Back to work

Going back to work with jetlag didn’t make for the easiest few days, but I survived, even though my first story this week was to get reaction to the writings of a self-confessed ‘professional troublemaker’ who chose to describe the Lake District as the most depressing landscape in Europe. George Monbiot wrote in the Guardian that the Lake District has been ‘sheepwrecked’ and claimed it was easier to find wildlife in Birmingham than in the Lake District. Needless to say that wasn’t a view accepted by anyone I spoke to but we are all entitled to our opinions.

Cumbrian animal rescue centreTwenty four hours later I was attacked by a European Eagle Owl….well, not really. The poor bird was enlisted to appear alongside me in my piece to camera on a piece about Wetheriggs Zoo and Animal Rescue Centre trying to secure its future on the old pottery site near Penrith and her claw slipped off the protective glove and grazed my arm. We both came through the experience alive and well.

Caldbeck receives phone coverage for first time

And then on Friday a good news story, certainly for Vodafone customers wanting to use their mobile phones in Caldbeck. For the first time, thanks to a series of cells on a number of public buildings in the village, there is good 3G  mobile phone coverage throughout Caldbeck. It’s part of a trial scheme which Penrith and the Border MP Rory Stewart is determined to see extended to all areas of Cumbria where mobile phone coverage is poor.

The jetlag is still with me despite all of that….but the holiday was worth it. Hope your summer has been a relaxing one.