I'm living in the Cotswolds for two months
I'm living in the Cotswolds for two months
The why, the how, and the cost of making it happen
Mar 02, 2026
I am revising this post while encamped in one of those white rocking chairs at the Charlotte airport. The fact that the rocking chairs are still the thing the Charlotte airport is known for (a sticky marketing gimmick, I’ll give them that) and not the fact that it is full of a constant, impassable, heaving crowd is beyond me.
I’m in said rocking chair while I await my flight to England — I’m going to be living in the Cotswolds for two whole months.
Since this trip is largely an experiment, I thought it would be helpful to me and mildly interesting to you to document what led me to undertake it and what I’m hoping to accomplish by being there. It’ll be nice to have something concrete to refer back to and reflect on when I return to Charlotte in May.
Why am I going?
The main impetus for this extended time in the Cotswolds is that I went on an interiors and gardens-focused guided trip of 12 women (put on by Eva Jorgensen and led by garden designer B. Brooks) and I had TOO good of a time. I came back to Charlotte and was sad.
Impossible to deny the magic of summer in a place that is normally gray and wet 9 months of the year
Being somewhere that I felt in tune with reminded me how out of sync I often feel with Charlotte. Prior to leaving on that group trip, I thought I was over the hump of welcoming Charlotte into my heart — finding the handful of shops I liked to frequent, the restaurants that deserved to be in our regular rotation, and most importantly, the couple of friends that filled my metaphorical cup.
Spending a week in the Cotswolds highlighted how embracing Charlotte (for me) takes constant effort. It feels like work. It is work! I woke up on the last day of my trip dreading coming home. It was an awful, and eye-opening, feeling — especially because I am eager to return from most trips to my house, my belongings, my full wardrobe, my bed, and, of course, Alex.
You might be wondering why we live in Charlotte at all if I feel this way about it. Alex and I ended up moving here temporarily — and then indefinitely — from New York City over the pandemic. It’s where Alex grew up and his family still lives nearby. For a variety of mundane and highly logical reasons, this is where we will continue to live for the foreseeable future. Though famously, after having visited Charlotte a number of times with Alex while we were living in New York, I declared with conviction, gumption, and the naiveté of someone who doesn’t know their world is about to be rocked by COVID-19, that I would never be moving to Charlotte when it came time to leave the city. I would pinpoint this pronouncement as the origin of our adversarial relationship (me and the city of Charlotte, not me and Alex lol).
Every day I live the adage “never say never!” as a Charlotte resident of gulps six years.
Returning from my 10 days in England in July and diving head first into a depression did do a number on some of our long term plans. Trying to have a kid in the fall? POSTPONED. Building a garage to make our home work better for us in the long run? TAKING A PAUSE. Assuming I could just carry on with my life as I had been prior to the trip? THINK AGAIN, BABE. It’s fun to joke about and humor is my favorite coping mechanism but, my god, I was feeling BAD (in all caps!!).
By the end of August, we had agreed to spend a few months in the Cotswolds early in 2026. This seemed like the least drastic way for me to scratch the England itch without entirely upending our life (and was Alex’s more logical counter to my conviction that picking up and moving was the only solution). Having this on the horizon did take the edge off of my emotional malaise and gave me something to work towards.
Hopefully, spending a longer period of time and in a less dreamy season than the ebullient summer months will clarify if I just had a really nice trip that made my head go screwy or if spending extended periods of time in England is actually something we need to pursue (for the sake of my happiness and our marriage lol).