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Les jardins de Poësia / Poësia gardens
On dit que le vent connaît bien leurs secrets…
Ces petits arbustes habitent les grandes plaines naturelles
Depuis des millénaires
Certes, ils n’ont pas la beauté facile des plantes ornementales
Ni la volupté des fleurs qui embellissent les jardins humains
Mais elles résistent, saisons après saisons, aux assauts des vents, du froid glacial, de la sécheresse, des maladies, voire même du feu!
Mais surtout, elles s’unissent à leurs voisines pour créer un rempart vivant face aux menaces extérieures, créant ainsi un habitat vital pour les autres espèces vivantes.
Ici, vous êtes dans les jardins de Poësia,
Des jardins modestes, sans doute
Mais des jardins qui connaissent les secrets de la résilience
Ces secrets que le vent transporte
Dans un bruissement unique, primordial
Écoutez les histoires que raconte le vent…Elles pourraient vous être utiles…
Patrice
________________
They say the wind knows their secrets well…
These small shrubs inhabit the large natural plains
For millennia
Certainly they do not have the easy beauty of ornamental plants
Neither the voluptuousness of the flowers that embellish human gardens
But they resist, season after season, the onslaught of the winds, the freezing cold, drought, diseases, and even fire!
Most importantly, they unite with their neighbors to create a living bulwark in the face of external threats, thereby creating vital habitat for other living species.
Here you are in the gardens of Poësia,
Modest gardens, no doubt
But gardens that know the secrets of resilience
These secrets that the wind carries
In a unique and primordial whispering.
Listen to the stories of the wind, they may be useful
Patrice
In the early sixteenth century Amsterdam was attacked by Guelders forces. The area to the left of this photo was then a shipyard (the Lastage) and it was in 1512 burnt down during the hostilities. In order to protect the city, a deep moat or canal was dug between 1515-1518, the Nieuwe Gracht, today the Oudeschans. The mud and sludge was heaped on the left side of the canal and fortified as a schans, a bulwark. A look-out tower - Montelbaanstoren - was built at its harbor end. Soon the defensive bulwarks were no longer thought necessary and they were pulled down to make way for fancy houses for the high and the mighty, for example those running the Dutch East Indies Trading Company (VOC). At the beginning of the seventeenth century a lock was constructed (in the photo's foreground) with in 1695 the lockkeeper's house. That leaning house is today a much-loved pub, De Sluyswacht.
This year's seasonal decorations are pretty; not as exuberant as in other years but pleasing in the early-morning light.
The bastion of the Tower of Belem juts out into the harbor of Lisbon, Portugal. It is a jewel of Manueline architecture built in the early 16th century of white limestone during the reign of Manuel I and granted UNESCO Heritage status in 1983. It is an iconic landmark of Portuguese history.
"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." ~ Henry Miller
A Starkwater is a bulwark against ice floes to protect the village Rozewerf on Marken peninsula. Netherlands.
Amsterdam in the early sixteenth century was attacked by Guelders enemies and part of the city was burned down. In order to prevent such calamities in future it was decided to dig a new, defensive moat or canal then called the Nieuwe Gracht. Along it rose fortifications, hence the name Oudeschans, the latter part of that name means: bulwark. By the end of the century the city had expanded and its defenses were laid further out towards the southeast. The Oudeschans bulwarks were no longer necessary and they were torn down to make way for warehouses and fashionable homes, some notably for members of the boards of the great seventeenth-century Dutch trading companies, the VOC and the WIC.
Several bridges crossed the Oudeschans. One of these in front of the Keizersstraat. Down through the centuries those bridges were replaced. In 1982 a new bridge was built to the design of Dirk Louis Sterenberg (1921-1996). Discerning features are the brick and natural stone bannisters (in the photo's foreground). To favor history, the bridge retained the name 'Keizersbrug' though it is in fact an extension of the (Korte) Koningsstraat.
The view is notably of the Montelbaanstoren (left) - once part of the bulwarks - and of the green, ship-shaped NEMO museum of natural history in the distance. On the far right at the end of that row of houses you can just see that the low Sun is lighting up the gables of what was once the headquarters of the WIC.
It was a glorius Winter's day