This weekend became a bit special for us -- it was planned a while ago, and finally came true ;) two families united for one day in order to walk out our kidz together ... The problem is that we live in different cities, and my daughter really wanted to meet her best girlfriend in real life, not through the phone or chat. (A noble wish that my wife and support in every possible way!) Our daughter is not yet at the age to let her travel to another city alone, so this Sunday my wife and I kept her company and had a trip to the town of Pushkin (it is about one hour drive from St. Petersburg, not very far - can be considered even a suburb).
Town of Pushkin is known for the summer residences of Russian emperors and beautiful historical parks were located there (and they still are). While our kidz were having fun with their iPhones making selfies, I was having fun with my (bigger) toy: photographed reflections, mushrooms, and misty autumn landscapes. The sun did not kissed us a lot on that day, as you can see in the pics.
This is not the first photo I took, but it is characteristic and well represents the local architecture; many buildings were built here in the 18-19 centuries and survived
until today, although of course they require care and tireless repairs. This building - once belonged to the imperial greenhouse ... now there is no greenhouse in it, but there is an institute of something agricultural that belongs to the state. The building was restored literally a year ago, the money was spent ... but most of it (obviously) was stolen along the way, according to the unkind Russian tradition, so now the building again needs investment and new repairs - see the photo below. It's hard to believe that this building was restored only last year?...
Yes, this post could easily be addressed to the Rant&Complain community - walkers had a lot to complain about on that day...
Me encountered a squad of young cyclists and their grown-up parents, and had some nice eye contact. Ofc I could not resist the temptation to add some #streetphoto to my story... actually it was what I was after (after the primary goal to entertain the kidz, of course).
Soon we approached to the park - you can see its fence and the arrows pointing at the tickets offices.
Actually there are two different parks at the site: Yekaterininskii Park is a regular one, and Alexanrovskii Park is a 'natural' one.
Below: ticket offices, and different souvenir/merchandise kiosks.
Firstly we headed to Yekaterininskii Park ... but we absolutely did not expect that the entrance was not free: after all, the summer season have already ended a while ago, and the summer schedule (calculated for tourists) as well... it should have ended, by this time. (The actual ticket price is not too high - 170 rubles per person, but since there were five of us ... we just didn’t want to pay for a 1-2 hour walk, especially since we could walk for free!)
Thats why we skipped this option.
Here one can admire the gates of one of the Empresses Palaces - clearly visible from the outside, and totally for free, hehe.
So, we walked hundred meters to the entrance to the Alexanrovskii Park. Open! Come in!
Actually, the whole park, its essence is in this certain frame: paths, alleys and "wild" untrimmed trees, canals and bridges between them; several kilometers of paths for pleasurable hiking. Of course, there are many ducks, birds, squirrels in the park that have long been accustomed to people and are not afraid to accept food from his hands ... although we did not meet squirrels this time, there are a lot of them here. But I still didn't have a telephoto lens with me to take advantage of such a meeting, so I'm not complaining :)
This is an artificial 'mountain' named Parnas. (We did not visit it this time).
The park is 'natural' but still have a lot of artificial stuff. Of course, it is not like a forest at all. In the 19th century, one of the emperors "arranged" part of the park in an oriental style - Chinese gates, bridges, and even a separate Chinese pavilion were built.
In this photo you may see said Chinese Bridge - guarded with Ancient Chinese lions. Only three of them were present (one went out for restoration procedures). Awesome pieces of art to watch and enjoy the beauty of orient, and the beauty of aging too.
A close-up version.
One could see, touch, photograph, enjoy them in any way... but the Chinese pavilion - alas!... - was sold, privatized, left the balance of the park a few years ago - for some silly money - went to one of Putin's gangster friends.
Now there is a warning tablet: "private property" on its fence and a bunch of cameras :(
And now lol: while we were standing nearby, we stumbled upon a trespasser - and I even managed to photograph him. This cat can go anywhere he wants, and he surely can (if he wants) to see more Chinese beauty than us, park visitors, are allowed. Se la vie.
Our kidz played catch-up around the trunk of a giant mighty oak...
Of course, I could add much more beautiful captures of the autumn nature, but basically they all would be the same. And I took a decent amount of fungi we encountered, but I better present them at FungiLovers community :P
But that was not the very end of the day.
Of course, after such a long walk with a lot of kid'z energy waster, we needed to recharge and get some fuel. Thats why the day was finished at DoDo pizza! My powerful 16-35mm "L" lens had no problem with making a capture of this spot, even it was pretty dark there.
Whole pizza disappeared very quickly, but still I managed to take a picture of some leftovers :) What else can I say? wish you and your families more such good weekends like we had! 🙏
PS.
Part two with the rest of my photo-impressions from this walk will follow soon.
| location: | St.Petersburg, Russia | October 2022 | natural light |
| camera/lens: | Canon 5D | Canon 16-35mm 2.8L | raw-conv |
My Sunday was just a rest day for me. We should not leave our kiddos alone. You and your wife took good decisions for visiting your daughter girlfriend side. Old Architecture needs special care. I love to Chinese passages that are historical even in my country.
I wish we had more days like this in a year... and a !PIZZA 🤸♂️
I hope we all shall have more good days like these. Thanks for special pizza to me.
