For as long as I can remember, every school kid from Warsaw and its neighbourhood had to visit Żelazowa Wola. A similar duty was to visit the Royal Palace or National Museum. From early schooltime visits in museum halls I mainly remember races in famous felt slippers and the gloomy faces of museum staff trying to shelter museum pieces from the groups of bratty kids. In general, I do approve of the idea of showing to the youth our cultural and historical heritage, but a few years ago the way the knowledge was presented did not comply with the interests of young visitors. Fortunately, our world is changing and visiting boring museums is changing as well. Even last year my daughter's class' visit to Łazienki Palace was a very exciting event due to the engagement of a professional youth leader. From my visit to Żelazowa Wola almost 30 years ago I remember only the very sad and completely empty inside building, high-soundingly named 'the manor house'. I remember a tatty park surrounding it as well. The one and only dubious advantage of this trip was that we could get out of school. It was a very boring experience and what's more we were obliged to write a report of the visit.

2010 was the 200-year anniversary of Fryderyk Chopin's birthday. It was full of concerts festivals and artistic events popularizing the composer's work. Many Warsaw and neighbouring places connected with his life gained something from it. After modernization, the Fryderyk Chopin Multimedia Museum in Ostrogscy Castle was opened. In stylish interiors were gathered museum pieces documenting the composer's life and works: letters, personal remembrances, photos, paintings, jewellery, drawings and graphics. Even though there is a kid's hall in the museum, I recommend that older school classes and teenagers visit the museum.

In 2010 there was placed a special marking at Warsaw Chopin airport as the airport of the composer's city. On Królewski Trakt were placed 15 multimedia benches playing parts of Fryderyk Chopin's compositions, and there was also a pedestrian crossing with a clavier motif on Emili Plater street close to The Palace of Science and Culture and Złote Tarasy shopping centre.

I visited Żelazowa Wola with my whole family 3 years ago.

As far as I know, we live in a cold temperate climate. We should have everything just right, but we sometimes have some extremes. A dry and blistering summer like something from hell has just finished and everybody is looking forward with relief to a beautiful golden autumn. And what do we have? It's the first half of October and ... it's winter. And so I ask: where is the moderate weather?

This weather doesn't serve to lift my mood. My friend who is a blogger says that everybody has difficult times when they need to lie on the sofa under a duvet and pretend not to exist. I recently felt like this. Unfortunately, I can't lie on the sofa because of my duties, so my husband set out to lift my mood by preparing a simple but imaginative and very tasty breakfast. It later emerged that the afflatus came from a TV program by Karol Okrasa, but my husband's execution was original. Master Okrasa warned us not to change the ingredients. The lightly salty and original taste of goat cheese goes well with the sweetness of the honey and walnuts.

Ingredients:

4 slices of white bread (French bread or challah)

100g of goat's cottage cheese

4 tablespoons of honey

50g of walnuts

Autumn is a time for plums. Nowadays there are lots of kinds of plum and it is difficult to decide which one to choose. Lucky are those who own an orchard with plum trees. They may pick the kind of fruit they like: less ripe or with so much juice that after one bite it makes your mouth water.

In Poland the most famous are peachy plums called jerozolimka, greengages and purple plums.

Choose your favorite plums and prepare like me a very simple desert: French pastry decoratively braided, filled with plums and with brown sugar and cinnamon.

Ingredients:

1 pack of chilled French pastry

600g of plums

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

4 tablespoons of brown sugar

1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar

2 tablespoons of milk

2 teaspoons of caster sugar

The plays in Rampa Theatre raise sky high the expectations for other productions for kids and youths. They are polished up to the last detail. Every time Cezary Domagała is responsible for an adaptation or script you can expect another fantastic event. So we have in this case as well. "The twins who stole the moon" has everything a kids' play needs: fast-flowing action, jolly heroes, catchy music and mise-en-scene which replenish the whole picture and do not divert our attention at the same time. Even the theatre program produced in the form of a beautiful leaflet with a soundtrack cd attached is no longer an unnecessary gimmick not worth spending a zloty on.

Did you know that Rampa Theatre has been successfully staging plays for kids and youths for 15 years already? The premiere of 'The twins...'  took place on the March 27th 2015 on International Theatre Day. When the opportunity for buying tickets came I used it immediately and my kids could once again watch the adventures of their theatrical heroes.

Kornel Makuszyński used to say that there are no bad people, there are only unhappy people, and this is true of the heroes of his fairy tales. They change thanks to the influence of friendship and love; they overcome their difficulties and escape oppression. "Wet hair Maid", "The twins who stole the moon", "Wrangle for Little Barbara" "Maid Ewa Madness" and "Marry Devil's Friend" make up a wonderful land of "smiling books". They are beautiful, clever, full of universal values, but as they were written a long time ago they raise very high the expectations for today's play and movie auteurs. How should you adapt the story to current reality so as not to discourage such a demanding audience as kids and youths. How can you retain the original story's character?

The pumpkin is a magical vegetable. You can prepare fantastic Halloween decorations with it, but there are unlimited cooking uses for it as well. You can bake, boil or fry it. You can prepare cakes, crumpets, soups and stews. The diversity of dishes depends only on your imagination.

And even though it isn't Halloween today, on my table there is pumpkin soup. It is the easiest pumpkin dish I know. You should use it for your first attempt at cooking pumpkins. The beautiful colour of the soup should be considered as the promise of a creamy and very autumnal taste. The soup is delicately sweet, but you can prepare a more piquant version by adding chili pepper.

Ingredients:

2 kg of pumpkin

100ml of coconut milk

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic