We are Mariken and Antonia, two friends living in a city in the south of the Netherlands, looking to build slower and greener lives for ourselves. We both work, neither of us has a huge plot of land or a tiny house, but our starting point is that building a ‘cottage life’ (so to speak) is a question of mindset more than location or external circumstances. It should be possible almost anywhere.

About Stadscottages

On Stadscottages, we aim to chronicle our attempts, struggles, and successes with building a cottage life in the city. You can expect photos and blog posts about permaculture gardening, slow living, hikes, books, movies, and recipes on this site.

We are both concerned with sustainability and about the climate crisis. To us, a cottage life in the city means not only slowing down for our own sakes, but also to contribute to more biodiversity, seed autonomy, replacing gray with green, doing what we can to make this corner of the world greener, more climate resistant, and kinder.

Why ‘Stadscottages’?

‘Stad’ is the Dutch word for city and since we are aiming to build cottage lives in a city in the Netherlands, that seemed fitting.