Houghton Mill

Instead of jumping in the car to drive home we decided to follow our noses west along the Ouse Valley Way. A beautiful, flat walk in sharp autumn sunshine with great colour on the leaves.

Houghton was the first place we reached, a very picturesque village with plenty of fine, large houses and many thatched buildings too. We were disappointed to find a tearoom in the village centre closed and the pub not open for a while yet.

We walked on towards the river to find the National Trust property of Houghton Mill together with their tea room. So our desires were more or less satisfied. The mill itself, subject of today’s blip was open and working.

I love old mills like this. The engineering, technology and skill involved in grinding wheat remains fascinating no matter how many times you’ve heard the story. This mill had a modern twist with a water turbine generating electricity from the drop caused by the weir. Enough to power the mill and to supply the energy needs of Wicken Fen.

Time to drive home, which thankfully was uneventful. We left the sunny skies behind as we entered Kent. It was a wet drive to and from Canterbury where we went to see Turin Brakes. We can’t say we liked their music too much. You can’t win them all, having said that they were all consummate musicians and you had to admire their skill.

Which put our efforts to shame. I know there are blippers out there who are part of excellent bands and like us, they do it because they enjoy it. I like a tee shirt I saw which said “I play the ukulele, not because I’m any good at it but because I enjoy it”. That’s what it’s all about.

Here’s one of the songs we played yesterday afternoon: https://youtu.be/kCfqpVVGARw

The theme for the festival was “strum like a Viking” I wasn’t aware that strumming was one of the defining characteristics of being a Viking. I think it was the only song during the whole day which had any sort of Viking connection