In the middle of a forest

Imagine a place that is just an hour, maybe an hour and a half away from the city. Away from the place where you live. Yet, it is so distant that getting a phone reception there is a nightmare. You have to stretch to your limits, turn upside down (however that might have), or do any other things that will make you look totally hilarious to get the faintest phone reception that would maybe allow you to send a message. Maybe. Or will disappear in the middle of the process. And you'll have to start all over. (Well, it used to be like that when I first visited the place. Now it's easier to make a call ;)).

Imagine that you are woken up in the morning by the sun shining right on your face. You get downstairs, open the doors as wide as possible and drink your morning tea/coffee (or whichever beverage you prefer) listening to the birds singing beautifully right next to you.

You're in the middle of a forest. Just a few other houses (holiday homes) are around you. There's a great chance you'll meet nobody else here. Maybe one or two neighbours. If you're really lucky. But most of the time, you'll just have birds and squirrels as your neighbours.

The forest is full of blueberries. And mushrooms (rumour has it). If you're a fan. And butterflies. Colourful, magical. Ones that fly right next to you, not scared at all.

If you're bored with sitting by the house, you can always go down to the lake. The path is steep. And could get slippery, either from rain or from dry sand. But it's the fastest path to the lake. You can take a longer route. Take the road (forest road, not really for cars all that much), which is much safer. Well, at least in the sense that it's not so steep. Actually it's rather flat, believe it or not. Oh, and just beacuse it is wider and flatter, doesn't necessarily mean you'll meet more people there. Cause you probably won't.

When you already get to the lake, don't count on a beach. Just find yourself some place on the grass, drop your towel, shoes, clothes or whatever you wish to drop and get into water. You might see some people on the other side of the lake, but they won't bother you. It's still quiet. The water is clean. And refreshing.

This place. Kniewko, as we call it. Cause there's no official name, as far as I know. Just a street name (yes, that forest road has an official name. Sounds hilarious, but that's what it is ;)). In the middle of a forest. Away from civilisation. But close enough that if you really want to, you can commute to Tricity.

That's where we're going to rest after the whole road trip. Cause I figure we're going to be all exhausted, one way or another ;)

We're going to spend our last days of this year's holidays there. And by us I mean me and the kids. Cause I have a month off work (lucky me, I know) and my husband only three weeks. So I'm going to spend all days in Kniewko with the kids and Krzysiek is going to commute. So that he could spend the evenings and nights with us.

 I hope the weather is going to enable us all that...

Short holidays in May

And, as I’ve already mentioned, we’re back from the usually long weekend, but his time all week holidays in May. It was great! The weather was wonderful. Hot, sunny, we couldn’t have imagined a better one.

We went to Kniewo in Kashuby. Actually, Kniewo is not an official name or anything. It’s just used to described a few houses situated by the Kniewo Lake. It lies 2-3 km from Szymbark. And it is a perfect place to rest and recharge batteries. In the middle of a forest with birds singing from early morning till late night. And the lake nearby... Swan (one that we saw the first day), seagulls… Peaceful. Romantic. Picturesque. And the butterflies flying all around us! So colourful, so pretty! Honestly, amazing!

The first afternoon that we spent there, apart from going for a walk by the lake, we went to a farmhouse nearby. My husband still remembers the taste of fresh cow milk that they were buying from that house and he wanted our son to get to know that taste as well. Unfortunately, they don’t have cows anymore. Haven’t had any for almost two years now. But, as they could still recognise and remember my husband, they took our child for a walk around the farmhouse (which we didn’t expect at all). Our boy was thrilled! He got a chance to see pigs (two or three different kinds), rabbits, hens and almost-a-week-old kittens that he had a chance to stroke. He was over the moon when he had a chance to look for eggs in a henhouse. It was so much fun to watch him do all that stuff. And then he saw a small playground… And everything else didn’t matter anymore. Yup, everything and everyone loses to a good playground. Or any playground, for that matter.

Oh, oh, and the second day, to keep Arturek occupied while we were waiting for our friends to come and stay with us for the next days, we came up with the idea of making a wooden box for forest treasures. We wanted to convince him to collect whatever he liked in the forest - stones, sticks, pine cones... It did work... Until he figured out that he can turn it into a kind of garage for his cars. Well, not what we anticipated, but whatever made him happy :)

We spent a lot of time outdoors. Well, most of it actually. When we weren’t asleep. Walking, running, playing, swimming in the lake (well, maybe swimming is too big a word for most of us, but we were paddling!). That is correct, no mistake. The beginning of May. And we were paddling in the lake! Our son being, well not the first, but the most eager one to do it! It was freakishly hot, especially for this time of year. Almost 30 C degrees. We enjoyed ourselves a lot. We spent there something like five days and we got home sooo rested.

