Hi, I'm Lapinou, created by Isa V. I was stitched for Nath in France for Easter and I'm enjoying my new home!
See my tiny funky feet?
I love to play funny in many positions... :)
I think I am very handsome.
And here's me seen from the back.
(please try to pretend like you haven't noticed I forgot to stitch the other half of his whiskers - Nath will have to do it for me! bummer!)
You guessed it, I'm back home again. The most wonderful time was had at my family. The weather just spoiled us, it was up to 23 Celsius on some days, with just a small breeze. I'll post Easter photos in the next posts, so many to show... Grandma slows down visibly now, from day to day and walks with lots of pain. Not sure you can actually still call it walking, but she is still up during the day and moves slowly with her stick and the help of someone's hand from room to room. She enjoys sitting on the terrace now in the spring (which also means she's less 'difficult' while she sits there thinking about secret things LOL!). I've taken care of her a few times so that my aunt could go out and it ain't all flowers and fairytales :). Not sure if all elderly persons are so demanding by moments, but she certainly loves giving orders without thanking for help ;-)
Family time was fantastic. Time with both my cousins, wives and kids, preparing traditional Polish Easter specialties, eating unreasonable amounts, laying on the grass in the garden and just observing the blue sky, some trips around... it couldn't have been better. It was the best Easter ever, I swear!
We returned only on Friday night to Warsaw, by train. The weather was too nice so we delayed returning to the concrete desert as much as we could. On Saturday we visited a newly opened small museum of automobile, actually only a small collection, just two streets further. Very interesting, we've visited many such museums in different countries but apart from a Humber, a special Cadillac and the first Ford T, this one presents only Polish (government and private) cars so H. enjoyed discovering them. He had never seen most of them before and there were a few I hadn't seen myself before. It was different (socialist) times, different rules...
In the afternoon we had dinner at our favorite Mexican place, then a long walk in the streets... The pictures are not very good, evening was setting and they show it much darker than it was. But I thought you might like to see a few shots of the most representative part of the town... :)
We'll start with a few old Polish cars though:
Below, the famous 'Warszawa', once owned only by some people, directors of State-owned enterprised etc...
One more Warszawa to the right...
The first model of the infamous 'Syrenka', also known as the "skarpeta" (the sock) because of the heavy fumes it was exhaling... Once the dream of almost everyone. Solid and robust. Easy. Unbreakable.
The Polish fiat, which my father owned for over 12 years, I think. My childhood car :)
To end, the small Fiat, ooooh so popular. You won't believe the size of some drivers who owned it. You could repair it also with a simple spoon, I hear. Or use your feet to "walk" the car, after the floor was in holes. Oh so famous.
There were many more models, but let's have a walk in town now... :)
A glimpse at the Old Town and the old city walls...
... the Royal Castle and the Sigismund's column (Kolumna Zygmunta) which commemorated king Zygmunt III Waza, who moved the capital from Cracow to Warsaw in 1596... a meeting point for old and young... The Royal Castle was entirely destroyed during the War (see a photo HERE) and it was only rebuilt in the 1970-ies.
...many streets leading to the Old Town Square, but we didn't go there this time...
... a look at the Krakowskie Przedmiescie street...
... the so-called Copper-Roof Palace (Pałac pod Blachą)...
...we continued down to the newly opened Arkady Kubickiego, where the cashiers and entrance hall to the Castle will soon be located. It is at the feet of the Castle, never been there before. The inside is very modern, with actually quite futuristic rest rooms :)
...a view to the back of the famous St. Ann's Church (photo of the interior HERE)....
... and its front...
...there was a concert of old songs commemorating Warsaw... we stood and enjoyed for a while... evening open air concerts are so enjoyable..
... Mickiewicz's monument...
... and almost hidden gem, old moving stairs from 1949, I think... which you can take from the bottom of the slope on which the Castle is located till up there. First time I showed them to H... they've just been renovated. Excellent work, but I miss the original ones which were very slow, very shaky but so special... The original interiors were kept along with the old lamps.... you'd think you were teleported to another time and dimension... The moving stairs are new, alas, but I appreciated that they also put a wooden separation between them...
... the round gallery you arrive to upstairs
.... a picture when you can see to the right that the Old Town was entirely destroyed during WWII, as was most of Warsaw.... If I remember correctly, the Sigismond's column was the first think people put back in place...
