“People do this?” she asked. “All the time,” Jamie said. “Your cottage is posted under the Aesthetic Cottagecore hashtag. There are hundreds of such posts.” He scrolled, and Edna watched several photos, among them, of her own garden. Most of them were a series of carefully arranged shots—her roses, her windowsill herbs, her red door, her stone wall. In many of them, a different well-dressed young person stood in the foreground looking wistfully into the distance.
“And they make money from this?” Jamie explained brand deals, sponsored posts, and follower counts with patient energy. When he mentioned the figure a mid-sized account could earn per post, Edna set down her tea. She didn’t say anything immediately, which meant she was thinking seriously. She picked up his phone and scrolled back through the posts slowly, studying each one. Then she handed it back.
“They’re using my wisteria,” she said, “and not one of them has captured their color or the right angle.” She stood up and took her empty cup to the sink. “I’m going to need you to show me how this all works.”