42!

A cozy birthday party this time.Just a trip to Amsterdam. A lunch in a place I like very much. My dear friend R. who lives nearby. My husband, of course. Many laughs. Beautiful presents from Portugal and The Netherlands.Lovely emails.Chocolate liqueur.Amusing talks by internet. Music.Funny e-cards. Laughs. Cozy, very cozy. I'm happy! :-)

The Birthday Cake:

A Vlaai - a typical cake from the Dutch province of Limburg. My husband bought it at a Multivlaai store in Almere.

From Coisas Minhas III

From Coisas Minhas III

The Restaurant:
Pancake Bakery, located in the same street of Anne Frank's House, in Amsterdam. I love their pancakes! They are delicious!

From Coisas Minhas III

From Coisas Minhas III

The cadeautjes and postcards from my husband...and Fofinho! :-))

From Coisas Minhas III

Have fun!!!! :-)))

Abra suas asas 
Solte suas feras 
Caia na gandaia 
Entre nessa festa!... 

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!

Snow, Snow and Snow

Today it didn't stop snowing all day!

I've had my umbrella, but nevertheless, it was too intense and it was difficult to walk!

From Natal 2010

I wait and wait for the bus and nothing! No buses to the city center.

Look how it was nearby the bus stop...beautiful ;-) but intense :-)

From Natal 2010

From Natal 2010

I came back home.

From Natal 2010

From Natal 2010

Look at the backyard at 4 pm...

From Natal 2010

My arms are aching! Before it became too dark, I cleared the path between the living room's door and the backyard's door, as well as the path in the frontyard, between the front door and the sidewalk.

From Natal 2010

After clearing the paths, I began to uncovering the car. My neighbour Robin was doing the same as me. He began to talk to me in Dutch and I took the chance to practice a bit more this difficult language. Nice talk! He was in Lisbon, Sintra and Obidos and showed me a photo of this medieval Portuguese town :-)

After a while, I went home. It was so cold. I took off the wet clothes and I drank a cup of soup.

From Natal 2010

Christmas Market in Amersfoort

Hello, there! How are you? ;-)

From Coisas Minhas

Let me show you Sandra's Christmas preparations :-)

She went to the Christmas Market in Amersfoort and look what she bought...;-)

A little pillow to put her cup of tea when she is studying, reading or... writing Christmas postcards ;-)

From Coisas Minhas

When the cup of tea is on the pillow, it begins to smell like pepernoten. Mmm, so nice! ;-)

From Coisas Minhas

She also found very cute postcards,

From Coisas Minhas

like this one, a gift's package!! ;-)

From Coisas Minhas

From Coisas Minhas

Or this one, to display on a shelf,

From Coisas Minhas

wishing Merry Christmas to all the visitors, friends and family ;-)

From Coisas Minhas

Sandra was enchanted with this box with God's Promises ;-)

From Coisas Minhas

From Coisas Minhas

Each card has some quotes from the Bible...

From Coisas Minhas

She displayed it like this...do you like it?

From Coisas Minhas

Of course, the aim of the box is to let her find spiritual comfort in God's words :-)

Finally, she has found this card to wrap candle cups.

From Coisas Minhas

Beautiful, isn't it? ;-)

I wish you all a Merry Christmas! :-)

Snow in my gardens

A great snow day! :-)

I don't remember nothing like this since I'm living here...;-)

In the backyard

From Coisas Minhas

From Coisas Minhas

From Coisas Minhas

In the frontyard

From Coisas Minhas

From Coisas Minhas

From Coisas Minhas