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My English Country Cottage
  • Blog Posts
    • Our Home
    • Interior Design projects
    • How To Create A Cutting Garden
    • Pantry Recipes
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  • Florals

    I realised with my last couple of blogs that they are both floral based. Years ago when we first moved into this shell of a cottage, I read Ros Byam Shaw’s brilliant book “English Cottage” and although our house has most of the elements of the styles listed in this beautiful book, Romance is the one that sang out for me and my ‘rustic charm’! More specifically: Florals, Ros (I’m…

    August 15, 2020
    What Makes an English Country Cottage?

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  • Heavenly Hydrangea
  • The power of scent
  • Protected: Easing into Autumn
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I am afraid that the fuglies featured in this photo were hurt, they were chopped up, simmered with blackberries and doused in crumble then drowned in custard. They may be ugly but by gum these apples are delicious. So delicious in fact, that when my son was forced to eat the fruit “Can I just eat the crumble and the custard and leave the fruit?”….he tried the fruit, he LIKED the fruit!!! I was overjoyed, ecstatic!!! I can finally get my son to eat fruit and it is FREE!! Today is a good day! I am a culinary genius!!! Then I remembered that my daughter and I had rather liberally and possibly heavy handily added a truck load of sugar and cinnamon….ah…yes…. I have simply fed my son jam with buttered flour and sugar and custard. Well done me. It was delicious though!!! Happy thoroughly sacchariferous Thursday x #alliseeispretty #appletree #autumntrees #slowliving #simplepleasures #ofwhimsicalmoments #cottageliving #mygardenthismonth #cottage #autumncolour #englishcountrygarden #gardenliving #englishcottage #thatch #simplelifestyle #cottagelife #gardenlife #idyllic #thatchthursday #countrylife #countryliving #countrycottagestyle #countrycottages #countryhomes #simplelife


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I am extremely very sorry. Ostensibly it is just a photo of a cardboard box of flowers and a chair with a bucket on it. But I just had to squeeze in one final hurrah of wedding flower joy when I collected my pretties from the barn of romance and joy. I had put all my floral wares onto the table to bring inside and simply couldn’t resist a tiny photo. I do understand that this is an illegal yestergram shot as well as tantamount to showing you my holiday snaps. I am so sorry. I just needed one last flourish of romance drenched floral fancy before I distribute them around the house for a little bit more prolonged floral joy…oh…yes…hmm…sorry about that…gird your loins and expect more flojazzle over the next few days. Sorry…a bit. Blame Chelsea Flower Show. Not my fault. X Happy Tadah! A cardboard box of flowers Tuesday x #dahlia #dahlias #gardenflowers #flowersfrommygarden #dahliasofinstagram #simplepleasures #reddahlia #cottageliving #mygardenthismonth #cottage #englishweather #englishcountrygarden #gardenliving #englishcottage #florallove #flowersofinstagram #flowerpower #floraldisplay #sunshine #dahliaseason #country #countryliving #countrycottagestyle #countrycottages #countryhomes


