Long summer days, wind blowing through my hair and sunglasses on - that was me this time last year, trundling round the Lake District on my bike taking pictures of bus stops and signposts, ahh the fond memories. You may have read my first post on our blog back in 2012; I’d just started work on the Drive Less See More campaign and was in the middle of pulling together our first ever mobile app – scary stuff! It’s still all systems go, an epic amount has happened in the last 12 months and with only two years of Go Lakes Travel left there’s still way more to fit in.

Unless you've had your head in the sand for the last 6 months or so, you can't have failed to noticed that cycling seems to have infiltrated the hearts and minds of a ever growing number of people. You only have to go out and about at the weekend to see all sizes, shapes and ages out enjoying themselves on a bike. Press coverage of cycling events seems to have stepped up a gear (sorry, terrible pun) –

Quite a long blog post here but I cannot contain my excitement and enjoyment of this event! Over 20 Eden businesses joined the Nurture Eden team at Lowther Castle on the 25th of April to enjoy tours, local Lowther food and amazing surroundings!

The latest Nurture Lakeland training event was a great success thanks to the expertise of Sheona Southern from Cairn Consultancy. Nurture Lakeland staff were joined by a variety of members keen to brush up on their media skills and together we learnt, practised and conquered our media fears!

As a founder member of the Lake District Tourism and Conservation Partnership, as it was originally known in 1994, and a subsequent Chairman I have to admit to an element of bias in writing this blog.

As a Director of INTO, a membership organisation with 65 heritage organisations around the world having so far joined since our foundation in 2007, one of my roles is advocacy. In that capacity I frequently quote the exemplary practice performed by Nurture Lakeland.

In 2011 3 of us decided to set up a Community Interest Company (Electric Travel CIC). The aim is to get more people cycling for everyday/leisure journeys. We were excited about the potential of ebikes to ‘unlock’ those barriers that normal bikes present to getting people onto two wheels.

Despite the snow, blizzards and general weather madness Cumbria experienced last week the Community Tourism Conference, organised by ACTion for Communities in Cumbria, managed to take place.

A few people were unable to make it, Eric Robson tweeted 'Sorry not to be chairing the community tourism conference at Kendal today. Snowed in I'm afraid'

"Can we go hill-walking at the weekend, I need to do some sketching?" - that was my 18 year old son, Alex  last Thursday. Well it's better than "Can you pick me up at 2 a.m. at the weekend I'm going drinking" isn't it? He's doing Art A Level and his theme is 'weathering in the landscape'. So how lucky is he to live on the doorstep of some of the most magical upland landscapes in the UK? (And the world. I'm partisan and proud!)

"...and we loved cycling in Eden!" That's overwhelming response from everyone I spoke to at the finish of the Eden Valley Epic cycle sportive.

Track back 24 hours and I'm armed with a huge pile of bright yellow signs and an equally big stack of zip ties and heading out to sign the route of the Eden Valley Epic cycle sportive. The next 7 hours are taken up with a familiar routine of approaching a junction, locating a suitable post, put zip tie round said post, curse, put zip tie round the right way and attach sign, check sign is visible on approach, check junction from both directions for blind spots...and repeat. All this to ensure that 1,000 cyclists don't end up getting lost in Eden - a fairly big responsibility!

 ‘I even saw a man on a unicycle’

I was reminded just yesterday of how fantastic our own Eden Valley is for cycling. Over the weekend over 1000 cyclists of all shapes, sizes, age and ability turned out for the 60 mile Inaugural Eden Epic cycle ride. Cycling through the tranquil Eden Valley  was almost like stepping back in time, with barely a car on the road, and villages looking like they had changed little in their 400 year’s existence.