#Castle Mill

[rabbitcruiser]

National Windmill Day

Drive out to windmill country, or read up about the history of windmills and how they can provide clean, sustainable energy by harnessing Earth’s natural power.

Most people love them because there’s something absolutely bucolic about their squat structures and the gentle creak of their fins as these wooden structures spin in the natural wind currents. Of course, that describes the old fashioned kind of windmill. The newer, modern versions take on some different characteristics, of course.

Windmills have been around for a very long time, since the time when people first realized it was possible to harness the power of the wind to perform work and provide energy. Ever since new innovations have been made with the ability to utilize the never-ending source of power that windmills capture.

National Windmill Day commemorates the origins of the windmill as well as how it has helped to shape technology and industry from the past and into the future. It’s time to learn about and celebrate National Windmill Day!

History of National Windmill Day

The idea of capturing the power of the wind to perform work isn’t new and, in fact, it goes back far further into history than most people would suspect. Since then, its use has sprung up in multiple cultures throughout the world.

Heron of Alexandria, who lived in the first century AD, was the earliest person known to have harnessed the energy of moving air to perform work, using a very primitive device to power, of all things, a musical instrument: the organ. The people of Persia also developed more traditional windmills, though they had a different orientation than the ones most people typically think of when hearing the word ‘windmill’.

Some historians think that the Persian models were the inspiration for the vertical models that were developed later on in the middle ages. The evidence of one of the oldest windmills that remains today can be found in Weedley, Yorkshire, England and is said to have been built in 1185. As is commonly depicted in media, these machines were used primarily to grind grain, and have been for many centuries since that time.

Recently though, at least in the last 150 years or so, there’s been a growing movement to use windmills in another fashion entirely. The power of the wind can be harnessed to turn giant wind turbines which in turn generate clean, and virtually unlimited, renewable energy.

Windmills have been around for a long long time, and while they may seem like primitive tech, they’ve moved into the world as hope for a clean future. Along with solar, bio-fuel, and fuel cells, windmills are working to save the environment.

National Windmill Day Timeline

644 AD First reference to windmills

Beginning as horizontal mills with woven reed blades that radiate from a vertical axis, these first windmills are built in Persia.

11th Century AD Windmills are used for food production

In the Middle East, windmills are used to help produce food and the ideas are then taken to Europe by merchants and crusaders.

1300s Windmills are used to drain water

The Dutch people of the Netherlands realize that the water from their low-lying areas can be drained using windmills.

1600s Windmills are introduced to the New World

When the Dutch colonize New Amsterdam (now called New York City), they bring their windmill designs with them

1887 First large scale power generating wind turbine

Charles F. Brush builds a huge 60-foot windmill with a whopping 144 blades in Cleveland, Ohio.

How to Celebrate National Windmill Day

Learn More About Windmills

Well perhaps to first thing to do is start by reading up on the topic of windmills. One of the best things that can be done to celebrate the day is to get more educated on the history of windmills, to begin learning how they’re helping us today, and even to share that information with others. As one of the fastest growing sources of energy in the world, it’s worth learning more about!

Here are some interesting facts about windmills:

The first modern version of the wind turbine was built in Vermont, USA in the 1940s. Its success was not long lived due to war shortages and the next time a windmill would rival it in size would be in 1979.

Hawaii, USA hosts the world’s largest wind turbine, which is the height of a 20 story building and its blades are the length of a football field.

Offshore wind is particularly effective. In Europe, one offshore wind turbine (located in the water) can power more than 1500 homes.

Read Don Quixote

Famous (or perhaps, infamous) for his mistake in thinking that windmills are giant monsters, Don Quixote bravely rides toward them to do battle and, of course, eventually gets knocked off his horse. This is just one of the many beloved and memorable scenes in this classic novel by Spanish author, Miquel de Cervantes, published in 1606.

