Acres Wild...There is Order in Wilderness, Exotic in the Ordinary

Considering that the last vacation was an action packed Singapore trip and also considering that the children love animals, unstructured play and generally hanging around with friends, we decided to take a completely laid back, unstructured, open planned holiday at none other than the place that is the epitome of organised wilderness and farm experience....Acres Wild.

Since this was to be a holiday where we don't have to do anything and the idea was to let the children have fun, we decided to combine the stay with our family friends so that the children spend their vacation together.

First Step

Booking the rooms

The website of acres wild is easy to locate on google. http://www.acres-wild.com/
More importantly the site is easy to browse and the room availability is colour coded so that one gets a fair idea of the dates when one could plan a holiday.
Moreover, the owners are easy to contact both on phone and by email and extremely honest about the levels of activity that one could expect at the farm. No tall claims are made and what I appreciated the most that they correctly advice the number of days one needs to stay to enjoy what the farm has to offer.

We were booked in Haloumi cottage which is situated on the top most level of the 22 acres land of Acres Wild and is a two bedroom, living room and kitchen unit.

We paid the tariff in advance and filled the online booking form to ensure that the rooms remain booked with us since the demand is extremely high. Which gives me hope. Not everyone is looking
for a commercial holiday location.


Reaching Acres Wild
We were booked for three nights and checking out on the fourth day. To ensure that we arrived in the morning of day 1, we started the previous afternoon from Chennai by road.
After a 5 hour drive, we stayed overnight at Salem, (LRN Residency) which surprisingly turned out to have big room and big bath with hot water on demand in the taps.

The next morning we started at 7.30 am and reached Acres Wild Coonoor by 11.45 am. Since we had restricted out food to avoid travel sickness and messing up the cars, we see famished. Mansoor (Khan) the host was generous enough to suggest we help ourselves to some freshly toasted bread until lunch got served and promised us an early lunch.

The farm is located very near to Coonoor bus stop and easily located through google map. A winding narrow road off the main road just after the lorry stand leads to a three way forked path. We took the concrete path, past the Mandir, masjid built close to one another and followed the signs and took a few more turns until we were guided to stop. That was where the owners lived and adjacent to that was the coolest place in the farm, the restaurant, sit out, library and games room with a very clean toilet I must add.


What did we do?
Day 1
Mansoor gave us an overview of the farm. Helped by Munna the go to guy and Mary the go to lady
who also makes cheese, we checked in after a hearty feast of bread, butter and home made guava jam. Either it is the hills or because the bread was really tasty, we felt that we have never eaten such yummy bread butter jam before, so much we hogged.

We also checked out the books, a delightful collection of Enid Blytons was what I spotted first.
The kids loved carrot and football table and were eager to try their hand at the pool table but it was for the best that we did not want them to touch it.

And of course we checked out the wifi! You don't believe that we would disconnect completely right!

Our cottage was at the top most level past another cottage. There was one more cottage that was downhill and was visible from the top.

Haloumi cottage at night

The rooms were lovely, more than what we could wish for. There was a kitchenette with induction study over and tea service, a fireplace, enough sofas and dining set and separate geysers even though the farm is powered by solar heater for bath water. I am glad the back up was available because I have had experiences in cold places where we had to struggle for hot water and this was the biggest luxury that I could ask for.

We were given extra bed and there was a supply of quilts and pillows and more towels than we needed and home made soap in the bathrooms.

The decor was in very traditional wood and the room had bay windrows which we opened in the morning and watched the mist curl inside the room. My only grouse, I wish the lights were brighter. The reason being that misty evenings forces one to stay indoors and if the lights a bright and warm, it feels secure and pleasant.

We also had a private gazebo that overlooked the mountains and gave us a bird's eye view of the rest of the farm.

We followed Mary to the cheese room that was located a few steps away and observed the huge
containers with milk waiting to turn to cheese. Mary added the culture and took us for a tour of the place including the cheese room with a tantalising display of arrays of various types of cheese.

Steps in Cheese making


We did a mini nature walk looking at lantana blooms, smelling the lemon leaves and a few more bright and colorful exotic looking wild flowers.

Cows were ranging free which is not unusual in India but the fact that they were allowed all over the property even up to the steps that led to the main house was amazing.

