Kiteflyingday

The tradition says the kite fly on the 6th of June, our national day, but both 20 and 21 was lost to the pandemic. The organisers set a new date for the 4th of september, which was an excellent choice of day (you never know in September). The winds were a bit unpredictable and kept changing but it was a more or less perfect day for the event. Families everywhere on blankets and camping chairs sharing coffee or some wine and cheese. You can buy a simple kite and paint it yourself or you can build your own or bring your own. I bought my kite in -19 and haven't used it at all since then but today i finally got some wind to play with. The Öland wind ensemble was playing, the kids were playing with their kites and everybody had a perfectly lovely afternoon.

On the way home I stopped at one of the windmills. It was open, all the way up in the top so I could see the mechanics of it, they aren't always open. As you may see the typical Öland wind mill is built around a tree, that's why they are called a "Stub mill". The tree is chopped off at the hight you are going to have the mill stone lying flat, in this case about five-six metres up the tree. Then you build the mill around the tree so that you can swing the whole construction around by hand, to meet the wind direction. The long thing sticking out from where the stairs are, is your "handle" for turning the mill around the tree trunk. The stone is then connected to the wings by wooden bits and pieces. You can see the big wheel attached directly on the huge axel driven by the wings. The force from the wheel is then transmitted to the grinding stone by the broken wooden thing lying on the stone (I don't know any of the proper names even in Swedish) and there are probably some bits missing. I've yet not seen a demonstration of a renovated one but am looking forward to it.