This includes a searchable database. You can type in your postcode and find out more about local practice and the policies of your local authority for the recycling of different kinds of materials. This is useful because these are changing as new techniques of sorting enable more to be collected and saved.

Allerdale local authority had managed in 2009 to achieve a recycling rate of 45%, but last year the figure dropped to 44%. When I asked Stephanie Fleming, Allerdale’s recycling officer about this, she replied “the weather’s got to take the blame here”. 

With so much flooding in November, the Council was overwhelmed with the sheer task of getting areas cleared and houses habitable. Water was covering huge areas and recycling for a while had had to take second place. Hard to argue about that!

But there is a bigger question here we need to ask. The EU has set a 50% target by 2020 for household recycling for the UK as a whole, but both Scotland and Wales have set their own higher targets of 70% for 2025. With no targets set for English authorities does this mean, say Friends of the Earth that we’ll shelter under the skirts of the Scots and the Welsh and lag behind? 

We know this Government is averse to the ‘nanny state’, but let’s see a bit more forceful direction on this front! Surely we need this if we’re going to create a green economy, which Ministers tell us they want.

Two other good Government websites on green issues are worth looking at. A more technical waste data flow site, (http://www.wastedataflow.org/) provides additional information about waste management across the country.  You need to register to get access to the data.

The second is for the Department of Energy and Climate Control  (http://www. decc.gov.uk/). This includes information about the Government’s Green Deal programme, with more details due out soon.

The Guardian’s Martin Wainwright in a companion article states that there are now plans to return to the pre-Victorian ways in order to limit flood damage. The River Derwent and others will be allowed to meander through the fields to provide a larger flood plain and fellside ‘grips’ will be blocked. These are channels, which ironically were cut through wet lands in the 1960s to make them more usable for farming!

Fortunately The Larches is on higher ground and was only marginally affected by the floods last year. As the picture opposite shows the gulley by the garden gate could not take the volume of water cascading down the Ravine and we had to place a barrier just above the drainage point to divert the water and stop it backing up into the side path.

In the light of the floods in Cornwall this last week, let’s hope that the cuts the Government has proposed for flood control measures are now restored before further hardship and damage affects people living in areas vulnerable to flooding.

I was down there in mid September however when there were JCB diggers in the adjoining fields and two new bridge support walls on either side of the beck. (See photo above) But none of this prepared me for this week’s scene!

Along the narrow lane beyond the farm, a long line of vans, lorries, huts and a large ‘Danger’ sign indicated that serious work was underway. (See photos below) Just how much was made clear to me by the site manager.

Three hundred cubic meters of rock – weighing a total of some 600 tons – had been sunk into the banks to support the two ends of the bridge. There’ll be no longer a weight restriction on this route!

The new bridge, pre-fabricated in five separate sections in Northern Ireland, was brought across on large transporters. The main outstanding job is to complete the slate facing of the sides. The bridge will open, weather permitting, by the end of November – just one year after the old one was swept away by the 2009 floods. It’s good news if you want to get to the Cat Bells area or visit the Swinside pub on the other side.

Last November the floods delivered a hammer blow to this old market town as the converging rivers Derwent and Cocker broke their banks and brought water levels up to 8 feet deep in some of the streets.

Families were made homeless and businesses closed. Without insurance and with foundations made unstable, some shops still remain boarded up. Some have a very uncertain future.

But Cockermouth is a ‘can-do’ town. Shops like the marvellous ironmongers, J B Banks in Market Place were open again within a fortnight, as Vanessa Graham described to me, as she stood beside the 4½ feet water level marker in the shop (See above).

Last weekend a festival parade turned the streets into a riot of colour and fun and showed the world that the town is still very much alive and making a brave new start. Make sure you go there – there’s plenty to do and see!

It all seems a long way from the flooded rivers five months ago (see my 23rd November blog posting,), which brought misery and heartache as families became homeless, bridges and footpaths were smashed and hundreds of small businesses were brought to their knees.

The good news is that substantial repair work has been done. At Little Braithwaite, the smashed side of the beck has been rebuilt with huge rocks and a massive bank of earth behind (see photo), while at High Hill in Keswick the Greta river has now a raised concrete containing wall with 6 inches thick facing stones.

The bad news here – according to one of the stone masons I spoke to – is that this is not high enough and it will have to be increased in height at least a further 10 inches when there is more money available. Oh yes and at Little Braithwaite there’s a problem too. The road bridge – which crossed behind the hedge in the middle photo – was swept away and will not be replaced before next year. You’ve probably guessed the reason by now!

We soon found the reason though. A pile of earth and slate chips (see foreground of the photos below) had been heaped up into the small herb garden – dug out from a hole, which dived deep under the newly created south lawn. It didn’t take long to find who was responsible as our Peter Rabbit was on shift duty all afternoon, collecting moss for a new comfortable burrow.

The pictures tell the story and now we are left with a problem. Rabbits and vegetable growing don’t go well together and planting is due to start this week in the new raised bed.

POSTSCRIPT – 17th March: The hole and the rabbit mystery deepens
Less than 24 hours after taking the photos above we returned today to the rabbit hole to discover that it had been completely filled in with a layer of moss placed on top covering the earth. Does anyone know what has happened here? It was not the work of any humans we are sure. We assume that yesterday was the work of a female rabbit – Petra not Peter! – creating a nest for her expected litter. Did she cover the hole in because the site was too busy or is she in the burrow, having been covered in by a mate? There is no obvious alternative exit that we can see. Let us have your answers and ideas on this.

With unprecedented rainfall of over 300 mm in 24 hours last Thursday in Borrowdale, the sheer volume of water pouring off already sodden fells could no longer be contained. Bridges, walls, trees, cars were swept aside as raging waters spread across fields and dykes, raced down streets and wrecked houses in their path.

Most of the national news stories have shown the damage, destruction and despair caused downstream in Cockermouth and Workington, but Keswick and the surrounding villages have had their share of heartache too as the photos below show.

Shops and houses have been flooded, people made homeless, roads closed and at least one bridge over Newlands Beck has collapsed at Little Braithwaite. The wide flood plain of the marshes has taken the brunt of the storm waters and turned Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite into one huge long lake (see Photo above and Nos 3 and 5), but the forecast of more heavy rain this week could bring further misery. Fortunately The Larches and Seldom Seen have been largely unaffected, though there was spillage of surface water onto the road as the gulleys had not been regularly cleared.

Rainfall in the area has been higher than ever recorded anywhere in Britain. Important bridges downstream in Workington and elsewhere have been smashed and inspections of more than 1800 bridges in Cumbria could bring further closures. Inevitably all this raises questions about whether this calamity to hit North West Cumbria is the result of wider worldwide climate change.