The Beautiful Countryside of Essex
I thought I’d share with you some pictures I’ve taken of where I live in Essex. I wanted to show firstly that isn’t always raining in England (just most of the time) and that Essex specifically is a beautiful place to live.
Essex highlighted in red
Essex has a fairly ridiculous reputation for being full of white stilettos, fake tan and false eyelashes (with all roads leading to the Sugar Hut) but this simply isn’t so.
Being an ‘Essex Girl’ (we even have our own Wikipedia page, fairly amusing) I’ve had to put up with the stereotype my entire life. Even abroad, people have heard of ‘us’ and I get raised eyebrows and leers when I say where I’m from. Unbelievably even at the Vatican City! My friends and I were taking a tour whilst in Rome and when we told our tour guide where we lived he actually laughed in our faces. Easy to be cheerful when you live somewhere no-one pays taxes though.
So the town where I currently live is a kinda strange place. It was only developed in the 1970s and as such has no church or historical value (as most English towns do). It’s been described as ‘Toy Town’ or ‘a housing estate with an Asda in the middle’ or just plain ‘weird’. But it does have two really cool things about it:
1. Our street names are named after Lord of the Rings characters (my personal favourite is Gandalf’s Ride).
2. And we are surrounded by gorgeous countryside, nature reserves and lots of wildlife. I’ve heard the Cuckoo three times already this spring and that’s more than some people will in a lifetime (I hope my rock and roll lifestyle isn’t too much for you by the way). It’s a very quiet place to live basically, with a lot of greenery and space and fields.
So anyway these pictures I actually took last Sunday (8th May) on the hottest day of the year so far, all from the town where I live:
The absence of other people is brilliant isn’t it!
These next pictures were taken in Chelmsford, where I lived previously. I took them last summer in Hylands Park (most famous for hosting V Festival god help them) and it is a very lovely place indeed. As well as acres of fields and rivers to wander, there is also a huge, beautiful garden filled with a variety of flowers, trees and plants. It looks different every time I go there (kudos to the gardening team):
And lastly this is a picture I took in Beth Chatto Gardens in Colchester (which some of you may know anyway purely because it’s the oldest recorded town in the whole of the UK). There’s actually walls and walkways still erected (ooh matron) to this day, that were put there by the Romans. Anyway, another very lovely place. So as you can see, Essex isn’t all snooker halls, white shoes and TOWIE.
emmakwall (explains it all) 
This place looks absolutely gorgeous!
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Thank you so much Renate 🙂
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I knew a British lady who reveled as a party trick her ability to imitate the various English accents. She liked to point out to us Yanks ‘there isn’t just one English accent”. Who knew there were so many? Apparently Essex accent is distinctive, and was one of her favorites (other than Bristol).
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Oh my word there are TONS of British accents! Loads!! Some of them are so distinctive and hard to do 🙂
The Essex accent has changed over the past 50 years, I’m not sure which one your friend did? It used to be more ‘yokel’ and ‘countryside’ and now we speak more ‘cockney’ like the Londoners. Some people would just say common lol.
Essex is one of the Home Counties though and I’d say we speak the Queen’s English more than the others haha!
I can’t really think how a Bristol accent sounds if I’m honest but Sheffield is one of my personal favourites 🙂
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P.S I can do a great Scouse accent!
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The only accent I like (other than ours in the south-east is Geordie. xxx
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I work with a Geordie and when he gets angry his accent gets really strong lol. I like a lot of northern accents but obviously nothing really beats speaking the QUEEN’S ENGLISH! Ha ha 🙂 xxx
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I think they should combine the voices of Sean Pertwee and Danny Dyer, and make the result the ‘official’ pronunciation of English! xxx
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YES!!!!!!!!!! Yes, yes, yes, yes! I’d vote for you Pete 🙂 xxx
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Great pics! I would love to stay at that house in the clouds. Looks neat.
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Thanks Geoff 🙂 I know it’s so lovely isn’t it!! It’s pretty expensive though lol, maybe if I win the lottery I’ll stay there for a week!
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Love this Em! Such a cool post 🙂
Also – great page linkage there xD
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Aww thanks Zoe!!!! 🙂 I’m really pleased to hear that from you 🙂
Must confess just did this on a whim this morning, wasn’t really planned!! Hopefully some of the links are (kinda) interesting! 🙂
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There has to be a killer hiding in these woods somewhere.
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I think you’d be marginally disappointed if there wasn’t? 🙂
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Marginally?
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Very? Haha!
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Just consider this a public service. Your safety is important to me. 🙂
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Such a great idea for a post Ems! That is so cool about the names of the streets. It’s absolutely fascinating about how your town was developed. It’s funny because when you mentioned the disrespect Essex gets I immediately thought of this section in New Jersey known as the Jersey Shore. It was made famous/infamous by an MTV reality show by the same name. Those gardens are beautiful! It reminded me of the ones at Glen Magna which I think I told you about in one of my emails. Don’t listen to any “haters” out there Ems. 🙋🏻💕
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We have a similar show called The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE for short lol) and there’s one based in Newcastle called…wait for it…..Geordie Shore! So I COMPLETELY understand ha ha. I remember South Park did a cool episode about Jersey Shore as well!
You’re the first person who picked up on the LOTR street names, thanks dearest Kims! ❤ I love them too, Thorin's Gate is my second favourite! Sadly mine isn't one of them 😦
You did tell me about Glen Magna Kims! I remember 🙂 I'd love to visit with you one day!! I hope you're doing good today my beautiful friend xoxoxox
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I hadn’t realized so many nasty things are said about Essex. Geordie Shore sounds really funny though. Seriously though. It must be aggravating being stereotyped based on where you live. All anyone has to do is meet you Ems. You’re such a class act! Someday I want to come and visit you and you can give me a tour of beautiful Essex! Then we’ll head over here and I can give you The Witchcraft tour!
#loveemma
#owww
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Amaizing 😍😍 http://www.misskymmiee.com
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Thank you!!! 🙂 ❤
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those pictures are just beautiful!!
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Thank you so much Bex! I just thought of this post on a whim this morning 🙂 must be all the sunshine!
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These are just lovely Emma, you’ve got a great eye for detail. And I know that you are definitely not like anyone off TOWIE.
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Aww thanks brother! Very, very kind words. The only person from TOWIE that I’m similar too is Arg ha ha ha. Only kidding. Kind of.
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Haha, I love your sense of humour.
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Haha, thanks Vinnie 🙂
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There is post of mine that I would love to hear your opinion. https://vinnieh.wordpress.com/2016/05/12/do-you-think-my-blog-is-sexy/
You’ll understand why when you see it.
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Of course!! 🙂
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Your garden is huge! Come to London even if you don’t go to the reunion. Would be cool to see you.
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That’s not my garden lol, I live in a flat! I do have a balcony but definitely no garden ha ha.
Would be cool to see you too! I’ve seen you’ve sent me some stuff, thanks 🙂
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I meant to put the wink sign ha. If anyone gives you grief about Essex just mention Depeche Mode and David Gandy. And yes check the link.
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After I answered that in a very literal way I thought….”he must have been joking” ha! 🙂
Great examples of Essex greatness Alex, thank you!!!! 🙂
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Not forgetting you of course 🙂
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Haha 🙂
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I’m just wondering whether to try the spoilt brat logic. If I keep mentioning you coming to London in each message, whether you will come to London sooner haha.
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