The beauty if the hills is that even the wild flowers look so bright, pretty and colourful and the lantana especially took me back to my childhood in Ranchi where they were rampant and wild crowding every other plant in the garden.

We plucked fresh baby guavas from the tree, which was a first for the children, tasted the rosemary
and went back to the restaurant for lunch which was a delightful spread of chicken, fresh cabbage, greens, rotis, rice, daal and halwa for the sweet dish.

I believe that the reason that our stomachs stayed in perfect condition all these days was that we never ate outside, but insisted that we would take all three meals in Acres Wild. So great was the lure of freshly cooked home food. And if there is a cook you would like to kiss, I would recommend she is the one!

After lunch, we lazed outside the restaurant and soaked up the sun that was helpfully shining and explored Mansoor's garden. I loved the anise plant and shamelessly ate a lot of anise on the sly both fresh ones and the ones that had dried up on the plant! My secret was out when he recommended that the kids taste that and they declared that they had already tasted them!

fresh green anise extremely full flavoured

It became a good nature trail for the children in total.

And here are these lovely flowers the petals of which look like that of the rose.

We took a hike down to the fish pond and came back huffing and puffing. The children pestered the
host to give them the bucket of fish food and we delegated the job of chaperoning them, to the dads. The kids fed the fish and Ojas put one foot in the water and I spent a couple of days drying his shoes out in the flirting sun, using newspapers and silica packs!

After that the children joined Mansoor as he was making wheat bread. They had a merry time kneading the dough and putting them in the mould for raising.

And then it was time for milking the (cash) cows (4.30pm) and we didn't want the children to miss them. The cow shed was a few metres away from Haloumi and we trekked up the steps and towards the cow shed and were waiting there even before the milkmen came. The children tried their hand at milking the cows. The outer limit for the cow's patience is 10 minutes we were told and after that we would get a kick in our sorry butts! We interviewed the milkmen on various aspects like output, nature of the cows, which calf belonged to which cow and which cow was the most gentle and which was the most short tempered. Took lots of pictures with the cows and refrained from putting them up
on FB fearing unwarranted comments comparing our and the cows' sizes!

this loving cow is not her mother!

The children were fascinated with the tripod shaped sticks that the cowherd was using and they ensured they got one each from the forest which they hid in the property for posterity before leaving from there.

We met puppy the dog and Spotty another very friendly dog that belonged to the cook.

Stepped back to the restaurant to eat more bread!

And did you think that by now the kids would have forgotten the bread! No way. They skipped back to the host's kitchen and watched the bread bake and then were told that the same would be served in the restaurant the following day.


Using their tripod sticks, the kids reached up to the tea bushes that were plentiful and plucked lots of leaves. They also did some plant and flower spotting and collected lovely wild flowers.

We ended the day as the mist came curling with a dinner of chicken 65, okra, rajma and dessert of besan halwa.

The best part of the restaurant is that it invites endless conversation, lingering there long after food is done and lots of whooping and playing by the children.

And in this whole confusion, we missed the cutting of the cheese and the other processes.

Day 2

The rains of the previous night gave me a lot of tension but it was delightfully bright and sunny the next morning.

tea flower ...slightly powdery smell, heliotrope, green accents, reminiscent of jasmine and orange blossom 

After a breakfast of poha and again lots of bread, including the bread that they had baked the previous evening, we stepped out to visit the town.
We decided to visit the Sims park. We loved the dahlias, the pink cosmos and the humbug out trees and birds of various kinds like sparrows, bulbul etc.

who says boys don't do pink...cosmos flowers

 dahlia

After that we went to the tea factory. The children scattered the tea leaves for drying and generally
experienced the various stages of tea. I could smell the raw leafy smell of the tea even till the last stage and I wonder when the transition takes place.

We picked up the baskets and an apron and the children had the experience of plucking and gathering tea leaves.

We bought lots of spices and I especially loved the asafoetida with its sharp aroma.
Of course we were back right on time for a lunch of chicken and tasty vegetables. The reason I love the hills is that the food tastes fresh and awesome.

And do you know, I even managed to do a super quick shopping at Fab India in Coonoor before heading back to the farm!

We had a long siesta and post that we sat in the gazebo and the children danced to songs and we also played some quizzes to pass the time until dinner was served.

That night we had chicken biriyani and okra and boiled potatoes served with homegrown fennel leaves and cheese. Yummy!

