More weathervanes of Cheshire

After a week of much meandering through the Cheshire countrywide – I clocked up 65 kilometres (40 miles) last week, I’ve discovered a lot more weathervanes so thought I’d share a few more of these handsome hand-crafted artworks.

A traditional cock weathervane, found on a farmhouse in Budworth Heath

‘You who travel with the wind, what weathervane shall direct your course?’ ~Khalil Gibran

So cute! The ducks are at a house near Wincham and the robin on an old outbuilding near Budworth Heath

‘Kites rise highest against the wind - not with it.’ ~ Winston Churchill

Is the occupant a hunter? Found at Plumley

‘It was one of those cold nights at the end of October, when the weathercocks, shaken by the north wind, turn giddily on the high roofs, and cry with shrilly voices, “Winter! - Winter! - Winter is come!”' ~ Erckmann-Chatrian, ‘The Child Stealer’

A foxy favourite from Comberbach

‘The wind shows us how close to the edge we are.’ ~ Joan Didion

Very inventive and not a beehive in sight, on the ground. Found near Pickmere

‘The clouds were flying fast, the wind was coming up in gusts, banging some neighbouring shutters that had broken loose, twirling the rusty chimney-cowls and weathercocks, and rushing round and round a confined adjacent churchyard as if it had a mind to blow the dead citizens out of their graves.’ ~ Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit

Any guesses as to the owner's occupation? Found near Marston

‘Through woods and mountain passes / The winds, like anthems, roll.’ ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Prancing horses are popular. These were in Comberbach and Plumley.

‘I’m going to imagine that I’m the wind that is blowing up there in those tree tops. When I get tired of the trees I’ll imagine I’m gently waving down here in the ferns – and then I’ll fly over to Mrs Lynde’s garden and set the flowers dancing – and then I’ll go with one great swoop over the clover field – and then I’ll blow over the Lake of Shining Waters and ripple it all up into little sparkling waves. Oh, there’s so much scope for imagination in a wind!’ ~ L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

My favourite, particularly as it decorates an old rectory near Marston

I’ll finish today with a riddle from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit – can you guess the answer?

‘Voiceless it cries, Wingless flutters, Toothless bites, Mouthless mutters.’