Walking on the Common and a Surprise Windmill

With the spring weather well and truly arrived, we got out and about this week-end and found ourselves exploring Chailey Common in East Sussex, one of the largest areas of open heathland left in Sussex.  Exmoor ponies have been introduced and allowed to roam freely and help "manage" the land.  Soon they will be joined by Longhorn cattle and Hebridean sheep who will also be grazing the land and helping to manage the habitat (which is home to some rare species of insects and birds).

The highlight of our walk came at the end, when we got up close and personal to the Chailey Windmill (its sails had been waving at us on the skyline from afar and calling us towards it for a closer look).

Sussex has some of the best preserved windmills in the UK (a number of which have been restored and are sometimes open to the public).  

Windmills just fascinate me and I think they are beautiful to look at.

The Chailey Windmill