And it rained. Heavily. Mansoor spent some time with us explaining the fascinating concept of his book The Third Curve which is based on the normal curve of peak oil which is the source of energy and is fast depleting. He explained that the very idea of Acres Wild is to be as Eco friendly as possible and which is why he focuses on home grown, self made and reducing the impact in the environment.
Read the book. It's interesting and written in a lucid style using colourful fonts, interesting graphs and stories that illustrate the concepts.

Day 3
We took the toy train to Ooty and the dads proceeded to Ooty by car and waited like paparazzi for us to reach the destination. (without card in the camera so we had to rely on our mobile phones for pictures.) From Coonoor to Wellington to Yetti to Lovedale to Ooty was a journey that encompassed three tunnels and beautiful landscape.

After that we went to an entertainment zone of sorts where we did a boat ride which was more like a raft ride, ate corn, did horse riding and bought the large smooth textured custard apples, which are way tastier than the smaller usual variety.

On the way back we stopped at Gateway for lunch and discovered that there was a possibility of TN bandh the following day and we had to rudely cut short our holiday. We decided to leave the same evening. Mansoor and Tina were extremely understanding and more than generous and we were truly sorry to leave ending our dream vacation.

And by the way, if you have not already guessed it, Mansoor is the Mansoor of QSQT and Jo Jeeta fame, two of my favourite movies! And you have my word, the man behind these lovely movies is extremely warm, caring, friendly and patient, considering that he was handling the children and their (boring) questions with great gentleness.

Of course we bought our cheese, cheddar, Gouda, Parmesan and Gruyere (I am told their cultures are different and that's how they make different cheese) and I am yet to discover the best way of using them.

I am hesitant to eat them raw as they taste sharper and more pungent than the usual cheese we use and I am yet to try them in my cooking.

We left for Pondicherry by 6 pm and reached there by 1 pm, exhausted and bad tempered in my case since I was forced to travel a day before and could not enjoy the night drive.

Day 4
The irritation did not stay for long because soon I remembered that this is the same Pondicherry that I love, the same place which shaped my career (MBA) and the same place where I met the husband. And this was where the water is clean, the roads are uncomplicated, the people are good natured, the mood is all laid back and the sky is clear.
I tried some constellation spotting but unfortunately the only two constellations that I spotted were Ursa Major and Cassiopeia. Well, they were not exciting enough to show to the kids and there went my plans of doing some good star gazing with them. Of course the sky is not as clear as the university area which is less lit up and therefore more conducive to star gazing.

The boys drawing Johnny at pondicherry

Day 5
Back to base, to routine and to normal life but in no way less exciting than the holidays. As I have said before, we are homebodies and love our home and cannot stay too long away!


Some Tips
Pack a few warm clothes, a sturdy pair of walking shoes, sunglasses, umbrellas.

A carry on bag to stuff the sweaters in when it gets hot as the sun beats down hard in the hills.

Avomine for adults and domstal for children, to be taken before travel on doctor's advice for prevention of travel sickness in the hills especially.

Plenty of water to drink.

Some snacks for in between as you may not want to step out from the place and since this is a home stay it does not have an active restaurant.

Breakfast is complementary and lunch and dinner is provided but you need to inform them in advance.

Exercise well before coming to this place. The last few steps as you climb up to the cottage is damning and shaming evidence of inactivity! And don't even think of taking the road. I felt a force was pulling me back and the downhill walk is even worse!

Something to do in the evenings as it could get dull at that time if you don't feel like going to the games room.

There is a tip box in the restaurant for the staff. Use that to appreciate their service.

What we Loved
Non commercial, laid back, elemental, natural, nostalgic (cow smell/ lantana/ less connectivity), conversation, mist curling from the valleys up to our cottage, no need to really lock the cottage, the kids in their element, idyllic, ordered wilderness, exotic ordinary

What I loved (and the men hated)
No TV

What we Missed

The full cheese making for us ladies
Soap making for the children

I Smell Something

http://www.livescience.com/48101-loss-of-smell-predicts-mortality.html

And now this article on sense of smell!

Not because I work in the industry, but in spite of that and much before that my sense of smell and taste has always been keen.

And I also see the same has been passed on to the children especially Tejas who can smell out stuff when I am cooking.

