Tasteful friends: more gays in a Cotswold cottage

Please, for the love of god and large American ranch houses, MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!

So many gay men who are successful and of a certain age have a trophy groom, don't they?

The young guy is cute and adorable.

Who's the twink?

Arthur Parkinson, R4, as indicated in the article.

It's win win. James get an attractive partner half his age and Arthur gets to climb the social ladder while indulging his main passion -- gardening -- on a large scale.

You can't knock it.

Here’s a tour of their garden

I love it. I'd live there. (Not with them, just me.)

[quote]I love it. I'd live there. (Not with them, just me.)

Gurl, I live in London. Can I drive down to visit you? Are you a good cook?

R6 I wouldn’t exactly call a 20’ x 25’ walled garden surrounded by neighboring cottages anything on a “large scale”. It’s not like James bought them a Grade-II listed Georgian house on 50 acres. But they seem like a nice couple and not nearly as twee as some of the others in various DL real estate threads.

I love that vase on the door - wonder where I can get one.

They dress so sloppily - they knew the cameras were coming and they look like they just fell out of bed and we have the Americans to thank for those long shorts on grown men. UGH!

The young squire better have at least 2 back up plans. Its risky not to develop one's own marketable skill and earning power.

So the older one's the posh one and the younger one's from UP NORTH.

The house is right on the road - HARD PASS.

I'd do them

R15 it’s a country lane. Hardly overlooking a motorway.

R15 more like a cycle path. Thank you for the laugh R17.

[quote][R15] it’s a country lane. Hardly overlooking a motorway.

Still - If I were to buy a country house I WOULD NOT like to be right on the road. No, siree.

Ok, this is how its done, not some kids playhouse. Loose the chicken as an accessory.

Also If I lived in he country I'd like a bit of lawn/grass - you could have a garden like that in fucking Putney.

R9 - sure! Let me displace the current owners first, okay?

[quote] Lose the chicken as an accessory

That's no way to talk about Arthur R20!

I'll give them credit tiny spaces with low ceilings are difficult to work with, but they did a nice job... Oh, and, son, if you're not in the will make sure you have a good back-up plan 😏

R10 Sorry you're right! I just assumed if one bought a Cotswolds country home it'd have a decent sized garden with it. Maybe James isn't as wealthy as I thought.

That said, it's mostly twee and a classic example of how pretty rural areas are being taken over by rich people from London. The same is true for Cornwall.

After I watched the video in the OP, I was recommended the below. In it, Arthur comes across as slightly odd and humorless. Not sure he's worth it after all.

R11: Three guesses: artist/interior designer Gavin Houghton (UK), ceramicists The Exvotos (Spain), or Sicily ("Sicilian head vases", "teste de Moro"). The first two will be probably £800 and €850, so not cheap exactly. The Sicilian version was more a tourist thing but these featured on the last season of HBO's White Lotus so they may be scarce and pricey as well.

I hate it. It's tiny, and the "charming cottage" applied at fatal fentanyl dosage. Are they hobbits?

R14 Yes. The older one has that classic privately educated upper middle class RP accent, while Arthur sounds like he comes from the north of England - South Yorkshire maybe.

[quote]and the "charming cottage" applied at fatal fentanyl dosage

sometimes I feel like I'm reading a foreign language on DL - there's a guy on the recent Dollface thread about the deer, I can't work out what he's talking about either.

They probably had a house somewhere dreary like Wandsworth and sold it for this with change.

The young twink is holding a live chicken indoors. What subtle symbolism.

R29 He means it's overdone.

There's a difference between a charming country cottage that's been lived in for years (hence is naturally charming) and one that's been bought up by someone from London then redecorated to make it look how people think charming country cottages are meant to be.

A briefer version would be that one's genuine and the other's fake.

Chicken for the chicken!!!

The ever so slightly cross eyed James has found his Scudder in Arthur! Everyone else is just a jealous Clive!

From the article: James now works as an interior decorator and art advisor (as J. James Mackie) and dabbles in a bit of dealing too.

Fantastic, sweetie.

R34, I love you

James looks very butch and sexy in this pic.

One eye is higher than the other. I wouldn't hear a word he said, I'd be too busy looking at those wonky eyes.

They decorated it as a MUCH GRANDER house than it is.

R39, that's what I was going to say... it's a little house with a big house's furniture.

R38 Yeah, boss-eyed people are hard to ignore.

What was it Catherine Tate said? "One eye looking at you, the other one looking for you".

I just don't know how he'd get the curtains hemmed properly.

Arthur isn’t quite the chicken that he appears to be… based on this interview and the mention of being a preschooler in the early 1990s, he’s probably now about 34 or 35. But he’s aging well, as at first glance he could easily be mistaken to be in his early 20s.

James is about 46 based on another article that mentioned him turning 40 in 2016 when he first bought the house.

The presence of a Peter Pan gay amps the ick factor.

