Suffolk walks---Copford, Essex

11th March was my birthday. I went to see Marcus that weekend. On the Sunday, we drove down to Colchester, visited TK-MAXX for quick shopping. And I found some nice tops for our holiday this weekend!

 After shopping, we went to Copford, Essex. I'm not sure Copford is the name of the area, but, it says on the church yard. Do you remember previous blog, I mentioned a story Marcus said " Norie, I'm nearly 50 you know" place he said and I thought it would be lovely to visit the place again.

 So here it was, we drove to St. Micheal and All angels church in the Copford. We parked the car outside of the church. and off to walking!

As usual, Marcus didn't quite remembered where we were going, but managed to find a way. It was quite muddy and sometimes I found slippy too. We thought we got lost one point( it always happens when I'm with Marcus, bless him) due to sign post were taken out.

The farmers were digging earth inside out, they took path sign down too! very naughty. We could hear shooting sounds. I thought "I don't wanna get shot by the farmers for tress passing... " Sounds were really loud, they probably were shooting far away from where we were anyway.

 Then I wondered... What were they shooting???? Human? Empty cans? or pheasants? I hope not... Pheasants are cute and beautiful birds. Poor thing, They get their wings clipped and not be able to fly properly...then they get shot. Where they are going? Restaurants in London. We used to cook games. Now? Oh, no, no, no, don't want to do that.

Anyway, our walks were lovely. We eventually found the swing, Marcus tried last year and got wet legs!

Can you see blue rope with wood behind this little lad. He and his friend(the dog) were enjoying messing round when we walked passed. their mum and dad, siblings were also having good time too.

It was a bit chilly but lovely day out walking. We saw lots of daffodils and snowdrops. they were cute.

It took us probably 1½hrs to do the big circle. On our way back to the church( where we started our walk), Marcus showed me some fresh spring coming out from ground. It looked really fresh and yummy.

By then I felt a bit thirsty... the fresh water looked really nice, it was tempting to scoop out to drink. then I thought, because it was right next to the water filtration plant, I was a bit suspicious. It might get polluted from there!

Apparently there used to a Roman bricks around it. So that means it was a very very old spring in Suffolk! Water filtration plant ruined it!!!! Just like building the Sizewell next to the beautiful place. Always happens...

here's the water!

And this is the where Roman spring used to be:

Can't see anything. It's totally covered with over grown weeds and leaves. Wouldn't it be wonderful If it was opened up and be able to collect fresh water from the source!
 

After walking through fields, we were back to the church. This is the back of the Copford church. It had pretty grave yard with daffodils, snowdrops and primrose. Very quiet and peaceful. Ideal place to have a rest after visiting busy Colchester city center. 

I really had lovely time on my birthday. It was lovely quiet walk. I love the quietness, no sound(guns), no music, no talk in open nature. And just listening to birds singing... We'll have some more that next week... in La Gomera!

I went to Assisi in italy! 24th feb - 27th feb/ 3rd day

This was on our 3rd day there. We took our hire car to outside the city. Marcus wanted take me to the mountain behind the city. But unfortunately, there was some snow left, we couldn't go up there to have our little snack. And it was cold.... We tried and tried. It wasn't possible so we parked our car bu the road and walked a bit. but couldn't find anywhere to sit down.

 So decided to go back into the car. We visited a few different places. One was St Frances's cave church. It was awesome. It was situated in the middle of the mountain near the city. Apparently after his death, monks built church around it. We saw caves St Frances's mates lived. They lived very nice area.

 Surrounded by trees and river, waterfalls (when in season), and birds singing.... But I would imagine it was bitterly cold in the winter....

 the front gate to St Frances's cave. 

What an awesome platform to chill and do qi-gong!

 This is the where St Frances's cave is.

And, this photo shows that how much snow left in the mountain behind the city.

After this, we visited where Santuario S. Damiano. I liked there too. 

This is the front of the church/monastery. I saw two nuns standing and chatting about the building. I thought it was sweeet! This building looked like it had lots of extensions.

This statue was sitting along the path to the monastery from the car park. I loved how he meditating. Must be fantastic to chill out there. Oh, I saw another out of place thing. We saw three Japanese tourists (young lads, about mid 20's) visiting the monastery and taking photos. And one of them had a large designer shopping bag with him. Obviously, they just had shopping spree! Then went there to chill out from shopping.... nice thoughts! 8points!!!☺☺☺

Oh, there was pretty olive grow. We had our snack there. It was very peaceful.

I'd love to visit there again, and would love to stay in the Italian country cottage in Umbria. Cor, so many places I want to visit! I need to save up!!!! Starting......NOW!!!

I went to Assisi in Italy! 24th feb - 27th feb

This is 2nd day at the city of Assisi. I wanted to go round to see some of old churches and cathedrals. We had a map.

Well, since it was Marcus's 3rd visit to the City, really we didn't need to get a map. But I wanted it. So that I could see where we visited.

 I was bizzy looking round. Everywhere I looked, it was old and ancient and beautiful wall paintings, fixtures on the walls, cute pray area, fountain and I thought even chemists were rustic and beautiful. Didn't look like ones we have here. I remember in Spain, they had some rustic funky chemists. They had lots of homeopathy and herbal cosmetics, soaps, and oils! Big different from England.

  Anyway these are the photos where we visited on our 2nd day!

Me and the public phone. I love somehow taking a photo with me and a phone. Not sure why. I just love different things from what I'm used to, I suppose....

Look! how cool is that? Alfa Romeo police car!

Nice lions on the door!

