East Flanders woman, cold in English landscape, softening (12)

I believe the answer is:

emollescence

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'softening' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'east flanders woman cold in english landscape' is the wordplay.
'east flanders woman' becomes 'emoll' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'cold' becomes 'C' (eg on taps).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'landscape' becomes 'scene' (I've seen this before).
'e'+'scene'='escene'
'c' inserted into 'escene' is 'escence'.
'emoll'+'escence'='EMOLLESCENCE'

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I've seen this clue in The Times.

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