Wednesday Walk: Follow the Colourful Cat

A colourful cat walks slowly along a ledge. Where to and from where? Would a normal cat share his plans with all comers? No, of course not! But maybe we should go in the same direction? But first, let's have another look at this cat!

The cat is quite small, and it is so well placed under the second-floor windows that it seems as if the cat has always walked there, ever since the house was built. The building on whose façade the cat walks is typical of the historic buildings of the neighbourhood I am about to walk in. It was not the richest area of the city. It was mainly inhabited by merchants and craftsmen. The people who settled in this area were not very wealthy, but they were good at choosing a place to live.

The historical name of the area is Sands. A sand ridge, formed from the sediments of an ancient sea, passed through here. St Petersburg is a flat city in the delta of the Neva River, and low-lying coastal areas can be flooded during floods. But the sandy ridge is slightly elevated and never flooded. The nobles chose the more picturesque area on the banks of the Neva to build their palaces: they were rich enough to survive a visit from the river waters to their dwellings. But those who thought more rationally would have preferred to settle a little farther from the grand centre, but in greater safety. That's why the area is mostly built up with eclectic and neo-classical buildings, although you can sometimes see richly decorated Art Nouveau facades in the rows of these houses.

The cat, which I saw on the facade at the beginning, set the mood for my walk. I was scrutinising the facades in search of interesting details when I suddenly felt like I was being looked at too. I looked around: that's right! A black cat with white paws was staring at me. He had chosen a strategic position: not too high, but above the heads of passers-by.

I reached the house where the writer Vsevolod Garshin lived. A small human figure was fixed above the plaque. I was about to cross the street to approach that house when I suddenly noticed that there was some interesting street art on my side of the street too. Surprisingly, I hadn't noticed it before! The rocket doesn't look new, so I decided to check on Yandex panoramas to see how long it's been on the wall of the house. The rocket was already here in 2013. I don't visit the area very often, but in ten years I couldn't help but walk down this street at least a few times. I must have only glanced at the Garshin House every time I passed by.

In search of interesting objects, I turned to the courtyards, if the passage was open. In one courtyard, I saw a small staircase between two parts of the courtyard. Perhaps there was a difference in topography, which was only preserved in one place. In another courtyard I saw graffiti. "Miss me?" - Morriarty asks us. No, not really!

It's been a great day - warm, sunny - and the residents of nearby houses have taken their pets out for walks. Some of these pets look rather exotic for a twenty-first century metropolis.

I love textured walls. Every year there are fewer and fewer of these walls left. The uneven plaster, the old brick, the wooden details - artistically it all looks so much richer than a plain, monochrome paint job.

In the next courtyard I encountered a huge flowerbed. The cars had to vacate part of the courtyard. It's really a sacrifice on their part - parking on the street is paid for. Even now, at the very beginning of the season, the flowerbed is already looking very attractive. I can imagine how beautiful it will be in two weeks - and then all summer! I finish my walk near the cat house. The pigeons seem to think this feeder belongs to them too.

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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.