Our home for November, Littlebury Green, is very small community out in the country, small enough that there isn’t even a pub or grocery. Other than lovely walks around the country, you need a car to get anywhere. We’re a ten minute drive from a village with a pub; that’s called Littlebury, where we’ve visited The Queen’s Head for drinks and a few really good dinners. But the nearest real town is Saffron Walden about a twenty minute drive. That’s the place to find local things to do. Unless, of course, you go to the much larger city of Cambridge.
We’re in a nice apartment attached to the host’s home. The address is simply “Churchside, Littlebury Green.” No number, just “Churchside,” which is the name of the house, because we are right next door to St. Peter’s, a small, green-tin church. All along this road, and virtually everywhere we go, large or small, people name their houses. We like that idea.
Weather is a big factor in our daily plans. When the weather allows, we take walks in the country, using maps provided by our hosts. The paths cross fields and through woods and farms. Most are muddy since there’s been plenty of rain lately. But there’s plenty of nature to enjoy. We see pheasants and quail. In the house, we hear the screech of an owl, and we look out each morning to see many deer in the meadow behind the house. Driving out one day, we slowed to accommodate a buck with a good-sized antler.
The road here is just wide enough for 1 ½ cars, so I’m glad there’s so little traffic. When I must face an oncoming car – to my right, of course – I slow down and pull to the left as far as I can, sometimes on the grass or even on the curb, so as to avoid car-to-car contact.
We have enjoyed our many trips to Saffron Walden. Market days are Tuesday and Saturday, and the marketplace is full and inviting. We’ve done some shopping here — replacing our Camino-worn trail runners with new hiking boots. We also discovered a great English garden to explore and lots of walks around the town. Saffron Screen, the local movie option, is actually held in the town’s high school building. It’s great the way they take advantage of resources for multiple uses. We finally saw “Downton Abbey” here and another very interesting film, “Official Secrets,” about the English whistle-blower who let the press know how America was pressuring England to coerce UN Security Council members to support the US attacks on Iraq.
