Gerund or infinitive?

[JCAJ]

Nicely done, except you did not notice that the original writer did not spell "steel" correctly for this sentence. Steel is a metal. I believe the intended word is "steal," which means to take something without the owner's permission.

[JCAJ]

How about this?

After only a month in the cottage, I realized I didn't really enjoy the countryside, and I began to think of an excuse for selling the cottage and returning to live in the city of my birth.

[e2e4]

Nicely done, except you did not notice that the original writer did not spell "steel" correctly for this sentence. Steel is a metal. I believe the intended word is "steal," which means to take something without the owner's permission.Thanks

Yeah
that was me. I always do such mistakes.
steal of course.

One more example

But have you ever been in such situation (of) (jump, stay) near a very poisonous snake after what she (turn) away not (bite) you, in the situation when you (shiver) after what a numbness spreaded all over your body but in paralel with the goosebumps which (do) the same all over your skin, in the situation when you couldn't have chilled out for hours, afterwards. Later on (watch) the television you (think) about the master which was calmly (dissapear) under the 1m high and (half, meter) wide, made of great stone pieces, a fence. Both of you (*,be) at your home places. You wondered she (think) of you as you (think) of her.

[e2e4]

in which I had been born and lived.

How about this?

After only a month in the cottage, I realized I didn't really enjoy the countryside, and I began to think of an excuse for selling the cottage and returning to live in the city of my birth.

Gramatically perfect one, I think., but maybe slightly different in meaning to the first one. It was obvious from the first one that I lived in the city before I tried to live in the cottage.
I could be wrong about I've just said.

Also at the begining we were talking about use of the gerund vs the infinitive form.

[Soup]

After (spending) a month in the cottage, I realized that I didn't really (enjoy) (living) in the countryside and began (to think/thinking) of an excuse for (selling) the cottage and returning? to the city in which I was born and (live).

I'm not sure about how I should change 'live'.

Me too, since neither the gerund living nor the infinitive to live works in that sentence.

________________
Grammar
Is it ... an excuse for selling the cottage or an excuse to sell the cottage ... ?

[tzfujimino]

in which I had been born and lived

Hmm...I'm not really sure about it...
I like JCAJ's version; 'I began to think of an excuse for selling the cottage and returning to live in the city of my birth.'

Where did it come from, by the way?
Did it come from an English textbook you use...or did you make it up yourself?

[e2e4]

Hmm...I'm not really sure about it...
I like JCAJ's version; 'I began to think of an excuse for selling the cottage and returning to live in the city of my birth.'

Where did it come from, by the way?
Did it come from an English textbook you use...or did you make it up yourself?

After (spending) a month in the cottage, I realized that I didn't really (enjoy) (living) in the countryside and began (to think/thinking) of an excuse for (selling) the cottage and returning? to the city in which I was born and (live).

I'm not sure about how I should change 'live'.

After spending a month in the cottage, I realized that I didn't really enjoy living in the countryside and began to think of an excuse for selling the place (property) and returning to the city which I had been born in and lived. (all the time)

the city of my birth can not substitute
(which I had been born in and lived.
in which I had been born and lived.
As I already said, amigo4's sentence's right one grammatically but doesn't carry exactly the same meaning (sense) like mine.

had been born is actually the proper aspect to me because people usually decide to go to a countryside to spend the rest of their life there after their 40ties or 50ties or even sixties. So these guys were born 40, 50 or more years ago what is, I hope you agree, reasonable number of years which allow me to use the past perfect aspect and in the passive voice this time.
Furthermore the past perfect had to have been used for the simple past has been used in the second clause.
Also note that After spending a month in the cottage is an adverbial clause which could have been said this way

After I had spent a month...

in which I had been born...as an event, had happened a long time before all these actions which were mentioned in the pre-clauses.

I personally do not see any other mistake in my sentence except it should have been said

Having spent a month in the cottage instead of after spending a month..
Both are gerunds but the perfect gerund would be much better choice than an simple ing-form.

Having spent a month in the cottage I realized that I didn't really enjoyed living in the countryside and began to think of an excuse for selling the property and returning to the city in which I had been born and lived.

I'll tell you what tzfujimino!, if nobody from here did point at it I, for sure, had to have been telling you nothing but my make ups.