As I look through my window  in Grasmere one week on, its hard to imagine there is a problem  out there with flooding  -  the sky is ice- blue with a pink tinge and the first snows  have arrived on the  fell- tops – gorgeous.

Just ten days ago, our first priority was coping with  what was thrown at us –   helping our tenants and neighbours and protecting people and  then, the places that people love.   Over 20 houses and farms have suffered major damage and many others were affected in different ways. We have rehoused a number of tenants and have been doing lots of work behind the scenes here, moving tenants and residents around, rehousing them in holiday cottages or at basecamps whilst we ’dried out’ their homes and some will be moving back in again next week.   All very traumatic and upsetting,  as you can imagine in the run up to Christmas,  for people.

Wordsworth House & Cockermouth

Cockermouth of course is in the middle of a huge clear up of which we are part, and indeed are meeting this week with the Civic Trust, local authority and local architects to move forward the redevelopment of Main Street in a fitting way.  Boots pharmacy has managed to open, and there is a ‘makeshift shopping mall’ area where shop-holders are still trading and trying to keep going.  The atmosphere there as you can imagine is really one of everyone pulling together and wanting to make it work. Laughter and conversation are rife. We held a town ‘party’ last Friday night in Cockermouth – between ourselves, the Kirkgate Centre and the local council – over 150 people came along to eat drink, chat, listen to music, relax a little and realise they are part of a great community who cares.    Sadly, our shop is not going to be able to open ,   as it was literally a total wash-out, but we hope to sell some of the Christmas products out of the back of a landrover in the next week or so.   Not in Del-Boy style I am assured !!!

Wordsworth House itself is fully of people busying away, clearing away mud, silt, debris and rubbish, the de-humidifiers and heaters, fans and dryers are doing their job – our fantastic team of garden volunteers are saving what they can from the plants, but 3 big unsafe trees have had to be felled from the garden.  We are definitely going to be opening as planned, on March 13th, with a slightly different events programme – one that might be even more interesting than usual as there will be lots to talk about and see!  We’re also determined to get Fell Foot back and running too, as soon as possible, despite the extensive damage there.

Countryside

We’re now moving on from “emergency” phase to the “clear up” and beginning to plan for the future.

The emerging picture is one of heavily localised damage , with dramatic effect around Ullswater, Buttermere and Coniston.  Amazing amounts of gravel and stone have been washed down the becks and rivers and into roads, paths, bridges or fields, walls and fences swept away, bridges damaged, paths scoured out or even disappeared  and farm buildings damaged.

As temperatures fell this week, and we had blue sky and snow across the tops – it seemed to lift people’s spirits, as there is a feeling and determination to get things back  moving again, that we won’t be downhearted by this event, but will ‘keep calm and carry on’.  There are still lots of smiling faces and laughter about – we are a hardy bunch and we bounce back.

We’re  totally on board and embracing our role  here, whether it’s helping our tenants , or neighbours,   or restoring access to the countryside that so many people love and visit and on which so many local communities depend.   Most of our staff live in those communities and are a major part of them.  We’ve had a fantastic response from literally hundreds of passionate volunteers, and our wardens , Lengthsmen and women, and fix the fells teams have already started clearing debris from the head of Coniston , around Borrowdale, Buttermere and Ullswater, sorting out flooded buildings, diverting becks away from buildings and back to their original course or rebuilding paths, bridges and walls.  It’s a great feeling that so many people want to help in some way.

We will get through this – lets hope this dry spell of weather continues !  Do keep supporting Cumbria, get your holiday cottage or weekend away booked – it is after all, god’s own country.

Still, I suppose they deserved it after all of their hard work!

Damaged walls, fallen trees and debris are hardly going to clean themselves up now are they?

Armed with volunteers and all our team out on the ground, we’ve certainly been kept busy over the past couple of days.

If you live in the area why not come and help us, every little helps !! Or even if you don’t live in the area, you can still support our BIG clean-up by donating to our appeal – thank you.

Here are a selection of the photos we managed to snap from 19th Nov to 20th Nov 2009 – more to follow, so watch this space.

Then watch our short film and let us know what you think.

By the way the wind swept chap armed with a video camera and presenting our short film is John D.

Welcome to our first post “under water”.  And thanks for stopping by to see what we’re talking about.

And now for introductions. We’re the team who work for the National Trust in the Lake District.

Over the next couple of posts you’ll see exactly what we do, what we get up to and who we are – we hope you’ll like it and come back to see us again – we don’t have gimics or prizes,  just good old fashioned interesting people and posts.

Right. That’s me over and out. Come back for footage of us canoeing in a tea-room. Yes, you heard right, canoeing in a tea-room… stay tuned.