Tuesday 16th March 2010 Tweet if you see a daffodil in bloom
Tourism chiefs in Cumbria have taken the unprecedented step of asking
people to send a tweet on Twitter if they find a daffodil in bloom.
The cold winter has put the spring flowering plants like the daffodil
back a month. The ‘Daffs Watch’ appeal hopes people will post
sightings of the flowers on social networking sites when the pretty
yellow blooms finally show.

Eric Robson, Chairman of Cumbria Tourism, said: "It's virtually
unheard of not to have seen a single daffodil in the Lake District by
the middle of March. It's an industry of its own with visitors coming
here just to see them by the lakesides. The upside is that because
they are late, it means they should be out and looking their best for
the Easter holidays." Cumbria

Thursday 11th March 2010 M6 speed camera may be Britain’s most lucrative
A camera installed in roadworks on the M6 in Cumbria has netted a
pocket filling £168,000 for the Cumbria Road Safety Partnership. The
busy little yellow box nabbed no less than 5,569 motorists in just
five weeks to earn this unprecedented haul. Safety bosses said they
had no idea why the camera had done so well. Kevin Tea, manager of
Cumbria Safety Cameras, even admitted: "In seven years working on the
safety partnership in Cumbria never have I seen a camera generate so
many tickets.”

However, an alternative safety group which represents drivers rather
than the police and paid bureaucrats, take a different view. Claire
Armstrong, co-founder of driver education champions Safe Speed said:
"We're pretty disgusted. It's obviously got nothing to do with road
safety. The fact it's raising so much revenue will add to the
police/public divide and continue to make people believe it's just
about making money. You don't measure safe driving in miles per hour." Cumbria

Tuesday 23rd February 2010 Two fell walkers fall 750 ft in avalanche
Police are urging fell walkers to stay away until the conditions
improve after two climbers triggered an avalanche in the Lake
District. The pair were airlifted off St Sunday Crag in Patterdale and
taken to hospital with serious injuries. The men, from County Durham,
had been trying to climb a snow-covered ridge when the accident
happened.

Martin Cotterell, leader of Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team, said:
"The men had got to the top of their climb when they were faced by a
snow-covered ridge, called Pinnacle Ridge, and they triggered the
avalanche when they attempted to climb it. Two were swept down the
fell and were found in the debris of the avalanche. The other two men
have somehow rolled out closer to the top, we are not sure how." Cumbria

Monday 30th November 2009 New station for flood-hit Workington
The Cumbrian town of Workington will get a temporary new railway
station, to be called Workington North. The floods tore down several
bridges and rendered many others unsafe, including the Northside
Bridge which connects the two halves of Workington. The bridge’s
collapse left only a railway bridge connecting the two halves of the
town.

A spokesman for Network Rail said: "We are a big company with lots of
engineering expertise and experience. We knew we could help out and
it's been a pleasure to provide Workington with a new station to
reconnect the community."

Cumbria is now bracing itself for even more bad weather with up to two
inches of snow expected in the region over the next few days. Cumbria

Monday 28th September 2009 Drivers get warnings of deer movements
An driver awareness campaign is being run on the A590 in Cumbria in a bid to cut collisions between vehicles and deer. The DeerAware initiative has been instigated by the Highways Agency after 18 deer were killed in two years on the road.

Liz Girvan, area safety co-ordinator for the Highways Agency in South Cumbria, said: "Deer are highly unpredictable and can suddenly appear on the road, particularly at dusk and dawn, and in spring and autumn."

Alastair Boston, who is in charge of the North West England project of the Deer Initiative Partnership, added: "Collisions with deer are on the increase, and we have identified some of the worst locations. DeerAware is about changing driver behaviour, if you slow down and watch out, you have a good chance of preventing a potentially fatal collision." Cumbria

Wednesday 2nd September 2009 The Cumbrian python returns
A month ago Murray and Amanda McNab had to come to terms with the loss
of their pet python Sid, which appeared to have escaped from it’s
confines and fled the home. The couple were so distressed by Sid’s
disappearance that they even bought another python, Pedro, hoping it
might tempt Sid to return home.

They realised that Sid might not have left the family homestead after
all when they returned home from a trip to Scotland and found some of
his skin shed in the cutlery draw. After that, it didn’t take them
long to find the missing three-foot-long python hiding in a cupboard.
The couple suspect Sid may have spent the month living in the wall
cavities. Cumbria

Monday 24th August 2009 Cash grant enables abbey dig in Cumbria
A lottery grant of £48,000 has made members of the West Cumbria
Archeological Society very happy. The cash means they can now go ahead
with plans to search for further evidence of foundations at Holm
Cultram Abbey in Abbeytown, Cumbria. The Cistercian abbey was once the
largest monastic house in Cumbria but now only a parish church remains
from the original complex of buildings.

The dig has been prompted by the results of a geophysical survey in
2006 that seems to suggest foundations in a field south of the church.
Volunteers will work alongside professional archeologists during the
excavations and there are plans for tours and exhibitions to take
place during the dig. Cumbria

Monday 13th July 2009 Wandering cat returns after 150 mile trek
When Steven and Laura Buick’s cat Rocco vanished from their home in Edinburgh the couple couldn’t think where he’d gone. Three weeks later they had almost given up hope when the wandering feline turned up 150 miles away in Cumbria - now they really hadn’t imagined that!

It is thought that Rocco might have hitched a ride aboard a lorry and got off at the service area at Tebay where he was found. Rocco was reunited with his owners by the cat rescue centre he had been taken to. The centre were able to download his home address from the microchip the Buick’s had fitted him with Cumbria