News from Szczecin

Autumn is almost here. So nice to hear from Ewa Cimochowska, who has returned to Poland to care for her mother who has had a stroke. She has sent some photos of the city we often discussed in workshops in schools earlier this year.

Ewa says she's busy running her mother's business. But she and her husband Waldek have been relaxing at weekends - picking mushrooms in the forest. Funnily enough I was thinking of mushrooms at the weekend when I went to Budapest and saw women from villages at the central market selling them on stalls.  I wondered where these mushrooms grew...

Facing the East in the West

A book arrives from Germany. Have been in touch with one of its editors, Eva Ulrike Pirker, over the course of the year. Facing the East in the West is the result of a conference in the spring and Eva asked for I Packed This Myself images to show. An image of one of the first suitcases in the show is on the cover - bottom left hand corner.

It's a weighty tome - an interesting range of themes covered, from the Cold War in the Bond series (From Russia with Love) to Marina Lewycka's A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.