Wind Power

I should apologise firstly for the large number of posts published at once going back to April. Its been a busy period and as such I have been keen to track what has been happening knowing if I don't a lot of things will get lost in a single post. That was the case in the latter part of last year and begining of this one. So I have been updating but problems with my old laptop have prevented me transferring the photographs I wanted to include in the post. The card reader is flakey and my machine is running so slow that editing is fast becoming too frustrating a process to put myself through. Finally all done on the photography front and so all posts published- mainly for my own reference to be honest.

We have been lucky on the West to Central Scotland to have had a run of really good weather allowing us to go places with the kids as I have covered in the past few posts. In the last couple of weeks though the weather has turned again. It was too good to be true. With the school holidays coming up the weather was always going to change.

The photo above is from a wind farm we took the kids to on Sunday just for something different to do and its free to get in. Whitelee Wind Farm is the largest on-shore farm in the UK and the second biggest in Europe. Indoors there is a small cafe and an area where the kids not only learn about renewable energy but they involve little games to keep them interested. That was great but in truth after 10-15 minutes the kids had seen it all. The farm itself consists of 215 huge turbines and its quite a site. There are pathways between them and the signs show what kind of wildlife can be seen from Merlins to Adders. It was out plan to have a long walk and see what we could see but it did not last very long. We were soaked and my good camera was getting soaked too so we had to turn back which was a shame but we will return another day.

The farm itself is located on Eaglesham Moor. This area is famous for a certain German who landed here during the war. Not that far from the farm is where Rudolph Hess landed by parachute. There was a memorial plaque of the event at one time but that was unfortunately vandalised and as far as I am aware there is no X to mark the spot anymore.

The turbines are eerie enough in themselves. We have all seen them from afar but up close its something else. There things are unbelievable to stand beneath and on a day like Sunday when it was really windy the noise they make sends shivers up the spine. A mist is not a stranger to the moor either and when that descnends it does make for a creepy scene. I can't put my finger on what the allure is but it has some sort of pull.

We left saying we would go back in better weather and we will because it looks like the walks are worth exploring. It was just a shame the weather got so bad that we were forced to go. On the way back by car my wife suddenly shouted out the blue: deer! Pointing out the passenger side we all looked and were amazed to see 20-30 deer by the roadside at a fence. My wife double back and then back again. On the last run I got out. Its long been my goal to photograph a deer as I may have mentioned before. Soaked and with cars flying past me too fast I was totally shut off to the dangers as I stood taking photos. Not great photos but better than anything I'd had the chance to take before. All good it would seem but it was only after that my wife said it could be a deer farm. Naively I had never thought of that. It if is then I would not have taken the photos. Doesn't seem right. I much prefer trying to catch photographs of wild deer so that is something I will continue to try to do.