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National Mills Weekend

  • May. 9th, 2006 at 11:55 PM
Fishy Circumstances
owlfish
This coming weekend, May 13-14th, will be National Mills Weekend in the UK. At least 100 mills will be open to the public, producing stone-ground flour, much of which should be for sale. Many of the mills which open for National Mills Weekend are not normally open to the public. If windmills or watermills interest you, this'll be a mighty fine weekend to go out and be a mill tourist.

If you're in another European country and interested in mill tourism, there might be a national mills day or weekend forthcoming there too.



While I'll be back in the UK for part of the mills weekend (S.W. is picking me up at the airport for it!), I entirely missed the Sultan's Elephant. What an amazing spectacle! I'm sorry I missed it. I'm glad that so many people did get to see it, and I could live vicariously through their spellbound hours.

Update: I can catch the Sultan's Elephant on the continent later this year! Who knows... it could happen.

Comments

( 13 comments — Leave a comment )
coughingbear
May. 10th, 2006 07:50 am (UTC)
Will have to tell my parents about Cann mill in Shaftesbury being open. Maybe they can buy me some good bread flour. I have an itch to bake (probably just displacement activity). I've been to the mill at Sturminster Newton, and seen it working, which was wonderful, but IIRC they weren't allowed to sell the flour for some reason.

Very tempted by the idea of going to Calais in September to see the elephant again...
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owlfish
May. 11th, 2006 03:45 am (UTC)
Calais really is awfully convenient.

I can't promise any of the flour is for sale. I've never been mill touring before and don't know what the guidelines are on its commercial production. But I anticipate finding out this weekend!
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moon_custafer
May. 10th, 2006 12:31 pm (UTC)
I've been watching the films of it on Youtube. I'm actually more impressed by the 20 ' tall little-girl marionette than by the elephant (although the elephant is great). I kind of think of her as Glumdalclitch.
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owlfish
May. 11th, 2006 03:44 am (UTC)
I'll be watching the videos as soon as I'm back onto DSL.

Ooh. I haven't gone through Gulliver's Travels since it was read to me as a kid. Thank you for reminding me about it.
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saffronjan
May. 10th, 2006 12:45 pm (UTC)
What fun!
I hope you get to see many a mill, m'dearie.

You wanted to know if there was any fun information that I learned about mills while working with the Nantel documents, and the one fun fact I found was this: mills were named, and some of the names were cute. The mill I worked with was called "Mas Herm", which means nothing to me, but another was called "Canta Rana", roughly translated from Provencal as "the squeaky frog", and yet another was "Jocunda". Happy mills and squeaky frogs-- I think that's kinda' cute.
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owlfish
May. 11th, 2006 03:42 am (UTC)
Re: What fun!
Thank you! Those are indeed good mill names.

I know I'll get to see mills. S.W. is a mill junkie, and he's the one driving. Happily, he'll be picking up C. before he gets to the airport, so I'll get to see C. even sooner than I would otherwise as a result of mill-going!
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gleodream
May. 11th, 2006 03:35 am (UTC)
AHA! I have discovered the identity of owlfish, and it is YOU!

Hello, E the Elder here. If that doesn't help, I'll provide more details.
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owlfish
May. 11th, 2006 03:41 am (UTC)
So THAT's who you are! There are all these mysterious LJ people loitering around all my Toronto buddies f'lists and I always wonder who they are. But I feel it would be too stalker-like to actually ask if I know them.

If you are the E I'm thinking of, then I think of you as younger, since there's also the E of ypocras. But if you're who I think you are, you have longer hair.
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gleodream
May. 11th, 2006 03:53 am (UTC)
I'm the E who did NOT just do an MA this year that's finishing up right now. I have lighter and longer hair. I am very short. I did my MA last year, and this was my P1 year. You and I--I think! Watch me just be totally wrong about this whole thing.--have had conversations in pittenweem's living room. Last year at Halloween maybe? We definitely--again, unless I'm horribly mistaken--spoke several times at K'zoo, and I listened to your conversation with dark_age_gal about gaming at the dance just before we left.
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owlfish
May. 11th, 2006 03:56 am (UTC)
That sounds like the E I'm thinking of. I know we've talked at various points, but I'd be hard pressed to tell you who I talked to a year ago Halloween. But I'd be quite happy for it to have been you!
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gleodream
May. 11th, 2006 03:54 am (UTC)
From which you will have gathered that I don't know who ypocras is, so I was speaking in reference to E the Younger, as I know her. Maybe she ought to be E the Youngest.
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gleodream
May. 11th, 2006 03:58 am (UTC)
Oh! I am definitely not male.
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(Deleted comment)
gleodream
May. 11th, 2006 04:37 am (UTC)
Ah, that explains it. She was the only other E I could think of, but the profile explicitly described ypocras as male.
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( 13 comments — Leave a comment )