Hillmorton (which way do wind turbines turn?)

We got together with the family for a brilliant day on Saturday with a big sleep over.  When we got back to the boat, which wasn’t far from the big wind farm off the M1, I was reminded of a theory of ours.  Every three bladed wind turbine we have seen in action turns clockwise when viewed from the front.  Every two bladed one turns anti-clockwise.  Jo recently came back from a whistle-stop tour of Europe and confirmed that all the ones she saw in various countries supported our theory.  It would be interesting to know what the reasons are for the different directions the two types take and whether our observations hold up. 


Catherine stayed over with us on Sunday and as it was so wet on Monday morning we went exploring.   

The Oxford canal was built mainly along contours with few locks; consequently it covered a great many more miles than it would have done if it had been built straight.  In the early 1800s the owning company were concerned about competition from other London to Birmingham routes and decided to straighten many sections in order to speed up journeys.  In Newbold-on-Avon, north of Rugby, a tunnel was cut out of the original route so we went to find it.  The southern end was at the back of the graveyard of the local church which has a rather small door:

We found the old canal bed and then saw the bricked up portal with two small bat holes.

I was upset that we hadn’t brought a torch so we could look inside but Karen, with her sensible hat on, took a flash picture through one of the bat holes.

As a reminder of how nice most of the weekend was this was our sunset on Friday: