About
I'm Kat. I'm Czech, and I found England the way a surprising number of us do: through Pride and Prejudice, read far too young and taken far too seriously. I finished it not wanting the dresses or even, particularly, Mr Darcy. I finished it with the strange, settled feeling of having found my spiritual home, and the mild inconvenience that it was a country I hadn't yet set foot in, going about its business without me.
I wasn't short of places to compare it with. My father was a ship's captain, and stretches of my childhood happened aboard cargo ships, watching most of the world arrive one port at a time. So I'd seen a great deal of everywhere before I settled on this damp, tea-drinking corner of it. England was not a default. It was a choice, made with unusual amounts of evidence.
And then England produced a Darcy of its own. At the end of our first date, my now husband, apparently smitten and entirely unsure what an Englishman is meant to do about that, bowed to me. A full bow, at goodbye, on a pavement. He was keen on a second date, I later learned, and not at all sure I'd agree. The bow was what he had. It worked. I sometimes think I married particularly well. I'll leave that there.
These days we live in a happy, cosy-Britain bubble with our small children and two nationalities' worth of habits under one roof. The cultural differences divide us most days and delight us just as often, usually in the same conversation. I've always leaned towards the quieter things anyway: a coastal path with the wind coming off the sea, church bells from somewhere I can't quite place, roses just beginning to open, an old church I only meant to glance at and somehow lingered in. I never feel entirely settled without a good book within reach and a proper cup of black tea beside it.
Living the life I once only read about has turned all that into a habit of noticing. I notice the things made properly and meant to be used rather than saved for best. The mug that quietly becomes your mug. The throw that never returns to its shelf. Things that settle into a home and become part of its rhythm.
BritPie grew from that habit. It's where I gather what I've come across and genuinely like: some of it part of my own everyday, the rest things I'd choose without hesitation. Some links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. It changes nothing about what appears here. Everything is chosen because I think it's worth having, and for no other reason.
Two to be going on with:
Kat
Kat