That seems like a nice park to visit. I was wondering seeing the cold weather. Here, it's still pretty hot, like summer. lol
I'm seeing you after a quite while. I hope you are doing fine. Have a good day.
The weather is colder day by day! Especially in the morning. Today on my way to office I enjoyed the grass and leaves touched with the night freeze. (I will try to share those beautiful patterns in my next post... at least I plan doing so). let me treat you with a !BEER -- as I'm out of pizza sorry 😁😁😘
Do share more :)
Being from another side of the planet, it fascinates me to see 'true' winter through your eyes.
Thanks for the beer.
In same way, I always being fascinated with mangrow forests, and low sea tide walks. "What you have is trivia, what you dont have-- you value a lot!" . so true. ☘️
That's totally true.
Good to hear we have similar thought on this.
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BEER.Lovely outing visiting parks that are free for all to enjoy, pity the Chinese area being sold off with interesting architectural style obviously what you would enjoy.
Finding time to allow the youth to meet, going in your own direction making the day fulfilling to all, thanks for sharing your region and wonderful photographic visuals to enjoy as well.
!LUV
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Not all of the area, just the best and more solid part. At least - we did enjoy two Chinese bridges, and one of them had those splendid bronze lions, relief 🤩 Glad you enjoyed the visuals, Joan. Let me treat you back with some Hive !PIZZA? ☘️ 🍕 ☘️
Upsetting when one returns to find changes that are not favourable to the people who enjoy seeing places like this. History wrapped up around every corner.
Great photos!
I want this walk too!
I represent your pleasure!
Да, детям везде хорошо, можно было бы и не ехать так далеко чтобы просто потусить вместе. Но увы, мы не близкие соседи, иначе было не увидеться. А осень -- стремительно проходит мимо, хоть пару раз выгулять себя с камерой... кхе, кхе...
А у нас осень, ещё не началась.
Днём температура +29-30, а вечером +20-21.
Осень у нас зимой будет 🙂
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I gifted $PIZZA slices here:
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Beautiful Sunday walk photo story! Thanks for sharing it with us, @qwerrie.
Glad you enjoyed the vizuals! Wish you and your family more sunny outdoors days in the year. !BEER
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BEER.Wow it was a great weekend getaway
Beautiful walk @qwerrie
I can imagine, knowing it was restored a year ago and you find it in this state…
The park is lovely. The leaves turned for fall.
Great captures of the mushrooms.
Thanks for sharing your day out 👋🏻😊
thanki! I took much more. there was an alley with the remains of oak stumps, each of them was rotten, slightly sticking out of the ground, covered with dead oak leaves, lichens and fungi... very picturesque, each is a natural still-life :P if I wasn't walking with my family, and armed with a macro lens... I would spend at least an hour near them. all in all, this will be a separate post!
and here is a hot mushroom !PIZZA for you 🍄
Aawww that sounds magical @qwerrie 😉 looking forward to it.
I know the feeling, when with others one can’t spend hours watching one thing… happens to me too hahaha
Have a great day!
!PIZZA
Nice park to visit
thank you! its better goes with some treats for the local squirrels -- they do not accept !BEER
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BEER.Hey @oasiskp2, here is a little bit of
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BEER.Lovely photos and a good time out for the kids to meet.
My !PIZZA is much better than those in the photo !LOLZ
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The plot thickens.
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ha! ha! !LOLZ at the statement... hmmm... but seriously, I would agree with you -- this time kidz chose to take pizza with chicken, curry and pineapples -- I cant say it is classic receipe or smth about that... not my cup of tea.
Glad that you agreed, as my !PIZZA has value and the good thing is that it can make many more pizza's 👍
Never heard of pizzas with those ingredients, but I suppose kidz have alien tastes 🤣 !LOLZ
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He was stuffed.
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Yeah, kids CAN DO THAT! while I still prefer old-fashioned classic !PIZZA, like quatro formaggi and margherita 🤩
I had a slice of !PIZZA yesterday topped with anchovies and pineapple. It was surprisingly nice, as the pineapple broke the slight bitterness and saltiness of the anchovies.
Those corrupt Russians, for goodness sake!!! 😅
It is good that young and not so young enjoy the same hobby in different proportions.
On a serious note, the park looks great! Love the orient structures. But sad for the naked trees. We are still in the green/yellowish stage.
Our yellowish stage is stremitelno ischezaet na glazax ;) but still, there are some maples out there. and they already clean the ground / lawns from the lineage carpet -- thats the most sad and annoying part for me, all those Big Black Corpse Bags. I have to kick myself out for a few walks to catch the very tail of all this... and take some shots. (Seems they are 'pleasurable' and can earn me a few dollars, lol). Cant treat you with pizza today, sorry... but maybe I still have some !BEER in the fridge. Take care, wish health to you and your family.
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BEER.Hiya, @livinguktaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #1679.
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wow, all of a sudden! that is a pure pleasure 🤩 surely I will do my buzzing more happily now. meow!!
The weekend you spent was very comfortable when I saw the various photos you showed. Always healthy my friend
Yeah, kidz were happy too. 🙏 let me treat you with some Hive !BEER, I remember you like it 😊
Hehehe, thank you very much for the beer my brother
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