A report out recently from the Forestry Commission (See Guardian 31 October 2012) warning of the prevalence of fungal diseases affecting a range of native UK trees, will not come as a complete surprise to anyone walking in the Thornthwaite Forest vicinity.
Last year I was warned that larch forests were at risk from a fungal infection and as a result the Forestry Commission was having to cut down a three acres site above the footpath that leads across the fields from Thornthwaite to Braithwaite.
Now even more serious is the threat to the native English ash tree, which could be decimated if the spread of the ash dieback fungus, appearing last month in East Anglia, is not stopped. The cause appears to be unregulated importing of plants from other countries. The Government needs to act soon to address this serious threat to the countryside. Spread the word if you can.
One positive development to note (See story in Guardian, 29 October 2012) is that a group of academics and developers has just developed an AshTag app for smartphones, which will allow users to send details and photos of suspected examples of the fungus (the leaves of the ash droop and go black) to a central point for the Forestry Commission to investigate. It’s a great example of crowdsourcing to deal with a potentially country wide problem and the app is from today available for download by clicking on the AshTag app website.
You know the scene, only too well these days! You’re inside the house and have finished off a job, sent off some emails and now want to go to the shops, stretch your legs in the park, go biking or have a short fell run up Cat Bells above Derwentwater.
The app uses GPS information for your position and deploys weather radar data and some sophisticated software and algorythms to predict type, extent and timing of the rainfall. It does not attempt to predict weather over more than one hour in advance. It is not clear how accurate it will be in very mountainous terrain where weather patterns can change very fast and unpredictably. The app was developed by a small company, kickstarter.com with financial backing from 1200 people. A detailed account and visualisation by the developers of what the app does can be found 
But these last two weeks I’ve been intrigued by two apparently unconnected examples of how the power of water has been harnessed to improve living conditions, grow produce or promote new industries.
On a walking holiday in southern Turkey this month, we climbed on the hills above Patara, an important Lycian seaport c 120 BC in Roman times and had the opportunity to explore a huge aqueduct there, made up of hundreds of massive precisely shaped square stone blocks. (See top photo)
The surprise came this last week while I was doing some clearing at the top of the garden at The Larches. 
I had known there had been been a pipe line from the old dam at the top of Comb Beck from sections I had seen further down the valley. This had been used for the Thornthwaite Lead Company’s mine at the bottom of the road and had been built in 1908.
The sun may not be shining every day here in Keswick, but there’s been little rain and plenty of opportunity for us to be working on the garden and getting out on the hills. Today we had a beautiful Lakes morning with the sun rising over Latrigg against a blue sky.
We have had three C2C visitors this last week stopping by at the cottage on their way across the country on the marvelous coast to coast bicycle route.
They were still arguing as they left about the exact distance they had to travel! But did not dispute that it was somewhere between 125 and 140 miles. Good going we thought for two days, particularly as they had to cross the high country of the Pennines via Consett in County Durham. Some stiff hills there!