Slow Living in Rural England - A Spring Day at the Cottage

Being pregnant again has made me realise how much I need this. The open air, the space, the quiet. This week we came out to the countryside. I packed for rain, fully expected a grey and drizzly week and then the sun came out and just stayed. Every single day. There's something about unexpected beauty that hits differently, isn't there? If I'd expected it maybe I wouldn't have stopped to notice it quite so much. This week has been slower than usual for us. Deliberately so. My body is very loudly asking me to do less right now and being out here is honestly the best answer I've found to that. I just come outside, watch the children run and let the world do its thing. I think as mothers we spend so much of our time being needed and the countryside is one of the places where I feel like I can just be. Not be needed and not be anything in particular but just be here. Back home the evenings are still cool enough for something slow and warming which honestly suits me perfectly right now. This is a slow cooked beef stew. The beef is grass fed and local and it's one of those things I genuinely budget for and I'd rather have this once a week and keep everything else really really simple. Wholesome ingredients, nothing fancy than compromised on the meat. I get asked a lot about how we afford kind of these good quality ingredients on one income and honestly it comes down to keeping everything else simple. We don't buy a scratch most days and that frees up the budget for the things that really matter to us like knowing where our food comes from. There's something about this kind of cooking that feels very right for where I am right now. It doesn't ask much of you, you just put it together, you trust the process and you let time do the work. I think that's what I'm learning to do a bit more of this season in more ways than one. We're going to a little gathering tomorrow and I wanted to bring something and brownies felt right. They always feel right. There's something really lovely about baking for other people. It's such a simple way to show someone you were thinking of them and I think that's one of the things I love most about homemaking. It's all these small acts of care that don't really even have a name. I'll be honest I don't actually have footage of the finished brownies. They were rushed out the door and eaten before I had the chance to get the camera out which I think is the highest compliment they could have possibly received. The countryside does something to me that I don't fully have words for. It makes me feel creative and calm and like myself and I think that's why I always want to bring the camera, not to document it exactly but to try and hold on to the feeling of it. This season feels important somehow. A last stretch of slowness before everything changes again and I want to be really present for it. Not rushing towards the next thing, just here in this. So if you're in a busy season right now I hope this gave you a few minutes of quiet and if you're in a slow one like me I hope it felt like company. Thank you so much for being here. I'll see you in the next one.