Tilting At Windmills

Today we decided we would re-instigate our Kent villages/towns tour and this time chose to head to Cranbrook in the Weald of Kent approximately halfway between Maidstone and Hastings. We've not been there for years but we'd passed a sign for it on a previous visit to Biddenden and I then remembered that it hosts its very own windmill.
We seem to have had a lot of sunless and overclouded days over the last few months but these have thankfully been interspersed recently with the odd day of sparkling winter sunshine. Unfortunately, today was very much the former but we were determined to head out nonetheless and we were so glad we did.
Cranbrook is a wonderfully picturesque little town with winding streets and plenty of weatherboarded houses and shops - as can bee seen in my first extra of the High Street with its view towards the town's windmill. We had a delightful stroll along the lanes and byways of the town despite the rather dismal conditions but it was getting increasingly cold so we made a brief pit stop for a quick pint at a local hotel before getting back outside to capture our images.
Of course that meant making a beeline for the town's main landmark - its Grade 1 listed windmill. At one time there were four windmills in and around Cranbrook but this is now the only survivor. It's called Union Mill and was built for Mary Dobell in 1814 and run by her son, Henry but unfortunately she was declared bankrupt only five years later and it was taken over by a union of creditors - hence its name.
It is the tallest smock mill in England - consisting of sloping, horizontal weatherboard topped off with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind and was restored to its current state of imposing magnificence in the 1960's.
I wanted to get a slightly different kind of image of it so I tilted my camera on its side and came up with the slightly abstract shot you can see in my main image. All three of today's image appear to be in mono (including the second extra of the oversized tea pot affixed to the outside wall of one of the town's several tea shops and cafes) but that actually only applies to my first extra - it was just a combination of the overcast conditions and colour schemes of the buildings that make them appear that way.
The phrase ''tilting at windmills" is an idiom which denotes battling a foe, whether real or imagined, for misguided or pointless reasons and originates from Miguel De Cervantes' novel Don Quixote. 
Don Quixote's chivalrous non-battle with the ferocious windmills,  (referring to the title character's strange belief that windmills are giants..."with their long arms. Some of them have arms well nigh two leagues in length" that he must fight) which he perceives as representing injustice, coined the popular saying although the phrase never actually appears in the novel itself.
The only kind of battle we felt we had was trying to get images in such gloomy conditions but sometimes you have to try and use them to your advantage and not treat them as imaginary enemies! :-)