In fact in many cases, I rely more on my sense of smell rather than sight.....dirty diapers for instance were always smelled rather than visually checked !

Or even used clothes. One never knows they are to be washed unless you smell them.

Smell indicates a food is well cooked, especially while baking.

And sometimes it helps catch a guilty person....when there is stink in the air....and everyone is blaming the other person.

In fact when I see a spice plant, I recognize it only when I smell the leaves.....else how would I know when I have never seen it before?

Tell me when your nose is your go to person in a situation?

Words that cracked me up the last few months

Mamma..why did you out your finger in the milk
Ojas...I did not put my finger, I put my entire hand

Tejas promised his teacher he would get the tennis bat for a child for participating in a program
Turns out he was about to hand over the mosquito bat.

Tried playing Kabbaddi with the kids thinking I could catch the tiniest fell
Ojas spoke in a stage whisper...catch my mother

Ojas- Muslims go to metallica mamma.
Why?
Ojas-metallica and medina!!

And recently Ojas composed music on keyboard, meticulously writing down the notes

Game of Blogs - Team: Story6D

Chapter 9

Read Chapter 8 on my team member's blog 

Aryan Ahuja

"And we meet again," said Aryan, his voice sounding a little strange in the setting of Tara's home. As he took in the sight of Tara standing, her chiffon sari giving her an ethereal character as she came into his view, he smiled. She looked just the same, the way he had preserved her in his mind, even though he had hated and obsessed over her at the same time, if that was possible.

 A nosy gossip queen had given him all the information he  needed. She worked, while her husband Shekhar stayed at home. An ISB graduate, staying at home and freelancing? He had almost guffawed in delight at this development.

He couldn't believe his luck when he saw her the day he moved into the apartment in her block. And today he was at her doorstep again, like that night, sixteen years ago. That fateful night when he had first met Tara. The party, the fun, the happiness, all came back to him. He had felt like a part of their circle. No scratch that. Her circle. And when she had sweetly ruffled his hair, and invited him to join them after the formal graduation dinner was over, he had felt that she was leading him on. He was there on an invitation from his cousin who was also graduating from ISB.

Unlike Kaizaad and Shekhar, Tara had joined ISB after a year of work experience.  So they being two years older than Tara formed a coterie, and his cousin and he, Aryan, became Tara's partners in crime as Tara and his cousin kept on insisting when he took tequila shot after shot on a dare that night, he taking the shots on proxy for the girls and she edging him on to help her win, because she could not hold more than two.

And suddenly, Tara had announced that she had to go back to her room to finish her packing and catch some sleep as she had an early morning flight to catch the next day, while Shekhar and Kaizaad were staying back to orient the junior batch into the
 college.

Aryan had not believed his luck. Especially when Tara had, after hugging Shekhar and Kaizaad, turned to him and given him a tequila fragrant peck on his cheek, making him miss a heart beat.

Aryan had feigned sickness and taken leave of the party immediately afterwards and taken drunken steps back towards the students' quarters.

Not to the boys' quarters where he was staying that night but to the girls'. One girl precisely. The only one girl who was alone at that particular time, in her room, waiting for him, he had known.

He had knocked on the door and she had opened immediately, making him believe that she was waiting for him, eagerly, on the other side of the door.

She had the grace to show a mild surprise on seeing him at the door and he had entered and shut the door, taking in her beauty.

But all this had been to just play hard to get, he knew. Well, two people could play the game. He had sauntered in and collapsed on the standard regulation fake leather sofa of ISB quarters. But he had a hard time making space for himself because it had been full of luggage in various states of packing.

"Err, Aryan, I am not sure why you are here. I am a little busy and need to finish my packing." She had said.

He knew at that time that she was determined to make it hard for him. And he had to change tactics to get her to fall in line with his plans. How inconvenient. Well his tried and tested formula was ready for use as always. Girls always fell for that.

"Just felt a little lonely after you left. And I may not see you ever again. You will go your separate way and I have just come here as a guest and you will have no reason to be in touch with me. After all, you hardly know me."

"Well, then you shouldn't be feeling too bad, right?"

Ah, there was his opening to slip in a tactic to make her feel good about herself.

"Tara, I love your name. The same as the girl I once loved."

She had smiled her lovely smile and he had a tough time controlling his desire to kiss her.

