After almost 9 years commuting twice daily on the Tube, not a second of my 45 minute journey to and from work is wasted in terms of appreciation of the incredible landscape.  I have always loved the views across the Yorkshire Wolds countryside and used to feel a great sense of relief to come back from London to the relative sparsely populated countryside of Home: the East Riding of Yorkshire.  In comparison to my peers, I used to make the trip relatively regularly, feeling an overwhelming need to get back to Yorkshire often after a particularly gruelling deal or period of mad City working hours.

Now, nearly seven years after I moved back, I still marvel at how the scenery changes from one journey to the next in different seasons and weather.   My passion for it is unwavering.

Over the last few months, the object of my attention has changed slightly.  It is incredible how the winds of change are arriving and regularly now, if I turn my head to see a slightly different vista along my travels, I can almost always notice a new wind turbine. They are sprouting up all over the Yorkshire Wolds.

While I feel almost slightly affronted each time I spot a new one, equally, I am quickly overcome by a strange sense of reassurance that at least perhaps things are changing to help, in small steps, the looming energy crisis of our generation.  Thankfully, most of the wind turbines that have appeared on top of the Wolds so far are relatively small and don’t seem to intrude too much on the landscape.   While the larger collections of turbines can look, in some respects, quite magnificent from far away, it can be a different story to see the giants close up.   It is also quite amazing how visible they are from miles away, despite the hilly landscape which surrounds us!

While the highly controversial topic rages on, I will continue to watch with interest where next I might see one or more on my journey. Like most other Wolds farmers, we too have been sent information about wind turbines and feel undecided about their possible presence on ours, and surrounding farming land.  With both fascination and trepidation, I hope that we can trust the decision makers, landowners, planners and electricity companies alike, to be making the right decisions for our future generations.

Zoe