Location, location, location.

After months of looking I have found a derelict cottage in an idyllic setting on the market for a song which I'm going to try and buy. I'm been wanting a place I can retreat to with my dogs away from the oppressiveness of this city. And yesterday I found it.

The main problem with the Polish countryside is that, in the way that every city is blighted with vast grey communist blocks, the country is littered with big & ugly exposed breeze-block houses (it's cheaper than brick). Add plastic windows and surround with high concrete wall-type fencing. Unused cement and debris can be dumped in the forest nearby. On our frequent jaunts into the local woods my dogs often cut their paws on broken glass. In Poland it seems that even within the most beautiful surroundings, you can erect anything you like without regard or respect to the immediate environment. Since Poland joined Europe and it's population have got richer, these monstrosities have shot up everywhere, many are abandoned half-finished. So when I did find something with a little character it usually had one of these enormous eyesores within view, something that I could not look upon or live with. I am faced with architectural abominations on a daily basis here in town, in the country I want to retreat to nature.

The spot I came across yesterday is a village of not more than a dozen small brick and stone houses, mostly built in the 1930's. Deer gazed at me as I drove through the dense forest on my way to what is a crumbling ruin within one and a half acres of meadow. Beyond lies woodland abundant in wildlife. There is electricity and water from a well, apparently it is possible to install a pump in order to supply a bathroom. A delapidated wooden barn houses ancient farm machinery. The cottage itself has a rotting floor, asbestos roof, and crumbling walls. But as I know from years of our obsession with property... location is all.