Modern Sensuality
Lolly Streek is a model, creator and venue host in the Norfolk countryside.
Her life moved from a busy career in Cambridge to a village in Costa Rica, where she and her husband David raised their two young daughters. Then back to Norfolk, where they had a son and spent years hand-building The Keeper and the Dell from an old barn and a gamekeeper's lodge. It's the setting of our shoot with her, and now open to host weddings and gatherings of its own.
Now, after more than thirty years of marriage and a life built around noticing the small things, she spends her days moving between styling weddings, tending the woodland, and practicing the quiet rituals that keep her grounded. These unglamorous, unphotographed hours are the real foundation of Modern Sensuality, Lolly says.
Lolly Streek is a model, creator and venue host in the Norfolk countryside.
Her life moved from a busy career in Cambridge to a village in Costa Rica, where she and her husband David raised their two young daughters. Then back to Norfolk, where they had a son and spent years hand-building The Keeper and the Dell from an old barn and a gamekeeper's lodge. It's the setting of our shoot with her, and now open to host weddings and gatherings of its own.
Now, after more than thirty years of marriage and a life built around noticing the small things, she spends her days moving between styling weddings, tending the woodland, and practicing the quiet rituals that keep her grounded. These unglamorous, unphotographed hours are the real foundation of Modern Sensuality, Lolly says.
Lolly lives so much of her life publicly: her work, her home, welcoming guests to The Keeper and the Dell, her presence online. But she's clear the public-facing version isn't where sensuality actually lives.
“It's how you behave at home, behind closed doors, with yourself and with those you choose to share your most personal space with that truly matters.”
“For me, sensuality is all about slowing down, coming back to the beauty of simplicity and stillness in a world that is non-stop.”
A deep gratitude for time and space is something Moore truly values: “In moments of chaos or overwhelm, I am often in my head. We spend so much time in the control towers of our minds and coming back into my body is an opportunity to come back into the present moment,” she notes. “I love to move my body in a structural way when I'm practicing yoga but sometimes, I just like to put music on and allow my body to move in the way that it wants to move,’ she says. ‘Embodiment is also a way of being somatic, which basically means allowing the body to take the lead rather than our minds or what other people may be instructing us to do,’ she adds.
Lolly draws a hard line between what she shares and what stays hers.
“My marriage is sacred. It's private, and it's ours," she says. "After thirty years, what we've built feels more considered than it's ever been."
Bluebella has become their lingerie of choice for date nights. That version of sensuality, she adds, is hers to keep private.
Away from that, Lolly describes sensuality as something far quieter.
“The warmth of coffee in my hands, wrapped in a blanket in the morning sunshine. Water running down the body from an outdoor hose, sweeping oil on my skin after a shower. Dry brushing. Swimming. Stretching. Rebounding. Walking barefoot, lying on the paddock, peering into the grass and daisies, or cloud watching above the woodland.”
“Prioritizing centrality and pleasure for me means taking time out of even the busiest days to pause and take a moment for myself, whether that is to sit with tea or to meditate.”
Pleasure is woven into her practices, to regulate her state and ensure she doesn’t experience burnout from her career a second time: ‘Meditation has really changed my life. It’s an opportunity every single day to sit with myself and be in my own energy before I put myself out into the world around me,’ she notes. ‘Meditation can feel like a warm hug, it can also feel confronting, it depends on what day it is and what I'm experiencing at that time,’ she adds. ‘Breathwork gives me an opportunity to analyse the way that I'm feeling. If I want to feel energized, I can speed my breath up and if I want to come into more of a calming and meditative state, I can slow the breath down. I can expand my breathing in order to feel more and expand my sense of pleasure,’ she adds.
Lolly has spent much of her life navigating autoimmune disease, disability, visual impairment, surgeries and menopause. It's here, she says, that her relationship with sensuality really began. She's talked about all of it publicly, at a time when women's bodies are still rarely shown ageing, adapting, or simply not performing.
“I’ve always tried to treat my body with gratitude and kindness, even during the hardest seasons of survival, menopause and weight gain,” she reflects. “I knew she’d carried me through a lot and deserved to be looked after, not criticised.”
For Lolly, Modern Sensuality means being present in her body, giving it the credit it's due, and feeling it, right down to her toes.
“And if I’m being completely honest,” she laughs, “having purpose in my work, paying my bills, the sunshine, a good man, hormone replacement therapy and the right supplements all help too.”
Which is, in the end, the whole point.
Follow Lolly Streek via @thekeeperandthedell. Shop the full collection below.
“Prioritizing centrality and pleasure for me means taking time out of even the busiest days to pause and take a moment for myself, whether that is to sit with tea or to meditate.”
Pleasure is woven into her practices, to regulate her state and ensure she doesn’t experience burnout from her career a second time: ‘Meditation has really changed my life. It’s an opportunity every single day to sit with myself and be in my own energy before I put myself out into the world around me,’ she notes. ‘Meditation can feel like a warm hug, it can also feel confronting, it depends on what day it is and what I'm experiencing at that time,’ she adds. ‘Breathwork gives me an opportunity to analyse the way that I'm feeling. If I want to feel energized, I can speed my breath up and if I want to come into more of a calming and meditative state, I can slow the breath down. I can expand my breathing in order to feel more and expand my sense of pleasure,’ she adds.