From roughly ten years ago, a failed experiment. “Is it conceivable that we could use Ukrainian grain alcohol to make our wedding przepalanka?” we pondered. We knew the answer before the experiment started: maybe we were just looking for excuses.
photography
Stories
You pass by an old house in the middle of the country and you immediately start thinking about the story. About the stories that make up the one story. A house is the physical center of a family, and so when you see a house that is falling in on yourself, you wonder about the times in the house when the roof was still whole and the chimney still smoked. You wonder if the condition of the house is in any way a reflection of the condition of the family, sure that it isn't but equally certain that it could be, especially when it's a house in the South. It brings to mind images of the Sutpens and Bundrens and a thousand other families from Southern Gothic novels.
It's hard to see a house that's caving in on itself and imagine laughter in that house, but surely it was there, you say to yourself. A family without laughter is as horrific a thing as you can imagine. But still, it's hard to hear the echoes when the roof has fallen in and a wall collapsed under the weight of years of neglect.
On the other hand, perhaps it is the old family homestead that is empty now because one of the sons has made good enough in some venture or another to be able to build his parents a new house. Or perhaps it's simply that the widowed mother has now moved in with her daughter and son-in-law in the house across the way.
All these stories swirling around us and we don't even know what page we're looking at.
Sunset
Train
More discoveries in the basement.
Lipnica Sunset
Watching Cartoons Together
Relativity of Weeds and Flowers
Jabłonka, 1913
If you could travel back in time, I would imagine Jabłonka would look a lot like this.
Mixed Field
Between Dział and Morawczyna
On the way back from Pyzówka where we visited friends (L's godmother and one of K's best friends since preschool -- my friends too, but that was the initial connection), there's a small hill that provides the most spectacular views of the Podhale region. Granted, this is not the standard way to get there, which would be Jablonka → Czarny Dunajec → Ludźmierz → Pyzówka. I go via Pieniążkowice because that was one of my favorite bike rides, and I love to revel in the past.
And with views like this -- the Tatra Mountains tucked in between heavy, gray clouds and dark green fields -- who could blame me for taking longer, more time-consuming route?