I love it and I love the Cotswolds.

At one time I was obsessed with Laurie Lee's tales of growing up there. All kinds of juicy secrets and flights of fancy lurking in the Cotswolds woods.

As one of the few DLers who has actually lived in the Cotswolds - it was a big fat bore and the drive back to London was way too long.

I much prefer Buckinghamshire although it's not as "fashionable".

It looks like a Jonathan Adler country cottage showroom. It’s just too much shit, so staged and oh so quaint.

The road right smack dab in front of their door and the dinky garden space is kind of sad for these two “country” squires.

I don't find them sloppily dressed. They look very comfortably dressed to me. They're at home and showing how they live, in private. How were they supposed to be dressed? In tuxes?

R46, boring for some is pleasure for others. To each his own.

[quote]I don't find them sloppily dressed.

Well I fucking do.

"Meet the chicken boy"

LOL. I think most DLers have already met their share of chicken boys

Or drum their heels wanting to.

Just watched the video at R25 Arthur seems like a really sweet guy who cares for Granny

R27, you have to remember the main part of the house was built in the 1600s when folks were shorter!!

R54, also from the 17thC when people were shorter: the very high ceilinged Galerie de Glaces at Versailles.

I come to DL for community yet I feel like I'm reading a foreign language. Someone told me this is "snark" and "insider derision" and boy oh boy are they right! I can't work out what anyone is saying, but I suspect it isn't very nice and community spirited. Would it kill you to be kind and write in plain English?

These old cottages look fabulous. It’s wonderful to live in an old house full of ghosts.

It's lovely, but the books (that no one has ever read) and the pictures need to go

The salmon shorts are a social cue. Trousers and shorts on the spectrum between salmon and red indicate a toff wanker or a nouveau riche wannabe, both equally bad.

One eye on the pot & the other up the chimney.

R58 True. Choosing books solely for their decorative properties is so pretentious.

R47 your assessment is way off. Jonathan Adler deals in new furniture and pop-art accessories, nothing about this house matches that. You need some more study for your design references or just not comment as you showed your lack of knowledge. I’m actually embarrassed for you.

R61 How very dare you!

The younger one looks like he'd be an amazing bottom. My dick is hard just thinking about it.

The young one sounds like trailer park steady uk version.

TRASH

These fawning articles always make these people sound so pretentious.

R50 has stated her boundaries.

The books are art books: architecture, interior design, art photography, etc. Books of pictures, mostly.

[quote]Choosing books solely for their decorative properties is so pretentious.

It's the rare fucking art book that's chosen for it's text. They exist, but the assumption is rarely that these books are to be read; they're principally images, sometimes with a bit of text constructed around them, sometimes even important, scholarly research, but mostly pictures.

When someone's business and life's interest in art and interior design, art books go with the territory. They can't (usefully) be replaced by Kindle and electronic versions. Too.manybof you bitches believe everyone is only a shelf of books away from being a "hoarder" and think of books as an indicator of mental illness.

James says in the article "Every square inch needed to have some point of interest" and no, no it does not. I understand that the trend is for overstuffed knickknackery, but it's not aesthetically pleasing, it's just mindless following of current convention.

Steady, R65?

Sillies. Everyone knows shelves full of books are great insulation. Keeps drafty cottages a tad bit warmer in winter and if it gets too icy you can burn them.

My god, what on earth do they talk about

[quote]My god, what on earth do they talk about

What does any couple talk about?

R74 I think R73 raises a good point. The age gap is quite large and they even say themselves that each one has their own area of expertise: the old one indoors and the younger one outdoors (i.e. the garden).

I can't think they'd have much in common, but I suppose they must do if they've made it this far.

The age gap isn’t that crazy between them. Based on one interview where Arthur says he was a preschooler in the early 1990’s (which means he’s in his mid 30’s by now) and then another where James says he was 40 when he bought the cottage in 2016 (so he’d now be about 46), their age difference is probably only about 10 years.

Which surprised me because Arthur appears to be barely 21 in some photos (he’s aging well), and James looks well north of 50.

[quote]The age gap is quite large and they even say themselves that each one has their own area of expertise: the old one indoors and the younger one outdoors (i.e. the garden).

[quote]I can't think they'd have much in common, but I suppose they must do if they've made it this far.

Maybe if they were both employed in Accounting and closer in age?

I've seen (and lived) larger gaps of age and professional pursuit and personality and shared cultural references who never want for all sorts of things to talk about. And seen people with everything in common but not a word to say to one another.

The thing is, how does Arthur compare to Miss Fairford?

This was a very fun thread.

It's immaculately decorated & beautifully restored, but it doesn't seem very homey. Maybe it doesn't matter to these two, but it reminds me of that line from Ferris Bueller: it's cold, it's beautiful & you're not allowed to touch anything

Somehow you don't expect the northern accent just by looking at him.