A merry christmas from Jackie and Paul

A Merry christmas to all from Jackie and Paul

As you can see from the photos Jackie and Paul didnt let the winter weather spoil there christmas holiday. Paul even managed to catch a 18lbs Pike his pb whilst fishing In a clear area of water which are maintained by our aerators, after christmas when tempratures plumeted and the river Eden froze over even our lakes almost froze over. At the moment there are plenty of ice free swims, we were told that we were the only lakes in the north of England not totally Ice Bound.

Emma's Australia Photo's

Hey guys just a quick post - a few people were interested in what I got upto over the summer in Australia and while I can't write up all my stories on here I can share some of the many photo's I took using a website called Flickr.

If you're interested click this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrinkall/sets/72157623187017546/

To see my photos.

There's a few of fish and fishing, from diving the Great Barrier Reef and Fraser Island. My favourite Aussie fish - the Parrot Fish also has a photo.

Talking about the weather.

I doubt it's escaped your notice that we're having some rather beautiful snow. And that life goes on, people has places to go and for the most part for a temperate country we do pretty well at that. For example yesterday we loaded up the Landcruiser with blankets, flasks, chocolate and extra warm clothes, and a few car recovery bits, and drove to Newcastle and back to see Mamma Mia the musical. The A69 was open and largely very clear. We had a lovely time and drove back through a bit of snow to bed.

Anglers are sometimes more obsessed with the weather than the fish they're dreaming about. I know this. I'm obsessed too. And to keep everyone happy we've got our thermostatically controlled aerators in Lonsdale Lake which keep large parts of the lake ice free.
But for a large percentage of people it seems that we've gotten out of touch with the world, people are hugely inconvienced by a bit of rain or snow or a change in the pressures, forgetting perhaps thats these are things that can't be helped, and at least we're not at work (well you're not) so we might as well see the best in them.
Once I was asked what clothes should customers bring!
I blame working and travelling trapped indoors all the time.

The met office is the website we use for our weather reports and forcasts, but due to the nature of working here we're usually only current as of first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening. And of course we're in the North, in Cumbria so by nature of geography it will be slightly colder here than down the south, and the weather changeable in autumn and winter.
So sometimes it might be easer to check the met office before ringing us. The website for the North West is: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/nw/nw_forecast_warnings.html

For the extra keen out there the BBC Cumbria website will bring the latest local, travel and other news. They also have a section for 'your pictures' so you can often see areas of Cumbria on the day. That's over at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/default.stm

If you want to check you can get to us, I'll be honest we have a large number of guests from everywhere in the country, we have no idea. I can tell you that our lane is not gritted, but that it has posed no problems to my Mum's mini, or my sister's seat. Past the lane end I'm afraid I can't really help you. I know someone who can though! The highways agency.
Their website is: http://www.highways.gov.uk/

I hope you are all warm and dry, but having fun in the snow too, I hope these websites help you.

And don't worry if something huge effected us we'd put on the blog straight away!

Happy New Year!

Thought I would share a photo from this morning with you to wish you all a very Happy New Year!