On Sunday I thought there must be a solution and contacted our website developer Leanda Ryan to ask if she could find out what was wrong.

Monday afternoon she was back with the answer – Fishers had changed their website and the code for accessing the webcam. And now she had fixed it. The first picture I got yesterday (see opposite) was the clearest I had ever seen and a real come-on to get up there in the snow!

It’s a really useful facility, which gives you an up to date picture of weather conditions in the Derwent Valley and on the Skiddaw massif from a distance, whether you’re in Edinburgh, Tyneside or Leeds. Combine this with the BBC weather forecasts, also accessible from our home page and you’ve got a fairly good idea of what weather to expect over the next 8 -12 hours.

This is good news and all thanks to a very efficient Leanda for getting things done within a busy schedule. If you want some smart design, website creation or digital development work done yourself, contact her at www.leandaryan.com

And while we are about it, thanks to Fishers Outdoors shop in Keswick for allowing access to their webcam.

It’s an easy walk to this ‘away from it all’ spot, with a footpath down from Pen Cottage at the Swan House apartments (formerly the Swan Inn), below Barf. I had never found this before and it takes you down through the old cottages at Powter How to the subway beneath the A66.

I knew the light was fading, but the latched gate to a path heading south down the lake drew my eye. “Why not explore a little further? It must lead to something” I thought and picked my way past two more gates and a ‘No dogs” notice.

Then I saw it – a low dark shape through the waterlogged trees. A plank with railing drew me on and I climbed the few steps. “Just slide the door” stated the notice.

Now I was inside this darkened capacious hide, with large illustrations of 33 different bird species, typical of lakes and marshland. Stools and a bench with four separate 12cms x 40 cms hinged observation flaps completed these wonderful facilities for bird watchers. Only the tea and kettle were missing!

This is part of the Bassenthwaite National Nature Reserve, where there are over 70 species of resident birds (See notice below). We owe a thanks for these free facilities to the Lake District Planning Board and other bodies like the RSPB, whose members support the programme and upkeep.

It’s nice to see that The Economist (“Little platoons on a slow march“, 16 July, page 29) chose a similar illustration to accompany its coverage of this as I did in my last posting a month ago on Cameron’s Big Society. (CamBigs)

When local services are cut, my photo (opposite) showed the gully clearing work I had needed to do as a volunteer with my mattock, rake and scythe.

The Economist cartoon (see below) showed a whole line of volunteers with similar equipment and Cameron in his overalls out there in front leading the troop with a sweeper and shovel in hand! Industrial scale voluntarism is a not so secret core ingredient of CamBigs.

As predicted the White Paper doesn’t contain anything very new about the Big Society. There’s an emphasis on localism (parish councils may have more to do), greater choice, diversity, fairness and accountability.

It all sounds very worthy. Some apologists see this as a radical shake up of public services and decentralisation away from Whitehall. But the rub will come with implementation because public service budgets for local councils, the police and elsewhere are being cut to the bone.

Will privatisation really bring the results for CamBigs when there’s no money on offer? And if not, where will all the armies of volunteers come from? I don’t think I’m very typical, nor my friend Peter who helped me!

We sense the loss of vivid hues and fragrance from summer’s flowers amidst a near monochrome world – until the sun comes out. January has seen some cold weather at The Larches, but we’ve had some gorgeous sunny periods too. Seeing the railings in the garden light up one morning (photo below left) and set their mark on the bank behind was a delight.

The photo at the top shows the decking of the Belvedere with the forest behind. It’s a wonderful vantage point for viewing the marshes summer and winter – and for a quiet read. Below centre is an intriguing photo of the zig-zag shadows of the posts and latticed wires cast by the low-risen winter sun. Below right in the new rockery area beside the steps to the Belvedere is a hardy winter plant, Bugle now showing off its purple colours. You wonder why more people are not up here in Cumbria enjoying this feast!

The pictures here though are a reminder of just how cold it was over Christmas, with temperatures down to minus 10° C and the gas boiler on all night. On the right is a view of Comb Beck, just beyond The Larches, with the rocks crusted with ice. Below is an early morning view from the boot room of the raised vegetable bed, seen through Jack Frost’s daring designs on the window; and on the right a view of the house and belvedere squaring up to snow-capped Skiddaw on Christmas Eve morning.

POSTSCRIPT – January 5th, 2011
The Met Office has confirmed to day that this last December has been the coldest since records were introduced 100 years ago. The average temperature for the month was minus 1° C, which was 5° C colder than the average December.

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 got the seed of the idea years ago on Esk Hause when at 9.30am I’d met two fell runners coming from Grasmere. They’d already done almost twice the distance I had covered in the same time. Their secret? Travel light with trainer type shoes. The pair I bought the next week brought me blisters on the downhill runs and no ‘life without care’! But the desire for that free wind lingered on.

