Monomania

The subject of my photos has become somewhat monomanic lately. For good reason, I think. Bear with me and I will soon come back to pictures to present here as well.

First Christmas

This year Christmas was a bit different. Our little boy was just over a week old, so obviously he stole the show, even if he did little more than eat and sleep. :)

Waiting

The view through the hospital window while waiting to know if everything would be ok... After an eternity it was ok.

Tatry

Sunset on the ridge over Przedni Staw in Dolina Pięciu Stawów Polskich (The valley of the five Polish lakes). A collection of a few more of my HDR-images of the Tatry can be seen here.

Fire engine

Today's photo is a fire engine from USA. It was parked in the fire station that I passed every day on the way to my hotel in Cambridge. More photos from Boston/Cambridge here.

Wianki

A collage of women with wreaths (wianki) on the eve of St. John. The wreaths are later thrown in the river by the unmarried girls in the hope that it is picked up by the future husband. Like the Swedish midsommarafton the celebration dates back to pre-Christian times. However, in Poland the church has been more successful than in Sweden to associate the old pagan celebration of the summer solstice with St. John the Baptist. The church was mercifully absent from the celebrations last night though, which centered more around drinking and having fun than being pious.

Girls throwing wreaths in the river in Warsaw.

Wreaths floating down the Vistula.

Three weeks later

Three weeks after this photo we can really see that spring is here. However, the trees in the previous image were all pruned a couple of days ago - so no leaves here.

Balconies

Saw these balconies today while out cycling. Just liked the picture.

The boring people

At the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw I saw this very plain painting. Turns out the artist made a poll where a number of people answered a questionnaire about their art preferences. Then the artist (whose name I unfortunately forgot) made a painting matching those answers. Nice idea - good art - boring painting... but of course in this case the painting itself is not the art.

Chemicals through the lens

Another picture from the lab. This time our shelf of solvents seen through a glass flask.

Hot

A sample is beeing annealed in a ceramic boat in a quartz tube furnace. The temperature is 900°C and the colour is (close to) natural blackbody radiation.

The weather has been miserable recently and I haven't felt like taking the camera out for a walk. The next couple of days you'll have to make do with some pictures from the lab.

Frost on the window

A winter image to celebrate the new year. And a vain hope that I will be more diligent with my updates next year.

November

One of those dreary November mornings with a cold drizzle and the clouds so low that they hang like soggy cotton-candy on the skyscrapers. On the way to work I took a few pictures of the people hurrying through the rain to work. It's the days that makes me think about Tom Waits song November... "November's cold chain / Made of wet boots and rain" and "Get word to April / To rescue me"

Dawn's early light

Yesterday morning I saw this lovely dawn through the window. The display of colours lasted only a few minutes as the sun shone in under the clouds. Just enough time to take a few pictures and relax and enjoy the show for a while.

Electrode cleaning

One of the more boring things to do in electrochemistry is cleaning electrodes. With gold and glassy carbon electrode it means polishing a long long time. A platinum counter electrode is easier; you just burn off the dirt. Above cobalt, and below sodium from salt probably after touching it with the fingers.

Old gasholder

Opposite the street from my work is the old Warsaw gasworks - Gazownia Warszawska. In an overgrown corner of the area are two large gasholders - now in ruins - made from red bricks. They are just the coolest things. This picture was taken at sunset, adding an orange glow to the building.

Running across Plac Piłsudskiego

I was out taking pictures of the city when suddenly this old couple came running past me on Plac Piłsudskiego. Unfortunately I didn't have time to catch them before they were past me.

I the background Norman Fosters (in)famous Metropolitan building that also adorns the head of this blog.

Second metro line

They have started building the second metro line now in Warsaw. That means lots of closed road and general chaos in the traffic. A plus is that the traffic situation has become so bad that more people have started using buses instead of one person in each car.

There are many of us

On a walk a few days back I spotted this wonderful piece of street art. This is of course a comment to this stupidity as well as a gentle reminder about the situation for gays in Poland.

Mazury

Today is a classic image from the Mazury, the lake district in north-eastern Poland. Next week we are going for the most Polish of holidays* - a week on a yacht in Mazury. So, don't expect an update next week.

*With the possible exception of toughing it out in the bars of Zakopane with occasional hikes in the mountains.