Tilting at windmills, outside the Quarryman’s
Noel Harrison the actor, singer and former Olympic skier recently passed away. In my childhood, he accompanied April Dancer – ‘The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.’. But I will always remember him for singing that memorable Michel LeGrande/Alan & Marilyn Bergman song: ‘The Windmills Of Your Mind’. Used for the 1968 film: ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’.
It’s funny how some songs stick in your mind. This is especially so since the construction of a dozen massive wind turbines on the south-east side of Blackburn. These near 400 foot high monsters would be well-placed in one of my tall stories.
Not everybody is happy with them. Some local residents have had TV reception problems and others find them a blot on the landscape. But from my vantage point, outside my front door up Blackburn’s Revidge Hill, I find our new windmills a pleasure to behold and very therapeutic. It needs to be a reasonably clear day, without too much mist, and then I can see their sails going round when the wind blows. It’s even better on a sunny day. I can see flashes of sunshine as each sail turns. Considering they must be at least four miles away from my house, it is a brilliant sight.
Maybe wind farms are not the answer to our spiralling energy needs. But I’d sooner keep looking out my front door at a dozen working wind turbines, creating green renewable energy. No chance on Oswaldtwistle Moor of another potential Three Mile Island, Chernobyl or Fukushima waiting to send us into nuclear oblivion.
You must be logged in to post a comment.