Visit Holland for National Windmill Day

While not necessarily the first place to house windmills, Holland (now known as The Netherlands) has a long history with them as they were the first place to use them to move water from low lying lands. In fact, the second Saturday and Sunday in May (because one day just isn’t enough!) are celebrated in Holland as “National Mill Day”, which is called Molendag in Dutch. This is a day when 950 windmills and watermills will open their doors to the public for visitors to see their inner workings first hand and learn more about them. Plus, many of them will also host fun events for the local community and tourists alike.

Whether in Amsterdam or throughout the rest of this country filled with canals and waterways, the windmills are stunning. It’s even possible to go on a bike tour of the mills to visit some of the most beautiful, iconic and picturesque mills in the world!

Those who find other countries in Europe to be more accessible can celebrate National Windmill Day in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and other countries, where it is often referred to as National Mills Day.

Watch Some Windmills

For those who happen to live in an area that has a single windmill or a whole windmill farm, it might be fun and interesting to go out and watch them turn, turn, turn… (Are we the only one hearing that song now?) More and more communities are dotting them about the landscape as a sustainable source of power. As you gaze upon and contemplate just how important these are to a bright, pollution-free future for our children, enjoy watching their soothing motion and consider their history too.

National Windmill Day FAQs

How do windmills work?

Wind turbines use their large blades to collect kinetic energy as the wind flows over the blades to create “lift”.

Do windmills make noise?

Windmills do emit a characteristic noise, mainly generated by the movement of the blades, but the noise is generally weak.

Are windmills renewable energy?

Wind is an emissions-free source of energy that has fewer effects on the environment than many other energy sources.

Do windmills create electricity?

Yes! Wind turns the propellers of the windmill around a rotor that, in turn, spins a generator to create electricity.

How much do windmills cost?

The standard windmill costs around $2-4 million with another $40-50,000 in per year in operation and maintenance.

Source

[historicalreusedcostumes]

This lovely red dress with golden embroidery is worn on Stana Katic as Kate Beckett in Castle: Home Is Where the Heart Stops (2009) and later worn on Lana Parrilla as The Evil Queen in Once Upon a Time: Ariel (2013)

[studio-ghibli-miyazaki-hayao]

🌱 GHIBLI 💧 WATER 🍄NATURE 🍃

[theladypeartree]

Mdzs x howl's moving castle in the sense that wei wuxian's magic is the same as Sophie's.

Everyone else cultivates magic through sword forms and talismans etc and wwx can do all that ...Bc he thinks that how it works. Wwx losing his magic bc he lost his golden core and obviously you need a golden core to do magic so of course he can't wield his sword. Except he is swordless and coreless in the burial mounds and calls out for help out of sheer desperation and the dead rise up to help him.

Does he convince himself that he and the Wen remnants were doomed from the start, creating wards that will fail if he's not around bc he believes they will fail if he's not around. Does it take until his resurrection for him to realise that he can command people to STOP, doors to OPEN, wen ning to REMEMBER just by saying it, by willing into being. Or does he promise a-yuan that will be safe often enough that the wards become impenetrable to anyone intending them harm? Does he promise wen qing that he can help her grow medicinal herbs and grows ones that never existed before? After all, he told her that he could bring wen ning back and he sure did that!! Not even going into tye success of the transfer which convinced wen qing would work.

At what point do the others notice that wwx makes impossible things happen by insisting they will happen.

How many impossible things need to happen for wwx to notice that it's him doing it.

[viharistenno]

Snow: We need to find cover!

Regina: No. I don't run from monsters. They run from me.

[oldschoolfrp]

Old school gaming -- Nine Men’s Morris, aka Nine Man Morris, Mill, Merels, etc. The design of the game board is seen commonly in medieval art and it was carved into stone in many places.

[vox-anglosphere]

Scotney Castle in Kent is a rare example of a moated manor house

[briefbestiary]

A 2ft (0.6m) industrious brownie, but one not to be angered.

Her most famous tale involves the death of her son, for when the two lived at Fincastle Mill they protected it from would-be trespassers. However, once upon a night, a girl made her way in to get flour for a cake. Brownie-Clod went to drive her away, but was tricked upon asking for her name, for she said she was "Mi fein" which means herself. When he came close, she threw an entire pot of boiling water she'd made while she worked upon the poor dobie. He ran to his mother, but she could do nothing to save him. When Maggy asked who had done the deed, he repeated "Mi fein" from which Maggy could only believe he had caused the fatal wounds himself.

