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I am very fond of Windmills.
Those quaint relics and remenents of bygone civilization have always held my mind in sway.
My very first encounter with European windmills was in 2002 when I noticed in our Internet photo club "www.usefilm.com" a member from Holland Mr.Teunis Haveman, started to post beautiful images of windmills. He has collected so many to make a large portfolio dedicated to windmills http://www.usefilm.com/photographer.asp?P=2&ID=17434&PF=4676 . I was drawn into it out of curiosity and by their sumptuous beauty. So I wrote to Tuenis if I could visit his country side to see all those magnificent relics of the past being fervently preserved by the 'Molen' volunteers.
Teunis was pleased to play my host and so I packed my bag and off I went to Gronegan, northern most province of Netherlands next to Germany. What a beautiful countryside it turned out to be - Large swathes of lushiously green flat lands criss-crossed by meandering canal-ways with lazy waters flowing threw like a saunterer. For miles on end the land was flat and perilously below the sea level with large areas willing to accept flooding waters from the sea. So to keep all that unruly waters
away the Dutch kept building windmills after windmills to pump them back to the sea. And so the countryside of Holland is dotted with these powerful work-horses with stubby and smock like building with heavy wind-sails, all along those canalways
In the early mornings when the mists and fog still shroud the flat lands, these magnificent windmills stand tall like a sentinel, sticking their sails up in to the sky - so proud and powerful. Snaking canals full of ducks and geese and occasional graceful swans provide the perfect back drop for these relics.
I was kept enthralled by the rustic sceneries all day as Teunis took me around to show different types of windmills - the corn mills grinding corn, water-mills pumping water off the marsh lands, Saw-mills cutting timbers. I was lucky to see one water mill working on that day pushing water fervently and powerfully by using a cork-screw shaped propeller fan - a delightful scene to watch the old work-horse still churning way the waters.
When the sails rotate in full swing - they make a loud Swish-Swish-Swish sound, a swashbuckler will be very proud of when it sweeps the wind !. The
sails start slowly and steadily at first and gather speed every next turn and eventually they swing so fast that you can hear the sails slashing through the air from a distance - it is really an awesome sight to behold. Those powerful sails make the heavy grinding stones to grind or the water shovels to swing.
It is really sad that these beautiful work horses have become redundant in the ever changing modern world. All those ubiquitous windmills which use to adorn the sky lines of medieval villages have gone. But thankfully a hand full of the relics have been restored by the fervent volunteers all around Europe. So these beautiful windmills can still be seen dotting the country sides of England and Netherlands.
One such restored windmill is Willesbrough windmill in Ashford, Kent, UK. A beautiful white windmill fully restored to its working order for grinding corns. It stands proudly at the edge of the motorway M20 catching the eyes of the motorists on their way to Dover and Channel tunnel.
During the winter the climate is hostile with blustery winds and persistent drizzles of rain, so water soaks up the wooden sails. In order
to prevent them from falling apart in winter - the sails are removed and stored away in dry place. When the spring arrives the sails are hoisted up again in April.
In the last week of April - the sails went up again. Putting up the sails is a wonderful occasion indeed. A group of locals gathered in good sprite. A really tall crane was brought in, to lift up the one ton heavy sails, up in the air to its working slots. Mr.V.Pargeter, the experienced millwright who looks after the windmill was the master of the ceremony. He went up the mill and emerged at the opening at the top - a height of 7 storie building perfect for vertigo lovers. He stood there nonchalantly and guided the sails lifted by the crane into its slots and then he climbed the sails up and down effortlessly like a teenager to fine tune it !. First the heavy sail-stumps goes up - two of them. When they are fixed up they look like a + sign. To this stumps the sail frames carrying the wind-shutter slots are fitted to complete the sail.
After the sails were successfully fixed
up - the fully fitted windmill looked magnificent and beautiful in that blue sky -A lovely and charming country scene. Me, like all the other spectators were- was captivated and throughly entertained by the occasion It was an enjoyable afternoon indeed.
After all the hard work, all the volunteers joined to have a mini celebration with glass of champagne. I must say they all deserved it. It was heartening to see the childish enthusiasm of all the voluteers who work so hard to keep these graceful antiquities up and running for posterity.
I stood there taking photos and I have uploaded some of them here. Please take a look and you will see what I am yapping about !
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