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My English Country Cottage
  • Blog Posts
    • Are You Sitting Comfortably?
    • Our Home
    • Interior Design projects
    • How To Create A Cutting Garden
    • Pantry Recipes
    • What Makes an English Country Cottage?
    • Home County Candle Company
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    • Country Cottage Creatives Interviews
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  • Country Cottage Creatives

    Interview with celebrated local potter Gabby Smith “shopatseed” Gabby Smith took up pottery only a few years ago but her creations have rather outgrown her tiny home pottery studio and can now be found in numerous independent shops and restaurants with big names approaching her to create pieces for their exclusive venues. Not bad for a girl who was warned off taking GCSE art! With an entire page in the…

    January 30, 2022
    Country Cottage Creatives Interviews

  • Interview with Amanda Banham – Essex Potter

    “The Potter who lives here in this house makes houses and shops, trees and rainbows all from clay which she raku fires in her garden. She loves dogs and never leaves home without at least two. She loves her family and friends, mashed potato, reading magazines, the Suffolk coast, rose wine and roast dinners”. (Amanda Banham May 2020) This is the first in a series about what makes an English…

    June 6, 2020
    Country Cottage Creatives Interviews, What Makes an English Country Cottage?

Latest Posts

  • Are You Sitting Comfortably – Books on Love and Friendship- with Victoria Eggs Jubilee Collection-
  • If you liked this….Rebecca Fletcher’s picks for further Rural Landscape novels
  • Are You Sitting Comfortably? With Gone to Seed – Rural Landscapes
  • If you liked this….Rebecca Fletcher’s picks for further Crime Novel exploration
  • Are You Sitting Comfortably? With Ibbi – Crime Time!

Daily Instagram Blog

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Ta dah dah dah dah dah daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! And the winner is: @nightingales__nest !!!!!! Congratulations you have won the English Country Cottage dried flower bouquet from @gonetoseed.co.uk This is not the post I prepared- for some reason that has gone straight to reels and not my grid. I may have had my fill of this malarkey. It was probably the best reel you would ever have seen and very very very funny…ok?!!!! Thank you to everyone for entering and for being so utterly lovely and thank you so much to @gonetoseed.co.uk for being so so wonderful to work with - you have a truly wonderful company. Happy winner Wednesday. X #cottagecoreaesthetic #cottagecore #cottage #englishcottage #blossom #springvibes #springstyle #springgarden #cottagegarden #englishcountrycottage


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Ahoy me hearties! No…no I wasn’t on a Caribbean cruise for a week - I did manage a boat trip though. We have returned refreshed from a retreat in The Lake District…not intentionally..we didn’t know it was a retreat when we booked it with friends, we were sidetracked by the sauna and hot tub so clearly missed the “retreat” blurb. It was only on spotting the free roaming healing crystals and piecing together the at liberty animals and beautiful pink haired creatures in tie dye clothing and ethereal glances that our walking booted rucksack clad group began to put the clues together. The very well endowed fairy statues slightly threw us but the calming waters and prolific Buddha appearances in pictures, statues and carvings sealed the deal. It was actually fabulous and I think all our chakras are very balanced and I have a new respect for the larger fairy variety. Now it’s heads down and a massive re readathon in preparation for our next Book Live on Wednesday (reminder below). I have been working with our fabulous sponsors @gonetoseed.co.uk to create a stunning (if I say so myself) My English Country Cottage dried flower bouquet for a glorious giveaway on Wednesday so sharpen your comment fingers, have a peek at the books and prepare to view a whole new zen goddess me chatting with Rebecca Fletcher and author Claire Fuller on Wednesday at 7pm (minus the big boobed fairies). Happy ethereal Easter Monday xxx #windowview #windowviews #driedflower #bookclubforintroverts #springview #springdecor #bookholic #bookjoy #driedflowerbouquet #sustainability #countrykitchen


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In like a lion and out like a lamb? Check. Well done April, excellent start. Cottage shaking, tulip bursting, chairs across the lawn lionesque winds. Good job. I have donned my Victorian Lady Botanist bustle for this shot (which is lucky, the bustle is acting as extra ballast along with my still not given up the Jaffa cakes or coffee in cream new puppy syndrome). I am documenting the blossom before we go away. We leave today and admittedly it is only for a week but blossom can sneak in and be blown to smithereens by the proverbial lion so I would quite like to see fresh blossom on my return. This is currently the state of the “Orchard” (self set damson trees that we pretend to ourselves that we planted and are therefore excellent arborists). Nine blossoms. That is not a Damson jamathon glut. I need more by the time I return thank you trees. It is noted and will not be forgotten. See you in a week for blossom a hoy! Dottie? Oh we are just leaving her here…well not in garden..one of her amazing dog trainers from puppy training is coming to stay- house sitting and puppy training??? It is possible I may never come home. Who needs Damson jam? I shall live in champagne and kippers (I don’t actually like kippers but it sounds decadent and holidayish and I imagine the Lake District is teeming with kippers). Have a lovely week and hurrah it’s finally Friday! Xxx #cottagegarden #orchard #damsontree #blossomwatch #cottageescape #ruralliving #countrylivinguk #cosycottage #cottagelife #thatchedcottages #springvibes🌸