It would be some time before Maggy would, while merely passing by a window, overhear the girl gloating to friends about how she had outwitted a brownie. Maggy was filled with such righteous fury that she picked up a stool. The stool was thrown with such force that the girl died immediately upon contact.

[foxymacchiato]

Wiispywitch Commission Haul {2024}

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Support me on Ko-Fi if you'd like to view my full gallery and if you'd like to tip/commission me!🩷

I really popped off with the Astarion art this haul~

🩷Thank you for supporting my art!~

multifandomed25, @monadocookies chiivanna.jpeg, DozenBears, hyacin_crysyal, @myownworlds _musicishere_101, atlasmothra

[grtmnick]

Emma’s lonesome trek through the expansive wilderness of the Enchanted Forest had given her ample time to think over the events proceeding.

What’d made her push Regina aside, take the full brunt of the wraith’s wrath in her stead?

Why had the portal exited near the Evil Queen’s old castle?

The fortress in question was nothing like the storybook’s description. It was instead a decrepit and somber sort of place. Mist hung heavy in the air and surrounded moss covered stonework. Emma smelled only dankness and decay with each step closer to the isolated tower that stood in sentinel over an eerily quiet forest.

Had it been like this when Regina’d lived here?

[unopenablebox]

now of course the real reason that doesn't work is because keladry of mindelan's actual role in this situation would be to convey and impose the requirement for state-mandated fantasy valentine's day on a population of war refugees

[rabbitcruiser]

The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes was published in Madrid on January 16, 1605.

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1916 – The Pivotal Irish Insurrection against British Rule in Ireland Commences.

The Easter Rising of 1916 had little chance of success (which its leaders knew) and initially had limited support from the Irish population, but a series of major mis-steps by British authorities lit a fuse that ultimately forced Britain to withdraw from 26 counties just six years later. Timeline: At noon, Pádraig Pearse reads the Proclamation of the Irish Republic outside the General Post Office…

[ouatreusedcostumes]

This lovely red dress is worn on Stana Katic as Kate Beckett in Castle: Home Is Where the Heart Stops (2009) and later worn on Lana Parrilla as The Evil Queen in Once Upon a Time: Ariel (2013)

[sentenceme-leni]

Monday. Minimum 1 sentence.

---

Regina laughed at Belle's betrayed expression.

The Evil Queen didn't need friends. She never wanted them!

Belle had been useful, a reliable source of support when Rumple had been in a mood. If Regina had to temper her requests to meet with the girl's approval, well, better to have a bit of help from the Dark One than none at all.

Now that use had come to an end.

Regina needed to cast the Dark Curse, and she wasn't going to accept Rumpelstiltskin's price to learn about the missing ingredient.

The imp wanted something in exchange?

His little maid's heart would do.

"I should have done this ages ago," she hissed, sneering at Belle's helplessness. The girl was even clutching at her throat, fist around her mother's pearl pendant like one of those silly heroines in her ridiculous novels.

She even gasped Rumple's name, as if her mighty protector wasn't reduced to a prisoner in Snow White's dungeons.

Regina savored her triumph.

Her hand reached into Belle's chest, clutching around the panicked beat of her heart and ready to rip it out...

Magic swelled all around them, starting from Belle's necklace.

A protection spell, Regina realized, yanking her hand back before it could be burned off.

Stronger wards snapped around the castle, ready to protect the Dark One's treasures.

Ready to protect Belle.

Magic settled into thick, impenetrable walls around the whole of Rumple's home. Even an army of ogres could beat the doors down and not gain a single inch into the grounds.

There was no way in.

And, Regina realized with a laugh, no way out.

How unfortunate that Rumple's little maid was trapped inside with the Evil Queen!

"Where were we?" she asked gleefully, standing straighter.

A high-pitched voice answered from behind her: "In the wrong place, Your Majesty."

Regina twirled around.