But then she had touched his hand and patted it lovingly,  moving some stuff aside and had sat next to him on the sofa, causing a shiver of excitement down his spine.

She was about to say something but he had  turned towards her,  hugged her tightly and ran his lips over the bare neck of the off shoulder dress she had worn over the unsexy graduation gown.

She had protested and struggled but Aryan had pinned her down on the sofa and continued to kiss her. He remembered that he could sense her struggles slow down and her body give way to her pleasure, and then on an impulse he had blurted out "Tara, I love you."

That was a sort of switch that put off all emotions she was wantonly displaying and she gave Aryan a massive kick where it hurt most.

"What the fuck Tara."

She had jumped towards the back of the sofa where the open pantry was and fished out a massive looking knife that she waved towards me.

"Get out or I will call the security. This is why ISB should never allow outsiders to stay in the campus, this safe haven is no longer safe with elements like you. Get out"

Bitch. She had enjoyed it. I swear.

And she married Shekhar. Because he was ISB and I was not.

And today, look at him. The loser is at home and I am on the road to become the National Sales Head.

What a joke.

"Why the hell are you here?" Tara whispered, scared that Roohi would come out of her room and witness the ugliness.

"I have some unfinished business with you."

"Get lost Aryan. We have nothing to do with each other."

"Oh I will, but I will be back. Stay put. And I may have a thing or two to convey to your husband," said Aryan running a finger on her cheek, much to Tara's disgust.

Refusing to be scared, she stood straight and said with as much firmness that she could muster, "Get out and don't show your face here."

Aryan Ahuja stepped back and walked the way he had come, a leer on his face as he contemplated his next move. 

Read part 10 here

"Me and my team Story 6D, are participating in 'Game Of Blogs' at BlogAdda.com. #CelebrateBlogging with us."

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I expect them to have a city wise search also and a better search platform which recommends search strings.  For example if there are spelling mistakes in my search, if the platform recommends "did you mean..." it would have been convenient.

 

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Hope it will turn out to be a useful site on future for me.
Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

Nature trail

Done in a small green fair at the beach. Turned out to be an insect trail and the kids loved it much to my surprise.

This is an Indian domino cockroach which we all thought was a ladybird. Turns out it was a yucky cockroach.

After that I followed it up with a tree trail in the building where the children smelled and saw betel leaf, curry leaf, lime leaves, plenty of flowers and mango leaf. Refreshing and green nostalgic, something that even I have not smelled in a long long time.

My Overactive Children

Every day, from 7am to midnight, it’s like I have hurricanes in my home

Where do kids get their energy from? Why can’t I have some of that vitality?

Hop on to read my post here

http://www.yowoto.com/posts/help-the-batteries-in-my-overactive-kids-never-seem-to-wind-down

Hop on to yowo

Brown Velvet Cake

This is modified recipe if red velvet cake, I call it brown velvet cake. Turns out super soft and light, much to my surprise. It is quite simple if you do not plan to embellish it with the cream. This was the first time I worked with cups or oz measurement and since I had a measuring jar with both oz and gram measurement it was super convenient.

1 cup = 8 ounces = 236 g

Ingredients

Whisk together
3 eggs
Vanilla essence
3/4 cup or 6 oz or 177 g approx unsalted butter
1.5 cup or 12 oz or 350 g sugar

Combine together
2.5 cup or 20 oz or 590 g Flour
3 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder (some recipes do not recommend baking powder but I cannot imagine ignoring it in my cake mix)

Add the two mixes together however you will find them tough to blend because the eggs are half the quantity of a simple cake.

Combine the bubbly mix

1 cup butter milk which could be effectively made using 50 ml (1/3 cup) of milk and 200ml (2/3cup) of yoghurt blended together
1 tbsp white vinegar or lemon juice
1 tsp baking soda or sodium bicarbonate

Add this bubbly mix to the above mix and fold. I topped the mix up with about 2 tbsp milk as I found the mix too stiff.

I baked the cake in my convection microwave, medium power, 180 degree C and 8 minutes



Sent from my iPad

Tejas wrote a cartoon strip

The idea was Ojas' he said.

This is in the diary if wimpy kinds do it yourself book. A lovely book where kids can make up their own cartoons, answer questions and generally a fun thing to do. Something that Tejas loves doing. 

I am glad I bought it for him, on his insistence of course.