Wednesday Walk: Polar rose and robots

I was reading city news on a website, and in one of the posts, I came across a list of city gardens that had planted sakura trees. The list was short, and I quickly looked through it from beginning to end. All of these locations have been known to me for a long time. I try to get out in the spring to at least one of these places to admire the blossoms. But one name came as a surprise to me. I decided to go to this garden to check the information.

Decembrists Garden is located on Decembrists Island, not far from the metro station. It is a relatively small garden, and it is not suitable for a long walk. Therefore, I made the route of the walk as follows: take the metro to the garden, walk around the garden, then walk along the streets of Dekabristov Island to the Smolenka River, and finish my walk on the neighbouring Vasilyevsky Island. I wasn't expecting to see any architectural landmarks on Decembrists Island, but I was hoping to come across something interesting or pretty during this walk.

I walked the whole garden from end to end, but I never found any sakura trees. The leaves on the trees are already blooming and the sakura blossom time will be over soon. But the cherry and apple trees will be blooming soon. I assume the journalist who wrote the article is not a good botanist and confused sakura with apple blossoms. But another tree has bloomed in this garden, and those flowers are even rarer than the sakura.

The flowers of Siberian larch are sometimes called polar roses, they are indeed very similar to buds. But over time, these buds will lose their colour and become cones. Larch trees do not bloom every year: mature cones can remain on the branches for up to 4 years.

Decembrists Island is mostly built up with typical modern buildings, but in the part of the island that adjoins the embankment of the Smolenka River, a few old houses have been preserved. Part of the territory is occupied by old workshops, warehouses and the like. I met a robot near the entrance to an auto parts shop. The wall of the neighbouring building is decorated with flowers. Soon I came to the embankment of the Smolenka River. During this walk I didn't meet any special sights, but I enjoyed strolling through the garden and streets, paying attention to interesting details and admiring the fresh foliage on the trees.

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Smartphone	Google Pixel 3a
Location	Saint Petersburg, Russia

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