Wednesday Walk in Forestry Academy Park

Forestry Academy, main building

This morning I didn't know what to expect from the weather. It was overcast outside, and the forecast said "sometimes rain, sometimes sun". Not a good forecast for a trip out of town, is it? But that's no reason to sit at home all day.

Jensen park vase in the park of the Forestry Academy

So, I decided to go for a walk in one of the city parks. I wanted to go somewhere I didn't know too well. All the parks near my house are well known to me, and all the paths in them have been walked many times. These parks remain just as beautiful, but I wanted a new experience.

Pond in the park near the main building

I rarely go to the northern parts of the city. Getting to these areas is not very convenient for me, it is easy to get into traffic jams when using the ground method of travel. Therefore, the route is built as follows: "go to the subway - a few subway stops - go from the subway to the park"... in other words, it is faster and easier to get to some suburban parks than to the parks in the northern areas of the city.

Hospital building with pharmacy, 1880s

I chose a park to walk to almost at random; I looked at a map and chose the green space that seemed more easily accessible. There were only a couple of stops from the subway to the entrance to this park that I could walk to, and plenty of public transportation nearby.

Faculty block

My choice was Forestry Academy Park. I formed my expectations based on the location of the institute and its name. I expected to see modern academic buildings - something of glass and concrete, and a park of exotic tree species around it. How wrong I was!

Faculty block

Faculty block

The Forest Institute, aka Forestry Academy, was founded at the very beginning of the 19th century. The Institute occupied the wooden buildings of an old farm on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. In 1820's - in 1830's for the Institute was built a large stone academic building, but the old wooden buildings also continued to be used. Moreover, some of these wooden buildings have survived to this day.

A large wooden professor's wing, the 1830s

Forget-me-not flowers near the professor's wing

As for the park, it grows the most common trees for the average strip. Exotic plants you can also find, but not in the park, but nearby, in the educational Botanical Garden. Unlike the park, this Botanical Garden is not freely accessible, and I could not find any information about tours.

Fence of a long pond

The weather remained overcast at the beginning of my walk, but gradually the blue gaps in the sky grew larger and larger, and finally the sun peeked out. I had already traversed the park from east to west, and then I found myself near its border, on Bolshoi Sampsonievsky Prospect.

Bolshoi Sampsonievsky Prospekt

There were a few old houses there, but the main part of the houses was modern. But I took one picture in which the new buildings are almost invisible, and it may seem that you are in the last century: the old houses and the old railroad bridge.

My idea was to take the streetcar to go towards home. It was miserable to leave - the weather had just gotten better, but I was going to stick to my plan. The streetcar came to the stop, and I was ready to go inside - but it turned out that the streetcar had finished its work day and was going to the streetcar depot! I was involuntarily glad that I didn't have to leave right away... so I thought it was a sign and went back to the park to walk around some more.

An academic building in the northern part of the park

I hadn't been to the north end of the park yet, so that's where I headed. I saw some more nice old buildings. I was intrigued by a mysterious structure on the wall of one of the buildings. What was it? Judging by its chimney, it was an oven of some kind, but why was it so strangely located? This construction attracted not only my attention, a group of young people taking selfies on its background.

Bam! Autumn is here

Farther along I came across an unexpected warning "Bam! Autumn is here" the inscription on the wall of a transformer booth informed me. Indeed, summer in our latitudes is so short that before you know it, it will be autumn. Not a single hour should be missed! But for now it's still June, and we can walk through the parks and rejoice in the blossoms of bird cherry and apple trees.

Janitor's cottage

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