Snow

As dawn broke (with a slight tinkling of icicles) in the village of Baranów Sandomierski yesterday morning, we went outside to find the grounds of the palace covered with a lovely light dusting of snow.

A perfect day to go out prancing about in the forest. 

Uh-huh. 

"Brrrrr," said expateek.

We met up with these two guys in Mielec, 

and the hunting party soon took off pell-mell in one direction, while the rest of us dilly-dallied over breakfast and then went for a walk in the woods.

We walkers returned to the hunting lodge first, for a hearty second breakfast (or was it the third breakfast? or perhaps first lunch? Not sure... we seemed to have a full meal every hour and a half). 

Anyway, the żurek was fantastic and warming. Here it is, before the life-giving broth is added.

Now it was time to don our outerwear again, and scurry off to find the horses

and wagon.

Thank goodness we had a driver! 

Fortunately, he had a GPS installed in this thing, or I doubt we would have ever gotten back.

 I'm kidding about the GPS, but he did take a mobile phone call while we were miles deep out in the forest. Weird.

The woods were beautiful, and this was high noon. 

The sun was so low in the sky even at midday.

One can see why the Poles are so mad about Nature. Their country is breathtakingly beautiful.

And of course, all of the vodka shots don't hurt either.

Back at the lodge, the hunters were pleased with their takings.

We bundled up once more after one more huge meal, and headed for home as the snow began to fly in earnest.

All in all, a most amazing day.