Outra flor, uma canção

Laat me, uma versão cover da canção francesa Ma dernière volonté (Vivre), interpretada por Serge Reggiani em 1977, fala-nos de alguém que, olhando para a história da sua vida e apesar do seu percurso errante, não se arrependeu do que viveu, tendo seguido sempre o seu caminho e pedindo que assim o deixem continuar ( "Ik heb het altijd zo gedaan"/ Eu sempre fiz assim).

Neste video, Wende Snijders canta as duas primeiras e a sétima estrofes em francês, de acordo com a letra de Vivre, de Sylvain Lebel e interpretada por Serge Reggiani em 1977, e as restantes, em neerlandês, de acordo com a letra de Laat me, escrita por Herman Pieter de Boer e cantada por Ramses Shaffy, no ano seguinte, em 1978, mas saltando a quinta e sexta estrofes da mesma letra e substituíndo a sétima pela letra francesa, como referi.

Para quem queira conhecer a letra integral de Vivre, basta clicar aqui.

Para aqueles que nos acompanham e querem aprender um pouco mais de neerlandês: a letra integral de Laat me, de H. P. de Boer. Um poema muito bonito, que vale a pena conhecer.

Ramses Shaffy, Laat me (Versão Original, 1978)

Ik ben misschien te laat geboren, 
Of in een land met ander licht.
Ik voel me altijd wat verloren, 
Al toont de spiegel mijn gezicht.

Ik ken de kroegen en kathedralen, 
Van Amsterdam tot aan Maastricht.
Toch zal ik elke dag verdwalen, 
Dat houdt de zaak in evenwicht. 

LAAT ME, LAAT ME, LAAT MIJ GEWOON MIJN GANG MAAR GAAN.
LAAT ME, LAAT ME, IK HEB HET ALTIJD ZO GEDAAN. 

Ik zal m'n vrienden niet vergeten, 
Want wie mij lief is blijf me lief.
En waar ze wonen moest ik weten, 
Maar ik verloor hun laatste brief. 

Ik zal ze heus wel weer ontmoeten, 
Misschien vandaag of volgend jaar. 
Ik zal ze kussen en begroeten, 
Het komt vanzelf weer voor elkaar.
(refrein) 

Ik ben gelukkig niet veranderd,
Soms woon ik hier, soms woon ik daar.
Ik heb mijn leven niet verkankerd,
 'k heb geen bezit en geen bezwaar.

Ik hou van water en van aarde, 
Ik hou van schamel en van duur. 
D'r is geen stuiver die ik spaarde,
Ik leef gewoon van uur tot uur.
(refrein) 

Ik zal ook wel een keertje sterven, 
Daar kom ik echt niet onderuit. 
Ik laat mijn liedjes dan maar zwerven, 
En verder zoek je het maar uit. 

Voorlopig blijf ik nog je zanger,
Je zwarte schaap, je trouwe fan. 
Ik blijf nog lang, en liefst nog langer,
En laat me blijven wie ik ben. 

LAAT ME, LAAT ME, LAAT MIJ GEWOON M'N GANG MAAR GAAN.
LAAT ME, LAAT ME, IK HEB HET ALTIJD ZO GEDAAN.
LAAT ME, LAAT ME, LAAT ME

Uma flor, uma voz

Desta Primavera...

A mais linda camélia do jardim.

A minha cantora holandesa favorita, Wende Snijders, numa interpretação que gostei muito (especialmente a parte final, a partir do minuto 2:58), do clássico de Edith Piaf, "La vie en rose".

Bom fim-de-semana! :-)

Gardening

Hello!!! How are you? :-)
I hope you are doing fine. I have been away from the blog but for several and good reasons.May was a month full of interesting activities in Almere and the Sun, especially in the second half of the month, was absolutely gorgeous. So we have been enjoying this gift from the Heaven, and I'm glad we did it because this week is raining a lot again. We also took advantage of the nice weather to work on the front garden. Let's see what we have done so far? :-)

Do you like this flowerbed?
We bought these daisies and decorations in the Pentecost's weekend at the Luilakmarkt  in Almere and the new soil at Ranzijn store. This flowerbed is now more colourful, simple and easy to manage. Bye-bye arm pains because of the ivy pruning. I still need to paint this part of the fence, but that's all. The hardest part of this job was removing the ivy and the tree that were previously here.

From Sábado Pentecostes 2012 & BBQ

We also replaced  the lamp of the frontyard. We bought this one in Gamma  with a very nice discount.;-) Very Dutch procedure! ;-)

From Jardim

From the biggest flowerbed, I removed the two buxus and planted instead some red flowers.

From Jardim

We decided to keep the maple (acer) and the pine tree but remove the small bushes in between, so we could make the flowerbed with the pink stones that we had bought at Kippersluis.

From Jardim

From the other corner we removed the tree in the flowerbed and planted these camellias instead. Aren't they lovely? :-)

From Jardim

As you can see in the photo below, we still need to clean the brick pavers.Our neighbours will lend us the proper machine to do it.
This tree was already in the frontyard when we came to live here, but in the front flowerbed among several bushes that we removed last year, as you may remember, so we could plant hortensias instead.

