Missing the Sea

After today’s depressing showers and cold wind, I feel I miss Italy more than ever but above all I miss the sea. That’s why I remembered this beautiful song that you will probably know in the English and/or French versions.
This the original version and my favourite one as well. Enjoy!



[Thanks to Donha Urraca for the video]

La mer
Qu'on voit danser le long des golfes clairs
A des reflets d'argent
La mer
Des reflets changeants
Sous la pluie

La mer
Au ciel d'ete confond
Ses blancs moutons
Avec les anges si purs
La mer bergere d'azur
Infinie

Voyez
Pres des etangs
Ces grands roseaux mouilles
Voyez
Ces oiseaux blancs
Et ces maisons rouillees

La mer
Les a berces
Le long des golfes clairs
Et d'une chanson d'amour
La mer
A berce mon coeur pour la vie.
(Charles Trénet)

(Translation:)
The sea
which we see dancing along the clear gulfs
has silver sparkles.
The sea
has changing sparkles
Under the rain.
The sea
To the summer sky's confuses her white sheep
With angels so pure.
The sea,
Shepherdess of infinite sky.
See
Next to the ponds
Those tall wet reeds.
See
Those white birds
And those rusty houses.
The sea
Has rocked them like a baby
Along the clear gulfs
And with a love song
The sea
Has rocked my heart for life.

London Calling

Hi Everybody, Thanks for commenting even though I haven’t been so “active” on blogger recently. Although I’ve been working throughout the summer and I haven’t been away from England I’ve still managed to cut out a couple of nice holiday moments for myself and my family. My daughter and I just had a great long weekend in London where we met my lovely auntie, my cousins and their children from Italy. Although we were in 8 around the busy streets of London we had a lot of fund. The kids were enthusiastic, but my auntie was the happiest of all to be finally in London. She had such a hard life in the past few years and she really deserves a bit of fun.

We hit on all the most famous sightseeing places in London, our feet were killing us but we kept on walking. Now I leave you with a series of photos my daughter took just to show you London from our kids’ perspective. Enjoy! Above, a bit of rest in the park just after visiting the Queen's Residence! Pity she wasn't in!!!

Almost obsolete to make calls, but still an excellent symbol of London!

Trafalgar Square, the base of Nelson's Column. They tried to ride the black lions but they were too slippery!

English breakfast. What a treat!!! Surely the best of the trip!

Time to get your head chopped????

Miles and miles of Tube travelling ....

Delicious cakes at Harrod's. The kids were told off for taking this picture. So sad!

Not sure why we ended up here, but everybody seemed to be happy....

Lacoste fashion in Knightbridge, although none of us bought this....

And finally a pink cub back to the station. Cute, isn'it???

I shot the Sheriff ...

The other day in York, in front of the Guildhall, there was a fundraising event in aid of the Lord Mayor's and Sheriff's Charities. For 50p or £1 you could throw wet sponges at the Mayor and Sheriff of York in turn.

My daughter took advantage of the chance of “shooting” a politician (or two) and here she is at work. She was so good at throwing that the Mayor’s servants offered her extra sponges for free.

During the year of office, the Lord Mayor also supports two local charities. This year the charities that will benefit from the fundraising activities are York Against Cancer and the Brunswick Organic Nursery.

York's Lord Mayor is second only to the Lord Mayor of London in precedence and its Sheriff holds the oldest office of Sheriff in England and Wales.

I wouldn't be tempted to "shoot" York's Lord Mayor not even with wet sponges as he's quite a nice guy! If it were Gordon Brown on the other end .....

Slow Gin?

During my day trips around Yorkshire (unfortunately no sunny Italy for me this summer!) I’ve come across something totally new and unusual to me: SLOEgin. It is a liqueur distilled in a farm near York. I didn’t know that that a sloe is a wild plum, the fruit of the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa). Hedgerow sloes are ready to be harvested from late September onwards.

The SLOEgin is made in the traditional way steeping hand-picked hedgerow sloes in London gin and sugar, then leaving it to mature. The result is a delicious ruby liqueur with the unique aromatic cherry-like notes of the sloe, a hint of the dryness of the gin and a strong warming glow.

I was told that you can also try it as a cocktail mixer with orange juice or lime (or both), vermouth or ginger beer or even champagne or sparkling wine.

Useless to say that this drink will feature as my welcome drink to my visiting friends until the end of the summer! You learn something new (and delicious!) every day.

Potter Mania

I’m not a fan of Harry Potter’s or rather I’m not a fan of the Harry Potter’s movies. After having refused to read the books for years some time ago my son has managed to convince me to read the first one with the consequence that I read them all within a very short time. And, surprise, surprise, I liked them. I owe a big thank to Harry Potter and JK Rowling for getting my teenage son into reading books. He started with Harry Potter and then got into reading more and more and his limited teenage vocabulary based on three-letter words and the usual grunts has widened dramatically. As said before, I’ve quite enjoyed the HP books myself, I find them well written, imaginative and definitely entertaining. I cannot say the same about the movies, though. Although The Chambers of Secrets, The Prisoner of Askaban and The Goblet of Fire were pretty good, in spite of the very wooden performance of the young actors who don’t seem to get better with age but only wealthier, the last two HP movies have become more a concentration of special effects than ad adaption of the book. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, last HP instalment, was rather a disappointment for me and my children as big chunks from the book are missing and it’s difficult to follow the story unless you’ve read the book. The director seems more focused on depicting the teenage love stories among the characters especially dwelling on their bad acting. I cannot really understand how Emma Watson, aka Hermione Granger, has managed to pile up the huge amount of 10 millions pounds in her bank account based on her very poor acting skills! Am I really a bad person if in the middle of the film I ardently wished Lord Voldemort or whoever for him to strike her out of the stratosphere with an “Avada Kedavra” spell? Please do not tell my daughter!

(still haven’t received my new router so Internet access still limited)

Internet-less

Hi, Just a quick note to let you all know that I won't be able to post much in the next few days and even more unfortunately I won't be able to read and comment on your lovely blogs as my router died on me on Friday and I can hardly connect to the Internet now. I'm waiting for a replacement that's supposed to arrive next week and I'm currently using a mobile broadband dongle which works terribly! Sigh! Be patient with me and I hope I will be soon back on the "saddle". Ciao a tutti!

Lavender blue...Lavender green...

Yesterday we managed to dodge the rain for the first part of the afternoon to visit Yorkshire Lavender, a beautiful Lavender Farm and Gardens set in Terrington, a few miles from "my beloved" Castle Howard. The entrance is free but very few visitors will manage to leave the farm without acquiring a “memento” of the place, from the simple tasting of great snacks, lavender ice creams and cakes in their coffee shop to the fragrant lavender essential oils, conserves, soaps, candles, etc etc.

The farm consists of nearly 60 acres of land set in the Howardian Hills with spectacular panoramic views over the Vale of York and beyond and has been featured on UK national TVs and radios more than once. The owner bought the land and set up the lavender farm 15 years ago prompted by his wife’s premature death and soon became a family project for him and his children and it’s dedicated to her memory.

A walk in the fantastic lavender garden can restore body and spirit in just a few minutes. It’s a stunning array of different colours - white, pinks, blues, lilacs to magnificent deep purples with a range of distinct and heady scents. A truly wonderful experience.

It also features "The Spirit of Yorkshire", a cricket match played by blue metal sculptures on the top of a hill overlooking a beautiful panorama. In the photo above I am attempting a poor imitation of a cricket player…useless!

Of course I couldn't resist a delicious cream tea consisting of the famous lavender scones with blueberry and lavender conserve! Divine!!!

And last but not least, a simple but useful advice…