Is life unfair? You bet it is.

Note before you read:

I have set this out perfectly to read well, with pictures the right size and in the right place. However, when I looked at the preview, the whole thing was well and truly f....d up.  I cannot sit here any more. I am going to publish and hope for the best. If it looks a mess, I am truly very sorry about it. 
PS. I see it IS a mess. This format is so hard to control. I do not have the skills to fix it.  It comes out entirely different from the way I set it up!  

Stefan has a cousin, Basia.

When I first heard about her, suffering with cancer she was perceived to be near death. But she recoverd and is doing fine now. Meanwhile, the husband, through heavy drinking, was suffering problems and is now in the hospital on dialysis with a poor prognosis. One of Basia’s daughters was married, both living and working in Scotland, had bought a new house and with a 7 month old. She had been treated recently for breast cancer. They all came over for Easter, she felt bad with a variety of symptoms, admitted to hospital and within 4 days was dead. The cancer had spread to her brain.

And if my dad knew about this it would only plunge him into misery. 98 and lying in bed month after month….. it IS unfair. As long as he has no pain, which cannot always be avoided, he is fine and remarkably cheerful. He is trying so hard to be no trouble.

Last week Mariusz offered us a chicken. This would be the first live chicken for us and it got me thinking.

Mariusz,  husband of Stefan’s anorexic niece, works on his family’s farm, mostly strawberries  harvested by influxes of Ukrainians, and doubles up as an IT consultant in the local government office, where Anna, Stefan’s sister, is secretary to the mayor. Background info only, no relevance to the subject.

If we accept the chicken, we will need to not only need to provide for her, but for a group of them. How many I have no idea, but you don’t have just one, do you? We have discussed chickens; they were till now in the pending box. I know NOTHING about them.

Now the question is revisited, which area of the garden could they have, what about our absences, the cat, the dog? And so on.

The cat after hunting birds, quite happy.

Garden with Ukrainians at rest

Discussing the matter again, I now see part of me had been holding back. This time I was fully on board; we have the space, we will build a henhouse, we will do a pond where the caravan stands. As there were no apparent problems, I found myself fully accepting the role of smallholder, gospodarka. This is where we live, this is what we do. As long as we can get away for breaks whenever we choose, our job here is to live in this place we have built, to nurture the land, each other and ourselves.

I wasn’t aware of harbouring reservations before. It wasn’t as if I was thinking I could always ‘go back’ if it didn’t work; there is no ‘back’ to go to. But the chicken question has settled it.  After 10 months here, finding our feet, settling into our roles, at last getting a grasp of the language, which of course is vital to assimilation, I now feel fully committed.

I mentioned seeing this wonderful bathroom at a palace

My version, in progress.

Visitors

We have been disappointed recently with 2 lots of UK visitors cancelling due to ill health.  It made me realize how I need to see friends and I cant keep hopping over to the UK evry 5 minutes.  I love to make new friends and now I am looking to next year when my Polish should be good enough for me to venture forth.  I will be researching courses I can do. I think there is (Polish, of course) University of the 3^rd age here so if I can cope, maybe with a practical course rather than nuclear physics, say (ha!) then that would be the answer.

I have always thought of Poland as somewhat overgrown, hairy, natural. Being here continuously I see the daily changes, such as the end of dandelion flowers and the spreading of their seeds with their clocks. The countryside here these days is the brightest yellow. I realize how few dandelions there are around London. How tidy the verges are in the country. How nothing has a chance to go wild; every inch is manicured. I love it here where the insects and birds can flourish. The racket of birdsong is a constant pleasure. I shall have to study their songs so I can identify them.

Plenty of dandelions

Seeding

More dandelions messing up the place

House available

What

We have an adjoining house that is fully equipped and which we would like to make available for short periods of time, as if it were a Residency. The house has 2 rooms which have I double bed, 2 singles and downstairs, a fold out double. There are 2 bathrooms with one shower. A well equipped roomy kitchen/dining area. It is peaceful here; this is an opportunity to think and work.

Where

We are in Poland, 100 km north of Krakow. The town is called Stopnica and can be found on the internet.  We can be reached by bus from Krakow or by car, of course. We have a map as unless your tomtom is right up to date you may find the house hard to find.

Why

We are both makers and understand the need to have space to think. We have this house, adjoining ours, in a lovely spot, and would like to offer this.

Who for

A creative person(s). Could be a writer, musician, painter or something I haven’t thought of. Someone who needs and would appreciate what we have to offer.

What does it cost

Your fare and spending money for food etc. We will make no charge for the house. Costs of living here are a fraction of UK.

When and how long?

The length of time is up for discussion. Roughly 1-3 weeks for each slot.?

What if other people need the house?

We have visitors who use the house. It sleeps up to 5  in 2 rooms. It may be possible to share the house if everybody agreeable. We have other possibilities too should everybody arrive at the same time.

How do we select?

We would like someone who is compatible and we would have to follow our gut when it comes to choosing a person(s). One of the reasons for doing this is to meet new people, hopefully of like mind, so finding common ground is important for us.

We need to have full trust in the person as we may go away during their time here and they would have the place to themselves.

All About Henry

The care is full on these days.  Henry now has pain when he is moved. After 3 months in bed it is not surprising. Lying quite still is fine, but attending to him, the slightest movement causes him to cry out.   How to change him and the bed and apply cream and all that rigmarole without moving him?  Happily massage to his legs brings a little comfort.  This morning, a helpful friend told me of a family member who lay in bed for 11 years.  Forgive me if I do not discuss my feelings at this point.

I am getting a break! When a London friend complained of back pain and I thought, I should be there, I made a decision. How irrational is that. But hey, if it is going to be 11 years I am glad and have no regrets. I really need to eat Chinese/Indian/Italian food and see movies and the theater and the Giacometti and the rest.  Plus bring some Polish cheer to my back suffering friend.

Henry is slowly going down, but Stefan will step in and help, and if they need three, then big Stefan can help too. There is a problem in that Henry and Halina do not understand each other, so my Stefan has to be much more around to interpret, if nothing else. When Henry needs a blanket because he is cold while she does stuff, or she wants to tell him something, they each struggle.  For all his languages, none of which is Slavic, it is a sick joke he should end up with a mono-lingual Ukrainian looking after him.  But she could not be kinder nor gentler so, you can’t have it all.

Life moves on chez Majka/Federer.

It was a huge National holiday this last week, with most of the country taking off from Friday till Thursday, at least. May Day on the 1^st, then May 3^rd which is Polish Constitution Day…  Poland was the first European country to draw up her own constitution, May 3, 1791. Rightly, the day is joyously celebrated. Sadly, to express independence with their own constitution so dismayed their neighbours that the following year Germany, Russia and Austria instituted the 1^st of three partitions and Poland disappeared from the map for 123 years. But it came back, strong as ever. I am full of admiration for the Polish people; in my view they are indomitable.

Trying to study in between…. Uphill but it is coming. Never fails to amaze me how complicated the language is.  I was taught today about the various verbs for go.  12 so far: go up, go down, go round, go to, go from, go away, go through……. You get it. And they ALL decline into 8 cases. They say learn a language in old age. Certainly more productive than crosswords, but this is overdoing it a bit.

Beautiful, gorgeous, bathroom at last. All done with regular Polish tiles, too, by regular Polish builder! Is not complete, you can see, but getting there. I stuck my neck out with the yellow but I love it, especially padding in there in the middle of the night half blind with sleep.

I shall soon be playing around with colours to have the whole house painted. Looking forward very much to killing that interminable white.