Researching the Lasecki lines entailed a trip to the ancestral villages with a noted researcher. We met Lukasz in Poznan, a convenient rail stop from Warsaw. He was already waiting for us at the station. Wwe loaded into his SUV and then drove out of town.
The fields of lavendar and golden fields of lemon yellow flowering rape seed (Pol: rzepak) quickly stole my attention.
The billowy summer sky was defined by lazy puffy clouds and windmills slowly spinning their silver arms. There was only a remnant of one of the bzillion ancient windmills that had graced the landscape in earlier centuries. Lukasz remembered several still standing when he was child. Poland is reshaping itself as it tumbles into the 21st century. Evidence of that was everywhere. While the farms remained small, family operated affairs, mechanization is playing an ever larger role in agricultural life. Seven years ago, we saw few tractors and trucks, many horse-drawn vehicles and machines. Today, there is a definite mix with horse drawn hay wagons and diesel trucks.
Industrious farm folk were cutting the first hay using scythes and raking the crop into stacks. The blue-green rye (Pol: żyto ) fields billowed in the summer breezes. Balls of purple clover flowers marked field edges and red currant berries (Pol: czerwona porzeczka) grew in wild tangles roadside.
Polish storks (Pol: bocian), wings tipped in ebony were seen occasionally gleaning the freshly cut fields. More often, the birds were seen sitting on eggs in their high nests. Sometimes country folk build a platform on top of a telephone pole to lure a couple to nest as they are said to bring good luck. If suitable, storks return to the same nest for many years. Off they fly into the warmer winds of Africa every winter though. The fields were broken by woodlands filled with majestic trees, sign of rich deep soil I knew from nephew Jeff Rodgers, the family and professional horticulturalist.
Horse chestnuts (Pol: kasztanowiec), native to the Balkan peninsula, often welcomed visitors along driveways with waving of their gorgeous palmate leaves. The spring flower spikes had been replaced with conkers encased in prickly green helmets. There’s something irresistible that draws out my inner child whenever faced with a horse chestnut.
Linden grew in such abundance as I’d never before seen. . The Lindens were beginning to flower and humming with bees. Linden flower tea is a popular herbal tea in Poland, I knew from a Christmas present Stasieu had given me years ago. The Polish word for Linden is Lipa, the surname of Big Joe Moraniec’s mother!
Birch (Pol: broza) stands seemed to sprout up randomly throughout Poland. Jeff probably knows why they grow where they do. I simply enjoyed their wispy presence. Thin, wiry, white-barked trees with dancing leaves are practically the national tree in Poland. The beautiful wood that is derived from them works as a perfect medium for the traditional carving Poles are known for.