This shop, actually not only selling aprons, but ALSO they embroider your name etc on the apron you buy. I never seen such a funny shop. Is it Italian thing, to give these to family or friends as a souvenir from Assisi???? It was funny shop. I had massive smile on me face when I saw this.

Apparently, this is one of the oldest roman pillars in Italy...

He's cool!

Rocca Maggiore. Marcus firstly told me it was a castle. When we got there, (it was on the top of the Assisi hill)I saw it was a fortress! COOL!!! It had awesome view of the city and surrounding area.

We went inside. It had loooooooong straight pathway to other part of the fortress. It was a bit spooky, but loved the every moment!

This is the loooooong corridor, couldn't even see the end. It was dark too.

View to the Basilica di S. Francesco

Other part of the fortress. It's massive. It had the other side as well.

I think we visited the fortress first and the we went down to different churches. when we started walking down, I spotted some strange things. Ar, Italians are funny. It was just outside the fortress.

Can you guess what it is? This is a metal wire fence with hundreds of chewing gum stuck on. Sounds disgusting and looked a bit disgusting but as I watched long enuff, I started see an art  in this...??????????????????????☺☺☺
 

These chewing gums had different colour as well, and it showed that young Italians liked chewing gums! and I wondered how many of them to cover the metal wire???????

Here's more pretty pictures.♥♥♥

Me and bus stop. I like the simplicity of this bus stop. And beautiful sky! ♥♥♥

Look, snooty fountain! 

When I saw this, I couldn't stop laughing. It was the funniest and very out of place thing I ever looked on that day. Looked like some karaoke night flyer or maybe a gig???? How those people posing were unreal. So funny and I gave this poster 10 points!!!!! ☺☺☺☺
 

We visited lots of churches and cathedrals. some were nice, some were o.k, some were fab, different energy....Now I don't really remember what inside was like on those churches.... I remember big ones and cute ones though.
 

By the way, I was told (by Marcus, of course) there were appollo and fino line across the city. No wonder why lights were funny over there. Bury St Edmund, where I live has two layline across too. sometimes lights are funny, but Assisi had more frequent on light flickering. It happened very often. Coool.
 

One thing I can say about this city is; can get fit! Eat lovely foods and up and down in the city(lots of hills, stairs every where. loads were narrow ans still cars drove passed), drink lovely espresso and ice cream! Been spoilt again!

I went to Assisi in Italy!

First time I went to Assisi in Italy. I heard all about it from Marcus before. He went there a few timesalready. He always makes and sounds very attractive and repeats lots when he talks about some of places he visited. And Assisi was one of those places....

We flew to Perugia on 24th of the Feb. Of course by Rynair. Good old Ryair, I don't mind flying with them at all. It's a small plain, fun to watch when air stewards are doing demos for health and safety.

 Only one thing I would complain are: snacks and drinks are expensive and not very good selections.

Anyway, really it doesn't matter to me and make any difference, I aways take some snacks with me anyway. Next time I fly I must remember to take flask and more tea bags with me!
 

Anyway, it took only a few hours to Peugia. And it was cute airport❀ When we get there it was just after lunch time. We picked up a hire car from the air port. Then we were off!

We didn't have a sat-nav or map to get to Assisi...... Good new was we could see city of Assisi from where we were. So we drove towards the Assisi. Not knowing if we were on the right track. But hey, this is our long weekend and fun adventure, getting lost is a part of it.

 After 20mins or so, we were getting very close. When I saw the city from the car, it looked very old and I got very excited. Apart from France we went, I'd never really visited medieval place.

Unfortunately, my camera(we think pixels)'s a bit buggered. So please excuse for those dots on photos!
 

When we got to city of Assisi, it was weired. They had massive indoor car park, and energy was strange. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. They also had 3 different music on each floorto make even more wired. It was very modern compare to the city. Then when we came out from the monster car park, all I could see was stoned/bricked medieval architecture!

Wow! Our accommodation was very close, we didn't have to walk very far. I felt a bit tired and grumpy. But when I saw the hotel (B&B) my tiredness went away! This is the front gate.

Coool! It's very old wall paintings. In the city of Assisi, they were everywhere. and amazing that they are still there! I liked  that very much they are there very casually. Didn't look formal, they looked like they'd been there for ages( and they have!).

 I wondered how many people draw there paintings and how many days, how they choose where to paint??? How did they make colours and picked up colours to paint? I have a lots of questions to those ancient people. Wish we had  a time machine to go back in time and ask questions. and I would like to have chat with them over nice cuppa!
 

Anyway this is where we stayed. It's basement? room with pretty view from our private garden. Perfect place to do morning qi-gong!

View from our private garden. Beautiful country side!

This is the cute little kitchenette. I was a bit disappointed, We booked a room with a little kitchen. When we got in, we couldn't see the kitchen. Took us about 15mins to work out this cupboard was, in fact, kitchenette.Daaaaaaa!!!

Reminded me the kitchen we stayed in Teneriff last year. That was cute place too. It had cute sink, electric cooker and mini espresso machine. Very Italian!

Loved the ceiling. Never stayed a room with this ceiling. fantastic! ❀❀❀ Sooo coool!

That evening, we went out to explore. Marcus showed me where shops were. And we found cute and rustic(that what we like) greengrocers. We got some veggies and smoked porcini mushrooms! Oh, that was delicious! 

It was very romantic evening. We went bed early as we were tired and again, I woke up very early on that morning with excitement. So I was tired, and became snorie norie till in the following morning....(I got up early too, I'm quite an excitable person......)