Yesterday Jan and I went for a walk. We left directly from the cottage and traced a circular route taking in fields, open moorland and heather covered hills. An invigorating 6 miles and one that was tough on the calf muscles as walking across heather is not the easiest of paths. A couple of things on the walk stuck out:
1. How useful a GPS was. I'm still not used to the one I've just bought and it's still a novelty. To be honest, under most circumstances it's probably an affectation with little practical utility. But, yesterday, on featureless moorland (without a map), it was extremely useful to be able to track the direction of the walk against the satellite position. It certainly meant that we were able to know where we were and navigate correctly.
2. How many wind turbines there are in this part of the world. When we had a break, I surveyed the panorama and noted six separate clusters dotted around. What do I think of them? From a distance they are not too intrusive and blend into the scenery reasonably well. It's a different matter close up; as they are pretty big. And the noise! I've never been that close to one before and the constant hum and swish of the blades was annoying. A necessary evil? Yes, that's how I'd describe them. It's good that they are becoming greater in number, with the implication that more of our energy is being generated from renewable resources. It's a shame that they can't be made much smaller. Perhaps that will come.
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