Dutch windmills symbolize how people manage their lands

Holland was the first stop in my 40-day Enlighten tour. We landed in Amsterdam after a direct flight from Salt Lake City. I was immediately captivated by the beauty of the old Windmills scattered along the farmland. Windmills  in the Netherlands stand as a reminder of how hard the Dutch people worked to reclaim the land they needed. We visited a huge earthen dyke near large pumps where they could expand their land by pumping sand from the ocean floor up on to the beaches. It was a constant effort to keep water in the canals where they could direct it. The canals were higher than the land, so windmills provided power to pump water from the water fields into canals and keep the land dry enough to use for growing crops. So normally they are located on canals in fields. Other uses of windmills are grinding grains into flour and providing power. These old windmills are beautiful with their wooden structure. Some are inhabited by caretakers who show the process to curious visitors. I was able to go out and shoot early one morning and enjoyed the curious shaggy and curious sheep and horses. Then I caught a few more shots just after sunset, during blue hour.