A walk-for-ever sort of a day yesterday. So we did. Completely still, the overnight work of legions of spiders glistening in the sun.
As we set off for a longer walk, realised the wind turbines in the distance were completely motionless.
Been a while since we walked up to them so it seemed a good destination for a change of scene.
A track between fields, with occasional glimpses of these behemoths standing sentinel,
incongruously bright mossy decorations
Once up close we wandered around between a few of them - simultaneously impressive structures and slightly sinister the way they just stood there......
until, as we began to retrace our steps, the whole thing became even more eerie as the blades on the one we were approaching appeared to shift. Thought at first it was a trick of the light but as we stood and stared upwards it was obvious that without warning, without any discernible change in the air, noiselessly, the blades were, indeed, almost imperceptibly beginning to turn. It was completely mesmerising.
It was as if someone had waved a wand. All around us, one by one (though not all) the turbines began to wake up, either turning the blades or repositioning the way they were facing (which I have subsequently discovered is called the Yaw: "the rotation of the entire wind turbine in the horizontal axis") Fascinating.
Also a very good thing that we were there on a balmy autumn afternoon.
As we got back up on to the road and looked back it was possible to see that first one now bowling along merrily while others began to catch up, turning at different speeds (or some still not turning at all). All in all an education and an inspiration to find out how they actually work. Love to imagine Terry Pratchett style figures sitting inside what I now know is called the "nacelle", (though I don`t know how to pronounce it) keeping an eye on the prevailing weather and making adjustments accordingly but I fear it may have more to do with algorithms.
Thus entranced we returned home as the sun gently began to sink lower and lower
briefly setting the trees on fire
before finally disappearing.
