Status-Q

While walking my dog in the fens yesterday, I saw a windmill, some miles away on the horizon.

That wasn't unusual around here.

But its sails were turning, and that was.

I set out on a search, and found it in the little village of Wicken, where Dave, Mary Ellen and Alan kindly showed me around.

It was a thoroughly inspiring visit - a beautiful sunny day with lots of wind, and as I climbed higher and higher, the whole building thrummed, almost purred, with an energy that rose and fell with the gusts.

I also captured some quick footage on my iPhone.

(Also on Vimeo here).

Definitely recommended if you're in the area when it's open - usually the first weekend of the month.

Tilly crossing the dyke, just north-west of Reach, this afternoon.

We visited Eltham Palace, in London, today. An enjoyable outing. Henry VIII grew up here, though he wasn't a great fan of Art Deco, so that was added more recently.

My new watch can be used as the viewfinder for my iPhone camera. So, of course, the first thing it wanted to do was take a selfie.

There's a slight delay in the image, and in the shutter release, which means that the shot the camera actually took was after my finger had moved off the screen, but the image on the watch, from a second before, still shows it in place. If you click to see the full-size image, you can see a few levels of recursion (which says something about the resolution of this 1.5" display!).

Very peaceful on Grantchester Meadows this morning.

Holkham Beach in Norfolk is an amazing place. It's just vast.

Yesterday, the car park was packed, and the path from it to the beach a queue of people and dogs, yet when we got there and walked for just a few minutes, it looked like this:

A few more, and it looked like this:

(Yes, that's Tilly - you can click for a bigger version.)

Looking away from the sea, you get this:

And I'm fond of that, admittedly less exciting, view, because it features in the memorable closing sequence of my favourite movie.

Tilly absolutely adored it, and seemed to keep running, flat out, for about an hour and a half.

All in all, a most enjoyable stroll.

The Fairfield Horseshoe, from Clappersgate.

This is supposed to be an excellent walk, but I've never done it. It's on the list, perhaps when it's a bit less snowy!

In the grounds of Wray Castle, Windermere. I thought each of the main branches had different and interesting characters.

Click for a larger version

If you saw my photos from yesterday, you'll understand why we were surprised to wake up this morning to this:

and this:

Very pretty, though:

By the afternoon, the weather had returned to something closer to what we expected:

Photos often don't, however, tell you anything about the wind, which was, at times, somewhat dramatic!

All peaceful now, though.

We've escaped to the Lake District for a few days, and, as we turned off the main road and came down the side of Ullswater, we got the sudden urge to be on it instead of beside it, so we rented a small boat from the very nice people at the Glenridding Sailing Centre. I think it was just about the first one they'd rented this season.

Tilly has limited experience of boats, and wasn't too sure what to make of it, but quickly settled down. I haven't sailed much in a long time, but spent many happy days in my childhood doing this. Very nostalgic.

The Inn on the Lake at Glenridding caught the sunlight nicely at one point.

And when I got distracted by the view, Tilly would keep a close eye on the set of my sails.

Click images for larger versions.