Welcome to your first Eden Local of 2023 and thank you for joining us for another year

It’s a slight change to our introduction for the start of the year - I managed to fit a little bit in about what I’ve been up to but this Eden Local, at its local level, is raising awareness of Avian Flu and what we can do. Prevention is key.

Firstly, I would like to wish you a happy new year and hope your Christmas was just as you hoped it would be, setting you up for 2023. I’ve mentioned on numerous occasions, as a dyslexic writer that producing this publication was born out of need to have something in Penrith and Eden to bridge the gap in the decline of affordable traditional print media.

It’s a challenge for me but also for my wife Charlotte who has to check everything I write before we print. A lot of my accuracy relates to the time of day that I write and at certain times of the day I can almost write normally; at other times I write and the interruptions I get distract me. This year I hope to do more solo pieces as we head towards our 200th publication in 2023.

We are still here as a free publication to read, posted through over 13,000 doors. We are also online to read for free, despite our costs rising by over 40% in the last 12 months to produce and deliver what is a free product. The dates for our deliveries in 2023 to 2024 are also online, as we propose to return to 12 Eden Locals in 2024.

This issue has a strong theme centred around wildlife, and producing it early January, we hope to get a lot of people involved in the RSPB annual ‘big garden bird watch’ which we have allocated our centre page to. We will continue our wildlife theme throughout 2023. This month we are over on the Cumbrian coast for our monthly wildlife instalment.

This issue reflects a lot on 2022, and in March we hope to have some information on the Unitary Council changes that take effect on 1st April. At present we have not been approached, and on making enquiries. I was informed in November there was no budget to get this information out to you at present.

How was Christmas for you? Sometimes it’s a bit different when Christmas lands on a weekend. As a family, we’ve not been that well prepared for a Christmas in a long while. We did go with a traditional fresh Turkey purchased locally from a butcher. Clouding over our Christmas day arrangements was of course the problems surrounding Avian Flu, then seeing prices rising due to shortages across the country. Our local purchase was actually a turkey from Wales! What’s happened to the Cumbrian Turkeys - does anyone know?

During these times of Avian Flu, whilst we hear about it, what do we really know about it? On checking the Government website and the APHA (Animal & Plant Health Agency) Interactive Avian Influenza Disease Map, there have been no reports in Cumbria, however, there is a controlled zone near Morecombe, and on page 8, Wetheriggs Animal Rescue Centre on the A66, 20 miles away from Kirby Stephen Avian Flu has landed.

When the temperature dropped recently preChristmas, people talked about the big freeze of 1962-63 when the sea froze over and it was said that the UK lost 50% of the bird population. I couldn’t find any figures that are current for our wild birds and the effects Avian Flu has had since it first landed in the UK in 2021. On page 31 there are details on how to report any dead wild birds you find via the Government website.

Meanwhile, Terry Bowes, who many of you know was the man behind the Wetheriggs Animal Rescue that opened in 2006 at the old Wetheriggs Pottery, near Clifton Dykes, then had to move out of the area to its current home at Thorpe Farm on the A66 near Barnard castle. The old pottery site of course became a new housing development. We do have an appeal related to the Wetheriggs Animal Rescue Centre on page 8 on the effects of Avian Flu at the 15 acre site.

How has your year started and how did it end?

We set out as a business into what felt like turning the key of a 12 year old car sitting out the front of the house in all weathers, you know the one, it’s been driven the best part of 100,000 miles but as it hasn’t been used for a month do we know if it will it start?

Switching on the computer, the lights and then trying to get those wheels turning since the last magazine that we printed mid November, that was the December magazine edition. Well, it wasn’t the easiest of tasks but we did it. We’ve started 2023 two weeks ahead of where we were in 2022.

Admittedly I took a break once the deliveries were completed in December, I seized the opportunity to catch up and I was heading off on a long overdue trip that was originally planned in 2020, then 2021. Most of us may have experienced plans stopped or delayed due to Covid or other illnesses that have affected many of us during this time. I’m not the only person who had to postpone plans and put things on hold these past years.

All For One

Internationally a hotel group

Or a pop group with sixties real appeal

But there are other legends in this loop

Four Seasons is an easy brand to steal

Quatre Saisons, Quattro Stagioni

Respectively French and Italian

Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons eatery

Pizza for eats Mediterranean

Quattro Stagioni – Viva Aldi

Their pizza distinguished by four toppings

First concocted by Joe Garibaldi

At a Newcastle fairground, The Hoppings

He’s better known for his teatime biscuits

And unification of Italy

To name his pizza he took no risk it

Was out of copyright from Vivaldi

The cleric composed a fine four piece suite

For violin noting each a season

In the beginning though from God a tweet

Was the Word behind climatic reason

Little he knew then that Adam’s offspring

Though the ages would disregard his rules

Scientific advances tampering

With nature in the search for extra joules

In Summer pavements melt, in Winter crack

Temperatures more extreme have become

How long before seasons are front to back?

When will climate change render all four one?

Rex di Noci

January 10th 2023