Summer in March

Where are youu the lovers of summer, only summer, and absolutely not the cold and wet winter? 😁

I cannot really place myself in that category, especially because I started loving summer, strong sun and heat a few years ago. Now I like all seasons equally. Maybe that kind of realization comes with age. It is like when you are a child and you only like max two things to eat for lunch, and then you grow up and become a lover of all kinds of food, both traditional dishes and all the world cuisines that exist.

So if another season suddenly appeared, I would probably love that one instantly as well. I am thinking now about how that would look, without connecting it to the four seasons we already have. Do not know. I cannot imagine anything so unusual and different that it would earn its place among these twelve months. Even we who used to have the regular four seasons seem to be moving toward having only two, and here I am dreaming about introducing a fifth one. Silly me. xD

This beach is ours. I know that by law a few meters from the riverbed belong to the state, and that nearby properties sometimes change as the river slowly changes its course. But the access to this beautiful sandy river beach goes through our land, so for a long time people have called it Janicko. The name means that it belongs to someone named Jana and Jana was the grandmother of my great grandmother - my great great great grandmother.

It has always had this lovely fine sand, just like at the sea.

Now the recent rainfall has raised the river and brought even more of it just in time for the swimming season (in june). I am talking as if summer is already here and we will be splashing in the water tomorrow. 😁

In earlier years, many people used to go there. They would come even from nearby villages and towns. Everyone, from grandmas and grandpas, to young people, to the youngest little kids. One year, I think it was 2016, at one moment we counted more than 100 people there, which was really fascinating.

We would always bring sunflower seeds, some fruit, peanut snacks, something that keeps you full when the water and swimming make you tired, and then we would share everything with each other. Sometimes we would light a small fire too. When the young corn arrives toward the end of summer, we pick some from the nearby fields. I will not say we steal it, we just help ourselves a little, haha. Then we roast it and everyone eats together.

It was always fun there. We played cards, chased each other around the beach, built a small jumping platform from bags filled with sand, and one year some groups even got together and made a really good volleyball net, so we also played beach volleyball. 🏖️

I will not lie to you and say the water is clean, because it is not. But those of us who grew up on the banks of this river and learned to swim here were never really disgusted or afraid of it. But I am sorry for that... people in Serbia generally do not have much awareness about protecting the environment. Not because of some magical idea of "saving the planet", but simply so that the place where we live can be nicer and more pleasant for us.

All of these photos were taken last week when I went for a walk with my sister and our dog Maza. ❤️

That is usually our route. We go down near the river, walk along the path where our beach is, and then from below, across the railway, we reach our weekend house, the old house of my great grandmother that I often write about here. The land where the house stands is just above the road and the railway, right above this beach. Which makes sense, because all of that used to be one single property owned by one person, one of my ancestors.

The way I set out that day in my winter boots and a sweater, I immediately started shedding layers as soon as we arrived and sat on the steps in front of the house. Coffee brewed on a mini gas stove, the sun gently touching our skin and revealing every little blemish, making them even more visible xD, the two of us enjoying that lovely day, well, pardon me, three of us, I must not forget Miss Maza, who spent the whole time running around the yard and catching lizards (she is an excellent hunter; no lizard or mouse can escape her notice).

A real summer idyll in March! 😍