Weekend getaway

There are times when the mind wishes for rest or a break from the constant humdrum of the city. It is in times like this when villages like Greetham call with their promise of peace, serenity and a conspicuous lack of mobile phone connectivity. The village of Greetham is located in the county of Rutland, England  with a broad estimated population of 450 people, of which most have holiday homes and can be found in Greetham only over the weekend.

One such ‘resident’ of Greetham is my uncle, who owns a cottage there, which he uses on any weekend that he’s not on call at the hospital. When both my uncle and aunt were free, we decided to capitalise on the free weekend and head over to Greetham. Although it is quite foolhardy to go north in the winter, a warm southerly wind prompted us to throw the BBC weather forecast out of the window and head north to Rutland.

The drive from Nuneaton, a British town, to Greetham takes around one-and-a-half hours, and is along a country road that snakes past the verdant countryside. With this being the warmest autumn ever in England, the countryside featured some bare branches with paths strewn with sepia-tinged leaves and occasionally, trees with blossoms and buds. In one place, by the side of the road, was an apple tree that was heavy with fruit, a very uncommon sight in December. The countryside itself rose and fell as we drove along, and frequently had cows and sheep grazing along looking lazily at the cars speeding away. At one fenced-in ranch, I was surprised to find llamas grazing in a field in their furry coats; the diaspora extends to domesticated animals as well.

Like most other homes in Greetham, the cottage is of stone with a wooden frame, featuring a tile roof. Within the cottage was a kerosene-fuelled oven, called an aga, which had three sealed compartments and two hot plates. The aga is a slow cooking oven that seals in the moisture and thus adds a different flavour to the food cooked therein. As it is a slow cooker, food typically takes two hours to cook within it. It is also a massive oven and takes about four hours to heat up. So while the aga was heating up, we headed over to Rutland Water, a reservoir to the south of Greetham.

This reservoir is a popular sports centre with windsurfing and fishing being the
primary sports. It also features an obstacle course and a rock climbing wall and is
circled by a cycling path. This area also receives incredible strong winds and is thus popular throughout the year for windsurfing. Another prominent attraction of Rutland Water is its avian population, with ducks such as gadwall and shoveler
wintering here, and other birds such as ospreys, lapwing and tufted duck common at the reservoir. As the reservoir attracts such birds, every August it hosts the British Bird Watching fair.

With the light fading, we decided to head back to Greetham and the warm
confines of the cottage. The next day, while lunch cooked in the aga, we headed north to Woolsthorpe Manor, the birthplace and family home of Isaac Newton. This manor has been conserved as a 17th century farmstead by the National Trust, which runs tours till October.

The manor is a two-storied stone and limestone building with a red tiled roof. The mellow limestone of the building gives it a yellow sheen in the morning sun. Within the orchard, a
descendent of Newton’s apple tree is a prominent tourist attraction. In October, to celebrate the place of the apple tree of Newton’s theory of gravity-fame, the National Trust harvests the apples and has contests of apple tasting and pie making.

With the manor closed for winter, we drove back to Greetham for the aga-cooked dal and rice. The use of the aga adds a different flavour and a creamy richness as the dal simply stews at low heat and doesn’t lose any of its moisture. Dessert featured a feathery light apple strudel with a crisp top and a gooey apple pulp at the centre. With lunch done, and the weekend coming to an end, we left some potatoes within the aga to bake and crisp up for dinner. Dinner done, we headed back to our lives in the city, with the setting sun marking an end to our peaceful and quiet holiday in Greetham.