Romney Marsh wind farm and a woodland update

The Little Cheyne Court wind farm, on Romney Marsh, is now being commissioned. Apparently it'll be finished by February, and until then the turbines will be operating intermittently as they are tested. Here's a video taken from an upstairs window in our house:

I'm pleased to see them working. Not everyone likes the view, but if we're going to tackle climate change and also get back to the UK being self-sufficient in energy, then this is the kind of thing we need.

We drove up to the wood today, as we were bringing back a load of logs for a customer, so it was nice to find the track frozen solid:After processing some chestnut logs and loading the trailer, we got back to coppicing near the junction of the footpath and our main ride. We're trying to focus on a particular section at the moment, for no reason other than it would be nice to have it done! So, we've been working together rather than in different areas. The normal pattern is that I'll fell a tree, then Tracy will sned it while I'm measuring it into 2m lengths. Then she'll move the brash while I move the logs. Works well, and it's quick. Here's the area we're working on, it's just around the curve from the long straight stretch we did first:We had one frustrating moment today. We'd been carefully avoiding felling trees onto any of the small oaks, but the last birch I felled had a branch sticking out sideways that caught one of them as it came down, snapping it off about 2m up. This was a shame, but it's the kind of thing that happens sometimes. We made the best of it by pollarding the tree a few feet up. It'll be interesting to see if it regrows, and if the shoots are eaten by deer (they'll be too high for rabbits, which is why we cut it at this height).Here's a before and after shot at the junction. You can see the area we were working today down the right hand side of the fork.

Last week:
Today:
We're up again tomorrow, and there's no firewood deliveries to make so we can focus on the coppicing. We're hoping to cut all the way up to the junction on the right hand side...

Mike

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A beach, a wind farm, a nuclear power station and some birds: cycling from Rye to Dungeness

Yesterday we cycled from Rye to Dungeness and back on our electric bikes, a 30 mile round trip (the batteries could probably have lasted another 10 miles I think). First stop was Camber, where we paused at the shingle banks to the east of the village:It was about lunchtime so we stayed a short while there. You can see the Romney Marsh wind farm behind Tracy in this picture:
Here's a better view of it:
It includes 26 turbines, which are now all up. Apparently they have to build some meteorological equipment and then they can start commissioning them, with the whole lot scheduled to be running by January 2009.

While we had lunch a guy zoomed around on a jetski for our amusement...
and the local wildlife hung around to see if they could clean up any crumbs we left:
A bit further down the road towards Lydd we stopped by a large lake, which I think may have been formed by gravel excavation, which was still going on nearby.
The far shore was carpeted with gulls:
while the shore near us was covered with Lapwings and some slightly smaller brown birds we haven't been able to identify. None of them liked the high-vis yellow vests we were wearing, so seeing as we were scaring them anyway I took the opportunity to get some photos:
Before long we passed Lydd, and headed out into the wilderness. You can see why the MOD trains soldiers for Iraq and Afghanistan here:
In the distance was Dungeness nuclear power station:
and we rode past what looked like a facilty for transferring nuclear fuel containers from trains to trucks to go down to the power station:
The road's quite long and desolate:
though there was actually quite a bit of traffic on it.

As we approached Dungeness we saw that the RNLI lifeboat station was open, so we went in to have a look round, and bought a few odds and ends in their shop. Apparently they didn't get called out much this year, as the lack of warm weather reduced the number of people out on the sea. Impressive kit waiting there until it's needed though:
From there we moved on into the village of Dungeness, which has the strangest collection of houses I've ever seen, many with the power station overlooking them:
and once you move away form the road it's back to wilderness The furtherst point of our ride was marked by the Britannia Inn, which serves a good pint of beer.
and you can sit out the front in good weather, with the usual view:Mike

UPDATE, here's the photo I mentioned in the comments below, taken last year:

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Romney Marsh wind farm

Just down the road from Rye a wind farm is being built by npower on Romney Marsh. We went down this afternoon to see how it was getting on. There are two turbines up so far, and a third one has the tower up but no turbine on it it yet:
I'm delighted to see this going on. I know some people don't like the look of them, but I personally find them quite elegant. In any case, they're right next to a row of large pylons and near a nuclear power station, so you can hardly argue the view is pristine! ;-)

Mike

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