From Jardim

Here we also planted hortensias.The little grey pebbles you see avoid the weed to appear as often, and that means less work in the future and no more pains in the back.

From Jardim

I've also bought more kabouters, this time in Xenos, to decorate the biggest flowerbed. Aren't they funny? 

" I didn't see, I didn't hear, I didn't say anything.". In fact, I appreciate discrete people. ;-)
In the evening, these kabouters spread some light because they recharge during the day through the sunlight. Very ecological, don't you think?. ;-)

From Jardim

This kabouter is nice for the birds. Here they can drink rain water.

From Jardim

So, tell me, what do you think about our renewed front garden?
I should have taken some pictures to show you how it was before, so you could see the differences:

the fence was grey and now is brown;
there were a lot of bushes and a tree in the front flowerbed and now there are hortensias;
we have now small grey pebbles covering the soil, pink stones surrounding the flowerbeds and kabouters decorating;
in the corner flowerbeds, we had trees and walls covered with ivy and now we have daisies and camellias;

I used to have a lot of work to keep the front garden clean and tidy: a lot of leaves to sweep, a lot of ivy to prune and a lot of weed to remove every two weeks. This kind of work is no longer necessary.

From Jardim

I hope now we will enjoy more the garden. Let's see if we find a pretty set of two chairs and a small table with a nice discount.
;-)

From Jardim

By the way, are you spotting the Dutch flags in the picture? The European Football Championship is starting. Good luck Portugal! Good luck Holland! :-) More for Portugal, of course! ;-))

Kabouters

After those wonderful two weeks in Greece, I went to Portugal specially to visit my mother and do her big house cleaning. My mother is now 73, she is a widow and has many difficulties to do some of the chores because of her back and bone problems. Living in a second floor without a lift, it's not possible  anymore for her to carry heavy bags full of old things to the garbage or to take heavy bags full of clothes, shoes and other stuff to give away. My mom has the help of a lady who goes there once a week to do the usual cleaning, but that's all.

Initially, I was planning to stay about two weeks in Portugal, but soon I realized that I would need to stay more time- in fact the whole month- to do the proper visits to my family and friends, and specially to finish my job. The last big cleaning I've done there was five years ago.

I was very tired when I arrived here. I have worked until the last minute, but I was happy because I left everything organized for my mom to enjoy her everyday life in a much smoothier way, like reaching easily the things in the cupboard without the danger of domestic accidents. You already know how careful I am with my mommy.

So, I guess you can imagine how nice it was, after a month of hard work, to arrive in the Netherlands and see the new flowerbed's brick fence in the front garden as well as the pebbles to reduce the amount of weed.
A very nice surprise from my hubby! :-)

From Coisas Minhas - Jardim

I was so happy with the new look of the front garden that I went to Blokker to buy some kabouters or gnomes. I also bought some mushrooms. According to Dutch Mythology, a kabouter is a tiny folkloric man who traditionally wears a pointy red hat, lives in harmony with nature and resides in mushrooms. (Wikipedia)
:-)

Do you like my kabouters? :-)

From Coisas Minhas - Jardim

From Coisas Minhas - Jardim

From Coisas Minhas - Jardim

From Coisas Minhas - Jardim

From Coisas Minhas - Jardim

The end result...;-)

From Coisas Minhas - Jardim

:-)

Yes, the hortensias changed from blue to pink. That is because of the soil.
Looking at my hortensias, I believe they have missed me during my stay in Portugal, don't you agree? ;-)

I think we have done a very good job in the front garden. As you already may know, during last Spring, we have cleaned the weed, took away the previous plants and the tree in front of the doorway, painted the fences and the doorpost and also planted the hortensias.

I hope next Spring to finish the other flowerbeds. And have more photos to share with you, of course!! :-))

Stay well!

My Frontyard

As you already may know, since we came from Disneyland Paris, we have been busy with the frontyard (voortuin).

Yesterday, we put this bell we have bought at Intratuin. They have many garden decorations as this one related with the Efteling Park theme.

From Coisas Minhas

I wanted to create a clear and colourful entrance with blue and white hortensias in the front garden.

From Coisas Minhas

So, in May, we have taken away all the bushes and the tree located next to the fence.

The tree we took away...

From Almere (III)

From Almere (III)

...and the place where it was...

From Almere (III)

We had so much work in the voortuin during the last weeks! Sixteen bags like these went to the garbage bin.

From Almere (III)

We bought the hortensias at the Pinksterdag markt (Pentecost Market).

From Almere (III)

Before planting the hortensias, we painted the fence and the door frame. The first in brown and the second in white.

From Coisas Minhas

Now I want to buy more garden decorations and take away the tree in front of the kitchen's window.
I will give it to Masha, the daughter of the previous owners. She planted it when she was younger. It's Masha's tree ;-)
I'm thinking about planting red roses instead, you see... :-)