Recently, we've been having those crazy hot days and I can't stop thinking about Easter time this year when the temperature was about 20 degrees Celsius and we spent all the time outside with my family. Right now, we stay inside with my husband unless we want to get some ice cream 馃檪
I love nature around my hometown. When I was younger, we were going deep in the forest with my friends to climb the trees, play hide and seek, collect berries or mushrooms or just hang out. I still enjoy remembering those little adventures. Once, we saw a small snake on our path, freaked out and I can tell you that I have never run so fast in my life! That snake was about 50 cm long and harmless, and I can't even imagine how we would have reacted if it was bigger and aggressive.
These days, I don't dare to go so far away in the forest as we have a large population of bears as well as wolves and I wouldn't like to encounter either one of them. I remember my father in law asked me once what kind of wild animals we had in Slovakia and him being shocked when I told him that we have no wild animals, only bears and wolves. It's true, we don't have any lions, tigers or hippos! 馃檪 These are what I consider wild animals, not foxes or hares that they have in The Netherlands! It became our family joke.
We have a great recreational resort about 3 km from my mom's place which is perfect for a family day trip. It's a nice long walk which leads to several smaller lakes, large parks, stands with food and multiple barbecue spots.
In the past, the lakes were used to grow fish but now they are only used for swimming. There is clay at the bottom of the lake, so the water is brown and you can't see the bottom. People don't seem to mind and enjoy swimming there but I prefer to stay out of it as I have to see the bottom to enter.
Right next to the lake is the river Cirocha. The water here is very clean as it's coming out of a drinking water dam which is only a few kilometers away from here. This was my favorite summer spot when I was a child. We didn't have enough money to travel during the school vacation, so this was the place where my parents would bring us to enjoy water. We had a lot of fun here!
The first mention of this area dates back to 1623. It was classified as a garden with two small lakes and a fountain. It belonged to the Drugeth family who used to be one of the most powerful families in the region.
A few years ago, the city has started to renovate it's cultural heritage and there is something new every time we visit now. Last time, I enjoyed seeing these cute bird houses that are the work of a local carpenter.
This time we took our little monster with us and I must say that he enjoyed the trip a lot. He found some delicious sticks on the ground and chew on them for a very long time.
It's a hard work to chew on sticks though...
I don't even want to know what he was thinking here but I interpreted it like this: OMG! Can't you see I'm busy? You know I hate this thing that you keep pointing at me, so just stop it! You are so annoying!
I left him alone with my husband and went around the lake to take some pictures. Spring is my favorite time of the year as everything starts to bloom and the colors are full and bright.
I used to collect these flowers when I was a child, create a small bouquet together with some sort of grass that I found and bring it to my mom as a gift. My family thought that I would for sure become a florist. They were so wrong even though I would enjoy working with flowers more than I enjoy working with numbers in my actual day job. 馃檪
It was getting light and the light became so pretty!
This is how a bush looked like that day..
There was a storm during the night and this is what was left of the blossom next day 馃檪 There was not even one little flower remaining on the bush next day!
Thank you for joining me on our walk!
Cheers!
Martina
