Wednesday Walk in the Oaks Park

According to legend, Emperor Peter the Great once took a boat trip along the Gulf of Finland and noticed a small grove of oaks on the northern shore. The emperor was delighted. Peter the Great was very fond of this particular kind of wood. He immediately ordered his flotilla to moor to the shore in such a wonderful place. Subsequently, the emperor arranged one of his seaside residences here with a large park. He ordered to expand the existing oak grove as much as possible. About 200 new oak saplings were planted, some of them the emperor planted himself. All this happened in 1714.

There is no doubt about the fact of the existence of Peter the Great's residence in this place, nor about the description of the garden's layout, nor about the fact that Peter the Great planted several oaks here himself. There are historical evidences about these events, which can be found in the archives. But I am surprised by the beginning of the story. How could an oak grove appear in this place? As we know, oaks are not common trees in the north. Oaks are broadleaf forests, and if you look at a map of natural zones, you will immediately notice that broadleaf forests are located much further south than our northern city. Even the mixed forest zone ends further south. We have taiga here, and the basis of taiga is spruce, pine and other coniferous trees.

It would be wrong to say that oaks are rare trees in our area - as rare as palms or baobabs, for example. But almost all of our oaks have been planted and carefully nurtured by man. Oaks can grow in our latitudes if they are planted and nurtured. They are beautiful trees, and they are very popular with landscape architects. But it seems amazing that a grove of oaks could grow on its own on a deserted shore. On the other hand, where there are oaks, there are wild boars - and wild boars are not hard to find on the Karelian Isthmus.

So, that day I went for a walk in the park "Oaks". The name of the park could be translated more accurately as "Small, recently planted oaks" - but I found no way to describe this state of the woodland with one word of English. In the original, the name sounds like a reminder of the time when 200 young oaks had just been planted by order of the Emperor with his direct involvement. More than 300 years have passed since then, and right now it would be more correct to say that this is a park with very old oaks. The basis of the landscape is made up of trees more familiar to our latitudes, but oaks are also found in the park.

The park is located on a wide promontory in the small town of Sestroretsk, a suburb of St. Petersburg. I started my walk at a far point, I walked out onto the beach on the Gulf of Finland to admire the sea horizons, and then entered the park through a nearby gate. If you look very, very closely at the top photos taken at the beginning of the walk, you'll notice there are little black dots near the horizon. Those are the fishermen. In one of the photos, you can see a fisherman on a motorized sled heading toward the shore and crossing an area with melted ice near the shore. The previous few days had been warm and the ice was starting to melt.

The thaw is not very noticeable in the park. It would take something more substantial than a few days with temperatures around 0°C to melt the huge snow drifts. The central paths in the park are sprinkled with sand and are easy and pleasant to walk on. Bird feeders and benches are placed next to the paths. Did you notice the design of the urns? The urns are set into hollowed out wooden stakes and look like tree stumps.

My goal was to reach the observation deck. I reached this point during sunset. The winter day is short and the sunset colors painted the sky as early as four in the afternoon. The sunset was the highlight of my walk. I then turned onto the wide center avenue to exit the park and return home.

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