WELCOME TO Val's Alentejo -I write about my region of Alentejo. My art ,painting, my cottages, Family life, my animals -Travels And my love for Roses- and rural country life.

Thursday 21 February 2013

Norfolk Broads and Workshop (1)

 Waiting to get on the plane.. I was jittery with the excitement of travel once again.  The skies were overcast on leaving Lisbon.  Settled in my seat. I was on my way once again to the beautiful British Isles.. The photo below is taken coming into landing at Gatwick.
I had no idea where I was going..Other than it was some miles out of Norwich.  Of course I had researched my maps and knew had seen on the web images of  the broads with their vast open plains.. but never did I expect it to be so beautiful..  It reminded me of Alentejo in a round about sort of way.  The flat land .. Sheep, horses, very big farms .  I passed through some lovely looking little villages.
                                I am sure that you all know this building.  The tallest building in Europe. I followed the building of it.. 95 stories high.. I took these photos from the train.  My objective was not to sight see, but to get to my workshop and start painting.  The excitement was building up.
THE SHARD... SO SO HIGH.  THIS PHOTO TOOK ME FROM THE OLD CHIMNEYS OF  THE VICTORIAN ERA OR BEFORE ..SO MANY OF THEM AROUND.. AND THERE THIS ENORMOUS CONE GLASS BUILDING.  I WAS TOLD THAT THE CHEAPEST APARTMENT HERE BEGINS AROUND 5 6 AND 7 MILLION POUNDS AND BELONGS TO THE QUATAR ROYAL FAMILY.. IT SEEMS MOST OF LONDON IS BEING BOUGHT UP BY THEM. HARRODS INCLUDED.
LONDON HAD CHANGED.. IT SEEMS AS THOUGH A NEW ERA IS COMING.. NEW LARGE BUILDINGS GOING UP.. NOT JUST BEING BUILT ..BUT BUILT UPWARDS.. AS THERE IS NO MORE SPACE TO BUILD SMALLER BUILDINGS.. IN SOMEWAY..IT REMINDED ME OF A NEW HONG KONG..OR MALAYSIA..WITH ALL THE TALL TALL BUILDINGS.
IT WAS SUPER TO LEAVE THE CITY BEHIND AND GET OUT TO THE COUNTRY.
                                 Turnip fields.. the heavy rain had damaged a lot of crops
Finally arriving at my destination at Jan's lovely converted barn. The part you can see is the 4 bedroomed guest cottage where I stayed and shared with a very nice lady called Felicity. She had booked herself on all of Jan's workshops for 2013. 

                                     At the weekend I walked some of the lanes.. lots of trees around the hedges and pheasants flying off as I passed by.
                                  A lovely little thatched roof cottage at the end of another lane..
  My final destination after 2 train journey's was  West Somerton.

I arrived home yesterday.  I was very surprised to come home to rain and cold weather.    The weather in Norfolk was warm and sunny..

Today my 3rd son Miguel is 40. My eldest son Manuel, flew yesterday to Los Angeles to be with him for his birthday.  I can just imagine what they will get up to.

  I took Pete out for lunch.. It was a sort of celebration for me to celebrate Miguel's birthday and also thanking Pete for watching my 5 babies and my home, for the beautiful path that is now finished.. He is off on Saturday, on his travels once again.

I am sure that I have missed some super posts ... and look forward to getting back into the swing of things, and trying to catch up.   It seems I have been a way a long time.
I hope that all my dear blogger friends are well.  I know that some of you have had bad weather out there too, and some of you have the wonderful sun on your backs..
At the moment the heavens have opened up and its raining so so hard.

I will  post again tomorrow..
Its great to be back.

17 comments:

  1. Hello Val:
    Welcome back! We have missed you!

    And, what a wonderful time you sound to have had deep in the Norfolk countryside. It is such a pretty landscape and the infinite horizons to the sea have inspired many great artists of the past. We are so looking forward to see what creative things you got up to there.

    London is indeed changing beyond all recognition. For us, we think that the scale has been lost and the architectural styles jar rather than complement each other. Friends of ours went up to the 72nd floor of the Shard where one can look out....wild horses could not drag us there!!!

