News from Greystoke – on the outskirts of the Lake District National Park, about 26 miles from Cockermouth by the A66 – where seventeenth-century stone cottages cluster around an old-fashioned village green and the parish church of St Andrew’s dates back to the thirteenth century. The village is also home to Greystoke Castle, built by Baron Greystoke in the sixteenth century. This week, Eden councillors ruled…
Month: May 2016
Every Lidl helps
Hot from the News & Star (Wednesday 19 May), comes news that Lidl will very likely get the go ahead next week, to replace an existing retail outlet and a burnt out filling station with a new store and car park. Sainsbury’s, understandably, are not too happy about the plan – and, once again, there have…
Nimbies and offcomers
So why would we not want a 320-house development, straddling a beautiful stretch of green belt on the edge of town and, coincidentally, just across the road from our home? I pause awhile, having written what I hope is something of a rhetorical question, to consider another tale, from Lower Heyford in Oxfordshire. Only 320? Try multiplying that by fifteen and then…
The bluebells of Rannerdale
It’s the otters I really want to talk about – so much to say, so much frustration. So much obfuscation. But before I do, I should just mention the bluebells. Because, whatever there is out there to make us angry or tired, or frustrated with ‘the system’, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – that…
The birds have flown
Another morning another phone call. ‘I’m outside. The police have just arrived. They’re in the field.’ ‘They’, of course, being the now familiar contingent of orange hi-vis and rigger boots. And they’re here, apparently, to rip the rest of the hedgerow out, interrupted in their task by the arrival of we pesky campaigners. While the developer’s representatives…
Blue nets and blackbirds
It was early April when they started ripping out hedgerow, a Wednesday wind whipping down the lane like so many razor blades, nipping any hoped-for spring literally in the bud. Not the sort of day you want to be out there – woolly hat and furry boots notwithstanding – but out there we were. ‘You better come now,’ said Sara. ‘They’re ripping out the hedgerow’….
Random ruminations
Funny how starting a blog changes your perspective on things. Last time I blogged was five years ago, when a pal and I walked the Coast to Coast from St Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay. It began innocently enough: what better way to spend a two-week break from work? Challenging, fun and (it turned out) unexpectedly weight-reducing – despite…
Tales within tales
Funny how these things start. You leave behind the traffic congestion and urban sprawl which gradually enveloped your previous home — and which, incidentally, you were blissfully unaware you could even try to have any influence over (would that the cork could go back into that particular bottle!). You wave goodbye to the allergy-inducing smog that…
Never too old…
… new tricks and all that. It’s been a steep learning curve for me this last few years. Life changing. Big, big move to Cumbria, new friends, new community, new sights to see and things to do, new battles to fight and blogs to write … so hello. It’s a pleasure to meet you.
Hackette on the How 