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Shhh!! I am currently listening to my husband who is upstairs in the homework room of awfulness reciting “the mantle is 33000 bigger than the core” - ok - I tuned out at the numbers and proportions bit but as I fled my sons bedroom yelling “oh no! TAG! I must put a wash on or they won’t have any uniform to wear tomorrow”, I watched my husband resignedly take up the Geography homework that I had begun weeping over until I realised that it wasn’t mine and didn’t have to describe each section of the earths make up “BUT NOT SEPARATELY”!!! Mr Tierney had me at “describe each section but not separately”….how???? How Mr so called Tierney” (I was very angry) “how should my son describe each section but not separately??? You have blown my mind, it hurts too much. You have hurt me, my son and now my husband…my 9 year old daughter is smugly sat on the kitchen sofa having practiced her cornet (yes- the piano is over for …this term…) written out all her spellings, read 8700 books and is smiling genially at her family. Geography homework is hard. I don’t like it. Mainly because the earth’s core is brilliant and so unbelievably clever, I wish our brains worked in an equally clever and layered fashion without simply struggling to understand the question. Why do I never understand the question??? Sorry husband mine, you will find me hiding behind these very understanding jars of floral joy “Oh reason not the need”. This is happy layering that all came from our very clever earth. Thank you multi layered earth…crust, mantle and core (muttered quietly so that Mr T doesn’t hear the separation). Happy mantle to core Monday x #mondayvibes #cottagewindow #beams #dahlias #flowersfrommygarden #gardenflowers #kateforman #floralcurtains #cottagestyle #cottagedecor #cottage #cottagecharm #countrydecor #countrycottagestyle #countrycottages #redroses #interiordetails #september2021 #gardenflowers #englishcottage #englishcountryliving #cottagechic #lovemyhome #loveofcountryhouses #hydrangea


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I may need to take the rose in hand. It always seems happiest when I don’t prune (definitely not a procrastinatory assertion - can one have a procrastinating assertion?). Unfortunately for this happy climber that is probing the thatch and creating pathways of unbelievable snakes and ladders joy to the field mice legging it as fast as their teeny legs can manage from the ploughing fields, I do not want mice guests in the roof. It possibly dates back to Hunca Munca and The Tale of The Two Bad Mice. I was always desperately sad that they ruined the beautiful dolls house and smashed all the dolls house food - good luck in this house real mice- you may have a similar experience with my La Aga produced cakes. No, it is time to tame the beast, to accept that there may not be as many blooms next year but be grateful for the lack of tiny tap dancing in the loft over the winter months. I shall wave goodbye to the roses but welcome the waxing, drying hydrangeas with open vases. Yes! It is cutting and drying time. Head over to my website to read @flowersandlifestylebymargot fantastic new blog about hydrangea drying and some glorious hydrangea styling ideas. The link is in the bio. Happy hydrangering. And also happy sunny Sunday x #thisprettyengland #gardenroses #rural_love #redroses #cottageliving #mygardenthismonth #cottage #mybritain #cottagelife #englishcountrygarden #gardenliving #englishcottage #thatch #actualinstagramhomes #outdoorliving #oldhome #wildrose #country #countryliving #countrycottagestyle #cottage #countrycottages #countryhomes #thatchroof #countryviews #countryhome


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Yes, yes, I always have this many flowers in my kitchen EVERY day. Ok…these are the flowers that I just rustled up..out of my own actual garden for my neighbours wedding bash in a barn. I added sprigs of blackberries (less rustle and more thorn wrangle), herbs and rosehips for autumnal fragrance and colour. It was so easy, I just wandered around with my secateurs…I emerged rather bloodied and thornier than I started, I frightened Gary the Postman with a massive yelp and a muttered rude word (the door was open and he actually threw the post into the hall and ran!). Other Gary - bad Gary- Gary Barlow didn’t reply to my dm’s and was a no show. I was a little surprised- I had offered him a free J20 drink and a slice of pizza. I think he is still calorie counting poor lamb. But we didn’t need bad Gary Barlow, we filled the Green barn with fairy lights, fresh (painful) flowers, danced our best flash mob dance (yes actually - two weeks of rehearsals and I still forgot the shimmy). Our neighbours who have waited a year to get married and had to give up their dream of a huge party cried, laughed, ate lots of pizza (it was delicious Gary- you loser) and we partied the night away under the stars (the barn is “rustic chic” - almost roofless) and I shall spend today in a dark quiet room - I blame Gary Barlow. I probably wouldn’t have drunk all the Prosecco if he had been there, I would provably have been too busy duetting & amazing him with my excellent ‘jazz tones’. Happy shhhhh Saturday x #kitchendesign #kitchendecor #cottagekitchen #farmhousekitchen #farmhousekitchendecor #cottage #farmhouse #farmhousedecor #farmhousedecorating #vintage #shabbychic #nestandthrive #countrystyle #cottagefurniture #tabledecor #autumnflowers #countrykitchen #rural_houses #kitchen #kitchentable #weddingflowers #saturdaymorning #kitchendesign #kitcheninspo #kitchendiner