From there we continued our walk...
... we passed in front of the President's Palace....
and then it became too dark to make good pictures, but the walk was long, the evening weather so gentle and the atmosphere romantic ;-)
... then we watched a good movie, Toska too...
... H. already flew back, and life settles down... I really feel like I'm never home since over a year... my choice, surely, but I feel I need some internal peace and being a bit alone with the two furry ones... My father turns 75 though next week and another short trip has to be planned, sigh....
I should be flying to Norway for the summer around May 20-25, but I decided I won't get tickets till I get rid of "some" weight. 5 kgs is fine, if I manage. I need to be a bit hard on myself, so that's the punishment. I won't leave until I do that... :) And a punishment, that is one, because my birthday is end of May and I usually spend it with H. in Norway, so I'd better start moving and living on fresh air!!
I've been visiting your blogs but as I'm using Newgator most of the time, you might not see Poland in your statistics if you check them... and I didn't have time to leave comments, but I know more or less what's been happening with you! Hope you had a lovely Easter.... :)
A bit of answers to earlier comments...
I obviously wrote a previous post about Toska on a more "difficult" day. She's actually doing very fine back home, she hasn't attacked Happy once and the whole trick is to give her a lot of peace and autonomy. She's back to sleeping four paws up on my lap while I stitch and she's not scratching/biting, she nicely warns that she's not very happy about too much love :) She comes to bed in the morning and sleeps with her front paws on my face. There _are_ reasons why I love her :) Now, let's admit that she is a difficult cat. She is.
To what I wrote about how my next cat will be. It's the same as what I say about my future dog - not that I want to replace my Happy at all!! He's just ideal. But I often tell H. that I might want a German shepperd again, or this or that breed. But I so perfectly know that when the time will come, I'll revisit a shelter. Or look for ads or cries for help about pets in need.
- But yes, Gabi, Toska is the boss wherever she is :) My aunt says she's a cat who's not afraid of anything. Someone at the door - she's first. A noise - she's first. I often say I have a guarding cat and that we should put signs on the front door :). If only she had more tools available against thieves, noone would enter, I am sure!
- Lucy, I'll send you our family recipe for the pierogis :)
- Thank you for the info about the pussy willow! According to Wikipedia, Pussy willow is a name given to many of the smaller species of the genus Salix (willows and sallows) when their furry catkins are young in early spring.
- Jennifer - yes, I've seen the chart, first I loved it a lot, then looking at it again I liked it less, mainly wondered how I'd like it finished...
To my father's writing. Basically, he wrote a book for his only grandson (Tales for my grandson, he called it), which he printed in just a few dozens copies. Actually he keeps adding fragments to it and reprinting every year or two. It keeps his days busy.... Now, there are very private reasons why my attitude to this book is a bit negative however much I appreciate its value and work my father put in it. But he put in pieces my mother's childhood photo album just to add one or two photos to *his* book. I never understood how he could do that - not only he destroyed an old album started in the 1930s, very beautiful, but he also threw it and just gave me some remnant photos. Of course, he never did what I just wrote.... There were very precious photos in it.
- Irene - my (Polish) friend Ela neither ever heard of these pisankis! She only knew those you sort of scratch with a tool. I on the other hand am used only to the wax version! Actually to the multicolor ones, which as I described are dyed and drawed several times, and then the wax has to be removed. And then there are pisankis where you glue bits of straw etc. on them. Each of these types has its own specific name, I read.
A lot of stitching done and received to show.... please come back soon! :)
Lookie, lookie, see the beautiful needlebook Annette sent me in this exchange, it is very neatly finished and it's only the second I own, so it's doubly appreciated :)
It's been a busy day in town, so I'll leave you with today's picture of Toska the devil cat. I and Happy are traveling tomorrow to visit my father to celebrate his 75th birthday on Saturday...can you believe he requested.... socks 'that wouldn't feel tight because he has to throw all those he has', heh???? he, the wine connoisseur didn't want any good bottle of whisky or coniac? no invitation to the restaurant 'because he has better food at home', heh?? ... Okay, so I got him a pair of *silk* socks to easy my pain thinking what he asks me buy for him for this special occasion... and a fantastic silk tie.