Fast forward to 2006. I’m walking quickly, away from paths, up to Carlside below Skiddaw, when I’m overtaken slowly by a fell runner. Nearer the top I meet his partner. She explains as he tears down past us that he’s a contender for top places in national competitions. His secret? Make sure to get proper fell running shoes and touch the ground as lightly as possible on the descent. So maybe I could do it.

With a pair of new Innovate shoes (Top photo) from Keswick’s Needle Sports, I was soon testing out the fells round Thornthwaite, with the 2½ mile Barrow Round (Photo above) a favourite. Excluding the best part of two years for a prostate operation, I’ve now covered since my ‘conversion’ just under 90 miles on the fell tops

It’s not a lot and I’m not competing with anyone in races. My times are generally 40% to 65% of the walking times predicted by my Anquet mapping software. My best overall speeds are about five mph and for longer runs more like three mph. But it’s brought me a new freedom, the taste for a great sport and admiration for those, whose racing on the hills I read about in the local papers. Who needs football’s overpaid prima donnas when you have local icons like Joss Naylor and Billy Bland? These tough men and women are our real sporting heroes.

“Isn’t it dangerous and likely to do your knees in?”, Well you need to be fairly fit, have a good sense of balance and work up slowly. And go at a pace and for a distance that is OK for you. To enjoy this sport, you don’t need to do the gruelling races that Richard Askwith describes in his excellent book, Feet in the Clouds, A tale of fell-running and obsession.

I hope by now you are tempted. Seven miles on the fells is a lot more strenuous than seven on the flat, but remember that no one runs uphill all the time and some rarely.

This last month I’ve had two of the best 90 minutes of running in a lifetime. First on the island of Mull, where I had a huge tract of sun-soaked, deer-roamed fells to myself with breathtaking views across Ulva island and down south to Iona. (Photo opposite)

Then last week a great five mile run over Cat Bells and up to Maiden Moor, with the Newlands Valley lit up and glowing in the late afternoon sun. (Photo below) The descent was a route I’d seen the hounds taking two years ago. It drops steeply off the path from the fell top in a NNE direction past an old sheepfold and down through bracken to the track to Little Town. Jazz pianist Chick Corea was playing on my iPod from his ‘Return to Forever’ album to the words below. Could I want for anything more?

Look around you my people
If you look then you will see
How to love, life is paradise all together
What game shall we play today?

By exploring your local community, its history and culture, its housing and workplaces and the relationships between people and places, you could learn not only about where you lived but also about society and politics more generally. The idea led to lots of local research and pamphlets in the Nordic countries and the UK.

‘Dig where you stand’ is advice as relevant to the Thornthwaite and Cumbria of today as anywhere. There are farms and cottages worked by generations of families, lead mines and mineral deposits all over the wooded fellsides and evidence – if you look – of the social and economic changes that have taken place over the years. What can you tell for instance from the etching above of Seldom Seen in the 1790s?

One man who knows more about this local community than any was born in Braithwaite and moved to Seldom Seen when he was one year old. He lives still in the same house. 84 year old Victor Gardiner has been a forester, member of the Home Guard, naval gunner in the war, firefighter, taxi driver and parish councillor; and his grandfather was headmaster of the local primary school. He has one regret that he signed up for the navy only weeks before the land girls came to work in Thornthwaite Forest.

His knowledge of generations of local people, farming and land holdings, buildings, businesses and general gossip could fill volumes. (See his photo opposite with his dog Flossy). He has another distinction too.

He and his brother Harry, who owns the adjoining house, inhabit the oldest buildings in Seldom Seen, Nos 3 and 4 The Ravine beside the fast running Comb Beck. They were initially an office, living space and woollen mill dating back to the 1780s.

The photo opposite shows the back of the house, where the remains of what was the original woollen weaving shed abut the dwelling. If you are interested in finding out some more of the history of the area, give Victor a ring (Tel: 017687 78284) and arrange to go round to see him. He’s always happy to have a chat.

They have been less evident in the garden although we have had two reports since April of sightings. So it was great to get an email today from Lee, who is staying at The Larches this week, attaching the photo here of a red squirrel on the breakfast terrace.

He writes: “Your letter arrived about 10 minutes before the red squirrel! This was our first sighting, hazel nuts have been opened each day and I was hoping it was red and not grey! I have attached a picture, it’s not great as it was a little rushed! It was taken from the upstairs bedroom window at 09.27.”

POSTSCRIPT
Shortly after posting this blog, we got another email from Lee, attaching this second great photo of the acrobatic squirrel at the feeding box and commenting:

The squirrel came back at around 12 o’clock …. It appeared to be hiding quite a lot of the nuts in the garden and eating one or two. It was a real treat to watch. I’m glad it was raining, if it wasn’t, we would have gone out and missed it!

These are the first photos we’ve had of the red squirrel for over a year, so thanks to Lee for sending them.

It may sound like a Gardeners’ Question Time but it was a real question – until today when I met up with the Brookmans who have given me a new lead. “Why not try a tepee of bamboo sticks and grow your green beans up them?”, said Ali. It looks a great solution to judge from the photo opposite of Anna as she picks some beans for our Sunday lunch.