Siberian weather

7th January 2017

Siberian weather has arrived to my place. In my place on the thermometer was -20 degrees really dangerous frost and I live on the third floor but I think on the first ground the temperature was much lower in that conditions I had to take my dog for a walk. The walk took me about 20 minutes the air was fresh and I survived. 

 My frost world.

All photos I took at 7.30 a.m.

Where is spring?

Three Kings Day

6th January 2017

Today most Polish celebrate Three Kings Day because it is national holiday so schools, offices and shops are closed today. So I was at home relaxing and watching some interesting films on You Tube.

This January we have a severe and frost winter. We did not have winter since 2006. Temperature today was -12 degrees all day and we are expecting much more frosty night. Theses photos I took from my kitchen window at 4p.m.

Today, on the 6th of January, falls the Epiphany: a major holiday that is widely celebrated around the country under the name of the Three Kings’ Day. More importance is placed on its  celebrations in Poland than in other places around the world.

This holiday is a connection between two dates with the most religious significance for the Roman Catholic Church: Christmas and Easter. It is the day that officially marks the beginning of carnival, the period of feasting and fun that lasts until Lent starts. The 6th of January, which is now also a bank holiday, commemorates the day when the Three Wise Men arrived to meet Jesus, twelve days after his birth, to greet him and pay tribute to him.

During the holiday, one can be amazed by the various, colourful processions and parades that occupy the streets of several of the major cities and of numerous smaller towns. It is not an old tradition, but now it caught on and is happily welcomed by all. A parade like that includes playing out the journey and arrival of the Three Wise Men, together with costumes and sometimes even complete with riding camels!

They hand out candy, there are contests for the young and the old and it all usually ends with carolling on the streets. It is not the all, though the other celebrations aren’t as bright and loud. After the processions, people usually gather in churches to pray together and listen to priests preach about the importance of this holiday, which symbolises the path that people need to travel to reach the light of the Lord, and how people should focus on the missionary aspect of the Church – helping people reach the end of this travel.

Religious celebrations aren’t only held in the church, though. What a foreigner might be curious about are the letters K+M+B and a year written with chalk on the doorways of many Polish houses. They stand for the names of the Three Magi:

• Caspar (Kacper in Polish, hence the letter „K”)
• Melchior
• Balthasar

Signing is also abbreviation of Latin phrase Christus Mansionem Benedicat – “May Christ bless the house”.

All in all, the Day of the Three Wise Men is quite a thing in Poland, involving the majority of Catholics in collective celebrations and religious reflection. It’s also a beautiful sight of colourful streets full of people that gather with a common goal to commemorate unity and friendship. ( from Wiki)

Good Fences around the world- 2

Winter brrr it is cold..

 3rd January 
At my place the winter has arrived so I am really unhappy because I hate snow, So I am waiting for spring..

these photos I took on 30th December at my temporary place of living

ENJOY WINTER

Blue is nice colour

 3rd January 2017

We are in a festive season so there is one more decoration which I found in our city,. And what is more we gotsome fresh snow.

Mediterranean Sea I love it..

2nd January 2017

Mediterranean Sea in the Siciliy. 

Have a peaceful the first week of the New Year.

Cathedral in Palermo

1st January 2017

Today ids the first day of  New Year and in my place weather is cold but sunny and we do not have any snow. But I am thinking about summer and holidays. 

I have not decided yet where to go and what to visit. Yesterday I was inspired by my friend from Italy which sent me a great photo of Cathedral in Palermo / Sicily. I think I visit Italy once again because 2/3 world famous landmarks are located in Italy. I would like to visit Sicily again but not in the summer when it is too hot for walking. North of Italy is my dream, too.

The church was erected in 1185 by Walter Ophamil (or Walter of the Mill), the Anglo-Norman archbishop of Palermo and King William II's minister, on the area of an earlier Byzantine basilica. By all accounts this earlier church was founded by St. Gregory and was later turned into a mosque by the Saracens after their conquest of the city in the 9th century. Ophamil is buried in a sarcophagus in the church's crypt. The medieval edifice had a basilica plan with three apses, of which only some minor architectural elements survive today.

The upper orders of the corner towers were built between the 14th and the 15th centuries, while in the early Renaissance period the southern porch was added. The present neoclassical appearance dates from the work carried out over the two decades 1781 to 1801, and supervised by Ferdinando Fuga. During this period the great retable by Gagini, decorated with statues, friezes and reliefs, was destroyed and the sculptures moved to different parts of the basilica. Also by Fuga are the great dome emerging from the main body of the building, and the smaller domes covering the aisles' ceilings.

In this cathedral, synthesis of history and art of the last millennium in Sicily, in addition to the Norman kings were also crowned Vittorio Amedeo II of Savoy and Carlo III of Bourbon.

In the right aisle, the first and second chapel, communicating with one another, they preserve the imperial and royal tombs of the Normans, those of Frederick II and father of Henry VI.

The sarcophagus of Frederick II is surmounted by a canopy with porphyry columns and the urn is supported by two pairs of lions, together with those of Federico II were also preserved the remains of Peter II of Aragon. Other tombs are those of Constance of Aragon (1183-1222), sister of the king of Aragon, the wife of Frederick II, William, duke of Athens son of Frederick III of Aragon, and of the empress Constance d'Altavilla, daughter of Roger II and mother of Federico II

The "treasure of the cathedral", which is composed of sacred vestments from the 16th and 18th centuries, frontals, monstrances, chalices, a breviary miniato of the 15th century and the tiara gold Constance of Aragon. Other precious objects, enamels, embroidery and jewelry, are exposed in central message boards such as for example the breviary parchment of the 1452 coat of arms with an Archbishop Simon from Bologna. The system of bells currently mounted is composed of eight elements assembled with the ambrosian ( from Wiki)