MonoMonday: "Cosy" - Ecological Electrical Supply

Thanks so much for everyone's good wishes for Mum-in-Law yesterday on her 95th birthday.

This morning we visited her again to show her the photos from yesterday (she needed reminding, of course, what happened then!) - then we had to say "goodbye for now" and set off back to Newcastle. On the spur of the moment we decided to stop off for a walk somewhere on the way home, and chose Hardcastle Crags, which we've never visited before. This is a National Trust property near Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire: it's a beautiful wooded valley with lots of walking tracks so we got our exercise over our 3 hour visit.

Part way along is Gibson's Mill - the old cotton mill (and tea shop - excellent!!). It boasts the fact that it's "off grid" - for both water services* and electricity. Its electric power comes from a combination of solar panels, biomass boilers (there's plenty of local wood available) and a water turbine; on the right of the photo you can see the huge array of batteries which they use to maintain the supply when usage exceeds input. This seems to be their sole source of energy so in the winter it's the only thing which keeps the place cosy and warm [and that means I reckon I can tag this blip for today's MonoMonday challenge of "cosy", kindly hosted by Nickimags888.]

(Seemingly the system works pretty well most of the time, although apparently there can be occasions when they can't serve both ice cream and hot drinks at the same time!)

I did of course take lots of other photos including the rather nice clump of fungi in the extra.

After leaving Hardcastle, we stopped for a lovely meal at a country pub, so we didn't get home until 10.30 - but so what? - it was a lovely day.

(* They even have a wormery to process the "output" from the loos, which is then used as fertiliser.)