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Baskets at the ready!!! Foragers…ready! And…pick! I just need to have a quick cup of fortifying tea and maybe a tiny read and then I am absolutely all over the harvesting lark. Look out damsons! Beware pears! Apples on your guard! I actually managed a run for the first time in…(insert appropriate length of time for me to be red faced and heaving after thirty seconds)…so it seemed a little unfair that I should encounter the local hunt in my slightly deranged state. I heard the hounds before I saw them, had even smiled at a couple of riders before my tiny brain pieced together the Marpellian facts…I am in the midst of a hunt!!! What if the hounds think I am a fox? Red faced? Bushy pony tailed? Admittedly a fox clad in fluorescent pink and rather large but clearly a mangy old fox. I took to my heels and fled as fast as a summer of Sauvignon Blanc and cream teas would allow. Thankfully the hounds were terribly gentlemanly and ran around me. It was all rather embarrassing but I did achieve my fastest pace in quite some months. Perhaps I need to channel my inner mangy fox more often. Just one more cup of tea and then I will hit the fruit hard…I shall transform from hunted fox to greedy squirrel - still red and bushy ponytailed but now who’s terrified? I have baskets and I am not afraid to fill them. Happy terrifying Thursday x #countrykitchen #countryhouse #farmhousekitchen #hyggehome #countryhomedecor #myhouseandhome #myseasonalstyling #seasonalstyling #myhomesanctuary #cottageinstincts #kitchenview #kitchenisland #morningmood #ofsimplethings #styleithappy #kitchenwindow #kitchentime #cosywithcasa #paintedkitchen #countryhomesandinteriors #openconceptkitchen #countryliving #country #countrykitchen #rustickitchen #freestandingkitchen


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Ok gird your loins for a cheaty yesteryear shot (well…two days ago…when it was summer). There have been ENORMOUS improvements since this shot was taken…in two days??? Eh? Yes! This is the shot that sailed a thousand ships…erm forced me to sail a thousand weeds…into the wheelbarrow. I was horrified, shocked, how could it have got this far? How could I have allowed the no mow May to continue onto my drive??? Admittedly I was only shocked and horrified when I realised that my husband had sweetly rearranged a meeting with very important fundraising people from school to happen here..at our cottage…the one that looks like no one has lived here for years and could be in a really dark (slightly stinky because of all the rotting windfall apples) Hans Christian Anderson story. I had forced him to rearrange so that I could skip gaily down the lane to join my gang of neighbours in a top secret wedding party planning meeting for two neighbours that missed out on a proper wedding this year- our meeting mainly consisted of a lot of fizz drinking and “oh let’s have pizzas! Champagne! Flowers! Fill the barn with champagne and flowers…and Gary Barlow (that was towards the end of the ‘meeting’). I had brought this upon myself, I was forced to clear up the mess that I myself had created two weeks ago when I had geniusly bought a ghostbuster backpack and thought that I had sprayed every living weed to hell and back. I hadn’t. It took me two days to clear. I shall take a shot of the eat your dinner off it drive..EAT IT!! It took me days!!! as soon as the sun shines again (I am unwilling to promote rain on here). Happy weed free Wednesday. X #cottagecore #cottagestyle #cottage #countryliving #englishcountrygarden #englishcottage #englishgarden #allwhatsbeautiful #prettylittleengland #theprettypursuit #your_beautifulhouses #chasingfacades #englishhouse #loveuk #lovemyhome #thisprettyengland #genuinebritain #britishcottage #bestunitedkingdom #thiscountrylife #theartofslowliving #gloriousbritain #houses_phototrip #englishcountryside #thatchedcottage



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