Happy Birthday to my siblings

[strannik01]

Happy Birthday to annanov and vladiatorrGetting all three of us together in one spot has been complicated in the best of times in the last nine years, and, in these pandemic times, I don't hold out hope that it might happen this calendar year. But I wish you both a happy socially distanced birthday, and hope that you will make it through this with your sanity and

Comments

[kaffy_r]

I'm just discovering this post, and I have to say you're right - it's a very cute picture, and you're a very cute youngster! Where was the picture taken

I hope your siblings did have good birthdays.

[strannik01]

Where was the picture taken

It was taken back in 1994 at the "Old Petergof." Basically, it started out as a settlement where the "palace" serfs (in other word, serfs who were owned by the crown rather than one of the nobles) who were supposed to built a summer palace for Emperor Peter the Great. When the emperor changed his mind and decided to built the palace further east, another serf village, the "New Petergof," grew around that. They eventually became one city, and the palace with its vast gardens has since become a museum.

This is not the palace garden, but the forested area at what used to be a front line during the Siege of Leningrad. There used to be a palace originally buit for some noble that got flattened during the fighting, and nobody bothered to rebuild it - but its ruins were fascinating playground, especially when you're tiny enough to crawl around in some of the tighter spaces, let me tell you.

My mom actually has an English-language post about that summer, with some more photos. (Side note - I wouldn't call the