Jak już wspominałam, wróciliśmy ze zwykle długiego weekendu, a w tym roku całego tygodnia majowego. Było wspaniale! Pogoda była cudowna. Gorąco, słonecznie, nie mogliśmy sobie wymarzyć lepszej. 

Pojechaliśmy do Kniewka na Kaszubach. W gruncie rzeczy, Kniewko to nie jest żadna oficjalna nazwa. To tylko takie określenie domków położonych nad Jeziorem Kniewskim. Jest ono położone jakieś 2-3 km od Szymbarka. I jest idealnym miejscem na odpoczynek i podładowanie baterii. W środku lasu, z ptaszkami śpiewającymi od wczesnych godzin rannych do późnej nocy. I jezioro w okolicy... Łabędź (jeden, którego widzieliśmy pierwszego dnia), mewy... Spokojnie. Romantycznie. Malowniczo. I motyle latające dookoła nas! Takie kolorowe, takie ładne! Serio, niesamowite! 

Pierwszego popołudnia, poza obowiązkowym spacerem nad jezioro, przeszliśmy się również do okolicznego gospodarstwa. Mój mąż wciąż dobrze pamięta smak świeżego krowiego mleka, które kupowali właśnie z tamtego gospodarstwa i bardzo chciał, aby nasz synek również poznał ten smak. Niestety, gospodarz zrezygnował z hodowli krów. Nie mają krów już prawie dwa lata. Ale, jako że pamiętali i poznali mojego męża, gospodarz zabrał Arturka na spacer po gospodarstwie (czego kompletnie się nie spodziewaliśmy). Arturek był wniebowzięty! Widział świnki (dwa albo trzy różne gatunki), króliki, kurki i prawie tygodniowe kociaki, które mógł pogłaskać. Był absolutnie zafascynowany, kiedy udali się do kurnika w celu poszukiwania jajek. Bardzo fajnie oglądało się tę radość na jego twarzy. I wtedy zauważył malutki plac zabaw... I już nic więcej się nie liczyło. Tak, wszyscy i wszystko przegrywają w starciu z dobrym placem zabaw. Albo jakimkolwiek placem zabaw, w gruncie rzeczy. 

A, a drugiego dnia, gdy czekaliśmy na przyjazd przyjaciół, którzy mieli z nami zostać przez kilka dni, postanowiliśmy zająć Arturka budową drewnianej skrzynki na leśne skarby. Chcieliśmy go namówić, żeby zbierał w lesie cokolwiek mu się spodoba - kamyki, patyki, szyszki... i działało... Dopóki nie wpadł na genialny w swej prostocie pomysł, że skrzyneczka może pełnić funkcję garażu dla autek. No cóż, nie tego oczekiwaliśmy, ale grunt, że był szczęśliwy :)

Spędzaliśmy dużo czasu na dworze. Cóż, w zasadzie większość. Kiedy nie spaliśmy. Spacerując, biegając, bawiąc się, pływając (cóż, może pływając to zbyt duże słowo patrząc na większość z nas, ale zdecydowanie łaziliśmy po kolana w wodzie!). Tak, to prawda, nie ma tu żadnej pomyłki. Wchodziliśmy do ciepłego jeziora na samym początku maja! A nasz syn, może nie był pierwszy, ale najbardziej chętny, by siedzieć w wodzie! Było szalenie gorąco, szczególnie jak na tę porę roku. Prawie 30 stopni. Bardzo dobrze się bawiliśmy. Spędziliśmy tam jakieś pięć dni, a wróciliśmy do domu niesamowicie wypoczęci.   

The making of... the storage box for forest treasures / Budowa... skrzyneczki na leśne skarby

 The lake / Jezioro

 And some animals, or living creatures that we had chances to observe / Kilka zwierzątek i innych żyjątek, które mieliśmy możliwość podglądać

 Can you see this creepy face in the picture on the right?? / Widzicie tę przerażającą mordkę na zdjęciu z prawej??