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Scientific findings recorded: - I am being very brave and have recorded a highly scientific video to camera about my truly fabulous @woolroom bedding. It does exactly what they promised it would do! It is hypoallergenic so both our noses are clearer in the morning (obviously I don’t snore….), it does stop the nasty hotness and you do get a better night’s sleep. Clean sleep has really resonated with me – the organic wool from the happy sheep feels wonderful and the bedding even offers heat regulating benefits. It keeps me sleeping far more deeply (normally I am awake way before the alarm, but the alarm is now vying for my attention along with the pheasants) and I have more energy - I even managed to beat the pheasant determined to race me on my run! Boom! Thank you @woolroom. You are sleep scientist magicians. Happy thoroughly well slept Thursday x #CleanSleep #Woolroom #woollove #organicbedding #sleepwell #sleepwellness #goodnightssleep #sustainability #sustainablelife #naturalbedding #cosynights


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Are you sitting comfortably? Actually, I am, the beautiful cherry tree is sheltering my bookish form from the April winds that are handily moving the clouds along at a rate that makes it look spring-like & not overcast with hints of “take the shot quickly sunshine”. The blog is up on my website with this months wonderful books around the theme of “Rural Landscapes”. A huge thank you to our sponsors - the fantastic @gonetoseed.co.uk - specialists in beautiful dried flowers from glorious bouquets to recycled bud vases of the sweetest posies. Elly and Luke’s wedding was rearranged three times but from this heartache arose a brilliant & beautiful new business. Eventually allowed to organise a small winter wedding, they resorted to foraging and dried stems et voila! Hello Gone to Seed! Head over to my website to fall in love with their gorgeous florals & 3 absolute gems: “Unsettled Ground” by Claire Fuller - I have fallen completely in love with this book, the incredible characters & the wonderful depiction of modern rural life. I devoured this in 2 sittings - my husband made me switch the light off!! It won the Costa awards Novel category this year &…trumpet herald excitement…. the author will be joining us on the Live in 2 weeks!!! Woooohoooo!!! Read it immediately & please dm with questions for her so I don’t have to resort to “do you like writing?”. The second book is the modern classic “A month in the Country” which looks at a post war England. The wildcard is “Dear Reader” by Cathy Rentzenbrink” which has blown me away. An ode to reading. The books of her youth are mine too & many of my adulthood although voracious reader doesn’t do her justice. This is a must read about reading! I will stop, turn on the reminder, head to the blog, read Rebecca F’s way more professional synopses, ogle the beautiful eyeball joy dried flowers & then join in with a real life author on the 20th April. Happy will we be sitting comfortably then Wednesday?!!! X #bookgroup #recommendedbooks #rurallandscape #areyousittingcomfortably #situnderatree #springvibes🌸 #cherryblossom #readingismyhappyplace #readingforpleasure #ruralengland #bookclubs


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I love this bit! The moment before the garden bursts into life. The anticipation in the air, the trundle of tractor and the bark of friendly yet lawn mower hating pup. The cow parsley is beginning to stretch its green necks out of the wintry ground, ready to froth and foam as the horse chestnut tree blossoms fall - the ones I can’t reach to cut for decoration purposes and “oh lawks so many conkers…how did the squirrels plant so many last year? Well not this year buddies, nuh uh, your environmental credentials are excellent but I am not having a massive conker tree smack bang in my night scented stocks containers or my hydrangea bed!!! Stop trying to garden and stick to one flipping storage unit. I accede the fairy garden : lovingly created several years ago and now an abandoned wasteland of upside down fairies and a bodiless unicorn). Bury your ill gotten gains in this deathbed of dreams - I mainly built the fairy garden with romantic notions of Cicely Mary Barker beauties and The Cottingley fairies actually being real and taking magnificent photographs for all the world to cheer. “We” created tiny treehouses, a fairy playground, a blue glass stone fairy pond and even a hippopotamus rockery (they were all the rage back then) : nothing. Nada. Not one real life fairy sighting. It was most disappointing (mainly for me). So have your fairy garden larder squirrels and leave my pathetic few areas of actually gardened garden to me. Happy still secretly hoping for magic Monday x #springtree #springtrees #oldcottage #englishcottage #cottagehome #cottagehouse #theirenglishcountrycottages #englishcountryside #englishcountrygarden #horsechestnut #cottagefarmhouse


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Sunshine on ceiling beams. What a title! What a capture! It’s all I have! I am spent! I am up and down to the doors leaping with joy when the sun shines, pulling on my shoes and running out into…the very very cold. I also can’t help leaping up every time there is a small flurry of snow. I have already expressed my feelings on the late arrival of this long hoped for loveliness, it is far too late and I have moved on, but the small girl not far from the tired middle aged exterior can’t help but skip to the doors with excitement ready to hear that exquisite silence and watch that floating drifting beauty. I am exhausted, my ham strings and quads actually hurt. I must curb my spring leaps and employ a sedentary state from my sofa. I will be here all day. Well done me. Happy sedentary sofa Sunday x #cozycottage #cosyroom #cozyhomes #cozyhomedecor #cushionlove #colourforcreatives #colourfulhome #cottagestyledecor #interiorlovers #beams #springdecor



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