Living the Cotswolds dream at home ....

For those who follow me for some time now there's no need to explain my love for England.
Although I've visited a lot of - all beautiful - areas, one of them made an indelible impression on me, the Cotswolds

I already dedicated a blog post to this wonderful part of the country you can read here 
How much as I would love a second home in England, sadly this will remain a daydream in present circumstances.
Therefore - and because my visits to England are every time such an inspiration - it makes me want to create a bit of that typical English atmosphere at home.

During our stay in the Cotswolds not only I fell in love with the gorgeous landscape and nature, also with the beautiful cottages and in particularly the paint colour of most of the woodwork.
For example, this (one of many) door I saw in the fairytale village Bibury ....

This was definitely the view I wanted for our home entrance, but had really no idea what kind of colour paint (or brand) it was.
That question, which I shared on my Instagram account was quickly answered by one of my lovely followers (thanks Loraine) which shows again what a lovely community this is.

So the next step was browsing on the Farrow & Ball website in search for the colour Bone, which gives such a calming and neutral tone.
Luckily my husband needed not much convincing (even suggested we should also paint the garage doors!) and not long ago we've said goodbye to our plain white door ....

And I'm so very pleased with the outcome ....

To complete my dream I planted the gorgeous white (David Austin) rose named Glamis Castle of which I can't wait until it climbs around my entrance next year ....

And therefore, for the moment I'm .....

Whatever you do, never stop dreaming.
                                       Darren L. Johnson


Have a lovely weekend all!

Anita
~xo~

Our annual escape 2014 ....

While the next holiday is almost around the corner I realised that I didn't even share my pictures of our last trip to England with you.

This blog has become multifunctional by now, the last time almost like a diary and I fear it will look like a photo book this time.
So in advance my apology for the upcoming photo bombing but I'm in the habit to get carried away a bit when it comes to my love for England.

In my previous (short) post which you can read here I already shared our lovely cottage where we stayed in the beautiful Cotswolds and promised you more of our surroundings, so here it is.


The drive itself was already such a pleasure with all the breathtaking views ....

The first village we payed a visit to was the small market town Chipping Campden , with its beautiful elegant terraced High Street with all sorts of lovely shops and its features ....

Another beautiful but also very touristic village is Bourton-on-the-Water also called "Venice of the Cotswolds". We bought some souvenirs in one of the many shops in this village and again we experienced the friendly attitude towards tourists. The owner was very interested in where we came from and we had such a lovely conversation.
Lovely village, lovely people ....

We were so very lucky with the weather , just a day or two we had some rain. One of them was the day we walked on the Malvern Hills an area of outstanding beauty. And this was the pleasant surprise on our way to the hills , bluebells as far as the eye could reach ....

When we reached the top of the hill, the rain stopped but nevertheless high humidity gave it an almost mystical appearance ....

And this was our private-just the two of us view on that magnificent hills ....

But even near our cottage we could enjoy nature in all its beauty, especially in Spring .....

And lovely houses covered with wisteria, like this one in Broadway ....

Next stop was the enchanting village Bibury. A village I had often seen on photos, but seeing and shooting it with my own eyes is another thing ....

Definitely my dream cottage ....

And now so in love with this colour ....

And as icing on the cake , we also found (on Mother's day, and the first one without my boys) these cuties ....

After a wonderful week in the Cotswolds we were heading to Sussex, enjoying the beautiful English countryside on our way ....

Our next stay turned out to be another great cottage where this was our view from the living room ....

And this our view from the kitchen window, again bluebells ....

Being near to the Queen Elizabeth Country Park there was a lot of wildlife to watch directly from the window, for example this chaffinch ....

High on my wish list was a visit to the South Downs and then especially Blackdown and so we did ....

While walking we saw lots of flowers including the beautiful forget me not ...

I had seen this bench many times on Instagram and always admired the peaceful surroundings and view , so you can imagine how very pleased I was to have really found this lovely spot ....

On our last day we drove towards the coast to visit the small seaside town and port Shoreham-by-Sea where ocean blue seemed to perform everywhere we looked.

Starting with the church bell , and you won't believe it but on our way to the town there was still heavy rain. But this was how the town welcomed us, just look at that sky ....

Lovely (blue) coloured houses ....

And this "blue wall" ....

Beautiful skies ....

And at the end of our walk the sea ....

I've said it before, but I really left my heart in this beautiful country and can't wait to return.

If it's only to this sunset ....

But I'm not complaining because our next trip will be to the Provence.

Hope to see you here again in a few weeks, or should I say .... à bientôt!

Anita

~xo~  

Home again .... leaving all this beauty behind

Home since a few days from a wonderful holiday !

And already busy with work , three birthdays in two weeks and at the same time building a porch in our garden.

So just a quick post for now to share the beautiful cottage (at our first location) in the Cotswolds with you.

In the directions to the cottage was mentioned that we had to follow a narrow road towards the church and this was our first (left) view approaching our accommodation for the first week , St John the Baptist's Church ....

With on the right our stay , The Old Rectory Retreats ....

And the accompanying cottage we rented and spend a fabulous week , The Grooms House ....

With a lovely private garden around it including this beautiful wisteria ....

I wanted an escape to the country and looking at our view I think we did well ....

The cottage was so very charming and I really fell in love with the windows ....

And the neighbours ....

In my previous post I mentioned I wanted to look for bluebells in the Cotswolds and see what I found , isn't this just like a fairy tale forest ....

From this beautiful setting we explored the rest of the lovely Cotswolds of which I would like to tell you more about in a next post , which I hope you will join me again.

Until then .... happy Monday, happy new week!

Anita xo