storky business

The stork is a Polish icon. It not only brings babies in bundles, but when it returns from far and away Africa in spring, it brings with it the warm weather and good times ahead. More importantly though, when the stork decides to build a nest on your chimney it means you are the luckiest bugger in town, your house is blessed and the family will prosper. And on an ecological side, it is also an indication the air in the area is clean and there are plenty of frogs, which in turn suggests clean water. Thus stork equals all round goodness. It is an additional bonus that the birds also happen to look like super dorky spazmos. When the first storks arrive, village primary schools get their kids to dress up in stork costumes to welcome the birds back on Polish turf and to greet spring. Needless to say then, I was overly excited when my parents took me to this abandoned house to show me the stork nest. The house has been taken apart and the bricks used elsewhere, ruins remain. But the owners, in love with their stork tenants, decided to leave the chimney standing so that the storks could continue their storky business.