surprising, this year the trees have more leaves than a year before, even in spite of cold October.


Picture 6 – I wonder what is the name of the tree which shed such almost white leaves…


Picture 7 – green, golden, yellow… And probably some other colours illuminated by the sun shining low from the sky. Behind the trees there’s the intersection of Al. Niepodległości and ul. Batorego.

Is it going to be chilly like this for the rest of the autumn? Forecasters said the oncoming winter is rather likely to be warm and wet, not windy, frosty and sunny. I’d sooner go for the former. If you realise how cold it is outside, such weather is not uplifting… I won’t abandon my hopes to see the golden Polish autumn, even in the second half of November. Well, eventually I might give in, when somebody promises me the onset of spring in February…