The oaks of the old park and an August evening on the shore of the bay

I have long wanted to walk towards the shore of the Gulf of Finland from Martyshkino station. This station is located in a picturesque suburb of St. Petersburg, and it is easily accessible by suburban train, bus or car. But near this station there is an ordinary dacha settlement, while near the neighboring stations there are beautiful old parks. So every time I got off the suburban train either earlier or later - and I was sure that I would get maximum pleasure from the walk.

But no matter how beautiful the neighborhood parks are, sometimes you want to go somewhere you haven't been before. And this evening I decided to take just such a walk. I was particularly interested in two sights located not far from this station: the beach on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and the ancient oak trees, which in the XIX century served as the basis for famous paintings.

The first sight I met during my walk was an historic two-story wooden building of a parochial school. Now this building is mothballed, but a few years ago it was residential - I found photos of it on the Internet. There is a wooden well at the entrance to the building. I suspect that the well is also very old - now the inhabitants of the village use the central water supply.

There was a church next to the parochial school, but it has not survived to this day. A little farther away I came across a memorial sign that told me that in 1894 St. Righteous John of Kronstadt lived in a house on the shore of the bay. I didn't go any closer to this house - there was a sign at the beginning of the path notifying me that the area ahead was private and no visitors were welcome.

I didn't know exactly where the path leading to the beach started. So I just walked along the highway for a while, taking note of anything unusual or pretty that I saw along the way. Eventually I noticed a path leading deep into a coastal strip of bush. There were wild raspberry and rosehip bushes along the path - the raspberries were just starting to ripen.

Soon I came to the beach. The southern shore of the Gulf of Finland in this place is not the best place for beach vacation. The shore is swampy, the bay is shallow, and it is undesirable to swim here. But locals still come to the beach for sunbathing, relaxation and socializing.

There are several large boulders on the shore, and I made myself comfortable on one of them, taking a break from the road and watching the calm water surface. I also walked along the water for a bit - but the stretch of beach available for walking is quite small.

The next point of my route was the ancient oaks of the Mordvinovka estate. The Mordvinovka estate once occupied a vast plot of land on the upper and lower terraces of the Gulf of Finland, but only a small section of the park has survived. A few outbuildings - cellars and a water tower - have survived.

The main attraction of this place are the ancient oaks. Near one of these oaks there is an information stand telling about the history of the Mordvinovka estate. Unfortunately, one of the ancient oaks has withered away. It is preserved even in this condition, because these oaks are depicted on the paintings of Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, a master of realistic landscape of the second half of the XIX century.

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Smartphone	Google Pixel 3a
Location	Saint Petersburg, Russia

This is my entry for the #WednesdayWalk challenge by @tattoodjay and for the #MakeMeSmile challenge by @elizacheng.