It had to be an illusion. She chastised herself for that moment of fear, and raised her hand to vanish the ugly vision.

A wave of his hand sent her flying to the wall.

Regina rose to her knees in time to watch Belle run into Rumpelstiltskin, arms going around him. She even glimpsed a flash of tenderness as he allowed the embrace, before he turned hard eyes on her.

"You can't be here," she gasped, angrier at the thread of fear in her voice. However, fear was the only rational response at the moment. For the first time, Regina was confronted with the truth: for all these years, the darkest power in the realm had been coddling her. Her magic was a drop compared to his. "You are trapped," she said accusing, refusing to believe her eyes. "You told me so!"

Rumpelstiltskin offered his most malicious smile. "I lied."

His hand lifted, and Regina flinched at the strength of the gathered power.

Belle cried out, "Rumple, don't!"

Reliable to the last, that girl, Regina thought before darkness surrounded her.

What a fool.

The End

06/05/24

[canmom]

brief comints on some comics

need to find energy to write some more Comics Comints but here are some very brief ones on some comics I read of late...

I read a bunch of Shintaro Kago stuff (The Princess of the Neverending Castle, Dementia 21). truly one of the best to ever do it, and I really need to do some kinda deep dive into what makes his stuff kick so much ass. but Kago's stuff has this absolutely ingenious playfulness to it - obvs it's got the 'fucked up body stuff' ero-guro aspect as a central pillar in which Shintaro Kago is uniquely inventive, but it's also constantly playing around with form in a way that like, you see the ideas getting developed from page to page from 'oh here's a fucked up thing' to the basis of an incredibly abstruse storyline that somehow feels fully coherent in its internal logic, even as the entire panel structure disintegrates into castle noodles.

he's also just both plain very funny and an absolute drawing monster. the two Neverending Castle books (Princess and Twelve Sisters - narratively disconnected but playing off the same ideas) are a special treat, gorgeous huge printings that really let you see all the crazy intricate little details, and the high concept is incredibly productive. Dementia 21 is bit more directly like... not so much commentary so much as using existing social tensions (in this case, caring for old people) as a jumping off point for darkly funny vignettes. also the interview at the back is great for Kago just completely no-selling most of the interviewer's attempts to pry.

started in on Oyasumi Punpun by Inio Asano. and guys. the expressions in this manga! honestly, the level of storytelling confidence is off the charts. I think I'm starting to get some idea of what it's doing and what the recurring interests are, but also damn, there is so much going on here. the manner of stylisation is really fascinating - it's like a great example of a sort of effect you can achieve if you understand realism forwards and backwards and then push it.

the eponymous punpun is heavily minimised in his own story - which is part of the premise, that he is so powerless and so completely failed by the adults who are too caught up in their own shit that he might as well be a cartoon bird. we have recurring invocations of the futility of human connection, it's doing a lot of stuff with religion-as-imaginary-friend and mixing sort of deliberately crude 2D graphical elements or really abstract compositions with the hyper detailed style. it's somehow like... moment to moment it looks super melodramatic but it's sort of processed through this dissociative haze which means the actual story ends up quite low-key.

I can see why people rate this one so highly, can't wait to get my hands on more.

I read some of the Sláine series - the Celtic barbarian character written by Pat Mills. in this case I had the Sláine the King arc, and some of the earlier comics, so I got a taste for the druid airships and stuff. Glenn Fabry's art is astonishing, it's as solid as an Otomo drawing but it doesn't feel sterile, it's got this incredibly expressive aspect, like it does so much to sell our sword-and-sorcery protagonist Sláine as a guy.

I'm someone who tends to read a lot more manga than Western comics in general, which is both a different approach to line and tone and also you tend to have the same artist drawing the whole series - in contrast, with 2000AD comic like this it's really striking seeing both how much value can be achieved with pure monotone, no greys, and also getting to see multiple artists tackle the same character in roughly the same idiom to highly varying results. there are approximately ten billion of these, but I haven't yet been able to track down the Horned God arc which is the one that was recced to me. hopefully soon.

comics are great