Chesterton Windmill

CH and I went out for a drive today, to the oft-blipped Chesterton Windmill near Warwick. I'd seen photos of this wonderful structure in other people's journals, but we had never been there ourselves - it is beautiful, and very interesting, and we were glad that we went. I'd like to go back on one of its rare open days, to see the machinery in action.

Today we arrived at the same time as a family with two young children, and I hiked up the grassy path at speed to get some shots, expecting that the area around the windmill would shortly be overrun. But it was so cold up there that only Dad and the elder child actually made it to the top, and they didn't stay long. A few minutes later CH and I were also defeated by the cold - back in the car I set the heated seat to "griddle", but I didn't even begin to thaw out till we were virtually back in Stratford.

I had also hoped to get some shots of buzzards while we were out - there are at least three pairs living within two miles of us, but they are very wary of people and hard to photograph, and I'd hoped to use the car as a kind of rolling hide. The plan worked, within reason - I won't be submitting these shots to any competitions, but they're certainly the best I've achieved so far!