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    1. Dear Jane and Lance,
      I see that you have been busy in Budapest ..so nice to read your comments.
      I was so glad to get away from London.
      I so agree.. If you paid me the money to buy an apartment there, i would decline..
      London is changing.. I was not impressed with all the large tall glass buildings.
      more news to come..
      kind regards

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  2. Dear Val - a big welcome back. It is lovely to learn that you had a wonderful trip and that you travelled safely there and back.
    The converted barn where you stayed looks lovely, I do like properties in Norfolk with their pretty red pan tiled roofs and flint stone walls.
    You were fortunate to have Pete around whilst you were away looking after the animals and finishing off your path - you will miss him when he leaves.

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    1. Thank you Rosemary,
      It is nice to come home. Pedro gave me a nice surprise.. he had given the first clean up around the garden and it looked so nice upon my arrival.
      I enjoyed my time spent in UK.. I will miss Pete.. He is off on his travels again.

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  3. The pictures you took Val are wonderful...and that cottage is just precious! It is nice to be home though...:)JP

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    1. Hello JP:
      nice to see you.. Hope all is well with you thee!
      The little cottage was such a sweet house to come upon.. it was like a toy house.

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  4. Ah you're home again Val, welcome back. So glad you enjoyed your stay in Norfolk and your cottage looked very cosy. I hope you managed to do lots of painting while you were there.

    London is changing in certain areas and I expect you were surprised with what you saw there. I love it and visit quite often but I go to the out of the way, forgotten places, alleys, churches and markets etc. I am biased though and quite blinkered. I expect you are settling back into your lovely farm now and how lucky that you had Pete to look after everything for you. Birthday wishes to Miguel. My daughter Emma is 40 this year too. It has turned bitingly cold here now and some flurries of snow are forecast! Speak soon.
    Patricia x

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    1. Hello dear Patricia..
      Thank you .. I am pleased to be home.. but really could have enjoyed another week of learning. Water colours are not easy.
      London that I saw around Faringdon and st Pancras that area.. so many large high rise ultra modern buildings going up.
      I would be doing the same.. going to the little streets.. but I have done that many times, while my two eldest studied ,and lived in London for some years.
      How wonderful..your Emma turns 40 too this year.. congratulations.
      Great to speak to you. thank you so much.
      As I left UK.. the forecast was that it would be cold... its cold here too. and raining all the time.xxx

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  5. glad you had beautiful weather at your destination, and that you arrived home safely, too and that all was well at your place when you returned. :)

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    1. Hi Tex,
      nice to see you.
      Yes, amazing..the weather turned nice during the time I was there.
      Its always nice to come home.

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  6. Dear Val,

    I am so glad you had a lovely time in Norfolk and you got your well deserved break! It's a shame you didn't make it to my part of Norfolk, as I was looking forward to meeting you, maybe in Horning and having a lovely chat.

    I received your text and I hope you got mine, as my phone was dropped and it has a few problems. I need to change it!

    It's quite cold here, at the moment and the sky is very grey. We are beginning to look forward to a Spring which will never come!

    You must be happy to be home, Val. I hope you enjoyed your workshop. You'll have to show us some of you the things you painted.

    I'm glad you had a safe journey home.

    HUGS

    ANNA
    xx

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  7. Thanks for the tour,Val. It was like being there with you.

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  8. Dear Val, I was so happy to see you pop up on the blogs this morning. Welcome home, and I am glad you had a wonderful English visit. The scenery looks very English/lovely, and I look forward to hearing about your painting. Happy 40th Birthday to Miguel - my daughter turns 39 next week - how the years fly by! I'll bet the horses were all glad to see you back :) with love from downunder, Patricia. xxxx

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  9. Hello Valerie
    Welcome home. Your trip sounded most enjoyable. I love the images you posted. Looks like the weather was spring like too. Great you had Pete to take care of your home in your absence. Looking forward to hearing about your creativity.

    Good Night

    Helen xx

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  10. Have been out of touch with the blogging world for a couple of weeks so have only just seen about your trip to Norfolk. So glad you enjoyed it and found it beautiful, you were about an hour from where my younger son lives on the Norfolk/Suffolk border.

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  11. Hi Val,
    Welcome home it seems strange popping over to yours and seeing images of England, glad you had good weather.
    Sarah x

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  12. Welcome back! Have missed your posts and look forward to catching up on your activities!

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