Leah, the resident pooch, is friendly no doubt. She also happens to be persuasive too. They say that collies are clever, in terms of Leah this is an understatment. If you do happen to have a visit from Leah, or are escourted by her around the lake, please resist the temptaion to feed her.

The woodlands are abundant with birds singing and chasing around. It's lovely to walk through them and try to work out birds from their song. I only know "teacher, teacher" and can't remember which bird matches this song. Of course I recongnise the drumming of the Great spotted woodpeckers.

Nothing like a walk on the fells on a Sunday. Nick decided on a circular route, a pub and dog - must have, wife and kids - nice to have.

Now that we have two pretty little kids in the woods, Hazel and Bianca, there is even more reason for our two boys to be out in the woods and more importantly off their xbox.

The ultimate mini retreat, two days of total tranquillity, is surprisingly affordable. Take off from the nearest mainline station close to home, and hey presto you’re in your lovely lodge @ the Otter.

When Edward I died on Burgh Marsh in the summer of 1307 his body was laid out in the local church at Burgh by Sands and for ten days this tiny Cumbrian village had the eyes of Britain upon it.

Book a three-night stay at the Tranquil Otter, 5 star lodges overlooking the lake, to arrive on Jan 24 and you could win a Burns Night dinner for two in the beautiful surroundings of Tullie House.

I love that feeling of waking in the mornings and knowing that for a change I'm not the first one up! I admit I'm an early riser and enjoy it, but it can be a bit lonely in the winter months waiting and hoping - usually in vain - for one of my brood to bring me a cup of tea while I'm still tucked up in bed.

Even though the rest of the Country is deep in snow, the sun is shining in Cumbria and I feel spring in the air. Each new day is a little longer than the last with fewer sightings of the Christmas Robin.

Snow drops and crocus are pushing through around the Tranquil Otter and birds are starting their territorial actions with the Great tit calling “teacher, teacher, teacher”. Yes it really does say teacher – listen for yourself on the RSPB website. The great spotted woodpecker has also started its drumming of trees getting ready. To me all these birds have such big personalities and yet when you see them with the naked eye they are so tiny, I feel like commanding them to sit still so that I can take a look and work them out. Never mind with a bit of patience and food bribery it is possible to sit and wait for the birds to appear, either in the bird hide or the deck of each lodge.

If you know your birds then why not see which of the following you can spot, blue tit, coal tit, nuthatch, blackbird, chaffinch, woodpecker, wren, long-tailed tut, treecreeper, corvids and Jay. Let us know how you get on.

In terms of waterfowl, as opposed to the woodland birds, we have been so lucky with Mute Swans this year, one of the resident pair had 8 cygnets in 2011 and they all survived – unlike the three geese we were hoping to keep. Recently we counted 21 adult Mute Swans and 8 cygnets. We also had a passing visit from 4 whooper swans, perhaps they were checking out the neighbourhood.

Gretna Green has always been a favourite location amongst couples and we recently received an invite to eat out at the town’s beautiful Smiths Hotel.

I am feeling like one of our mute swans at the moment.  I think I’m still managing to seem serene and under control but, beneath the surface, I am paddling like mad.

The nights are drawing in fast and the mornings are dark too but the Lough at The Tranquil Otter is bustling with winter visitors – not only our guests in the lodges but also plenty of birds out on the lake including mute swan, little grebe, wigeon and moorhen.  I love waking up to all the bustle and activity in the summer months but there’s something intriguing about a view gradually emerging on a winter morning too.

Tullie House is one of my favourite places in Carlisle, great coffee, a gift shop in which to get lost for at least an hour, a gallery, museum and a lovely garden to explore.

From the Tranquil Otter you may just be able to make out wind turbines close by; these are at Watchtree Nature Reserve, a former disused airfield and now the biggest man made nature reserve in Europe. Well worth a look.

You are really missing out if you have not had an opportunity to visit the Solway Firth. It is rightly categorised as an area of outstanding natural beauty. Prone to flooding, it is used primarily by local farmers for feeding their stock at various times of the year.

One of our favourite destination is Walby Farm park; not far to go and so much to do, especially on a rainy day and it is good to have something up one's sleeve. When in South London it was the soft play at the Brixton Rec or Peckham and here is a far superior Walby Farm Park.  

I was so pleased when I discovered Walby because it meant that I could get a latte and the boys could enjoy action. Usually they made a friend and wear themselves out.  

Whenever my sister is visiting us, one of the first things she does is organise a day to Walby, usually with Barry's Taxi and takes all four children with her and I can imagine she does what I do, sit and have a coffee.

I love the fact that Walby are developing what they offer and loved the visiting reindeer at Christmas and now the maze.  When Nick's niece came up from Crouch End with her two boys, we all managed to fit in a visit, including Nick. It was brilliant to be able to sit and have an adult conversation over coffee whilst the four boys between 4 and 10 were happily occupying themselves. Well done Neil and Katie. 

Jazzy sharing strategy with the younger Kittoe or is he giving a lecture? Wonder where he gets that from. 

A pre-condition of getting Leah from the Dog's home was that she would need to be speyed. As usual, Nick, trained in Lambeth's Dog psychology, wanted none of it. We ignored the Dog's Refuge for a year and eventually they just made the appointment and summoned Leah to the Vet.

Being unused to having a Bitch we thought they all these dog loving people would be up on advances in medical technology and use key hole surgery to simply tie up the tubes.  Not so, a full removal of all parts plus they do not use self dissolving stitches. Poor Leah is now confined with a cone to being walked on lead. So no more running freely and she is totally fed up and this is only day 3.

Cycling solo is not something I would have attempted in a City or even in Carlisle. Last weekend, the weather was dull and seemed just right to explore Solway villages by cycle.

Mostly on c roads this map sets out a lovely route; apparently these were the highways of medieval times. I have yet to explore the history of the area in detail, however there is no doubt that the same quiet lanes saw much action with border battles with Scotland.

However, now in 2011 the hedgerows are impressive, the lanes are quiet and cycling is such a civilised way of exploring this area. My only regret was not to bring my purse as I would have loved to have a long lemonade at the Greyhound, Burgh by Sands.

We now have another urban being staying with us; nephew from Birmingham who had no experience of countryside or dogs. Here is a picture of Leah taken by said nephew.

Nick has been managing the woods around the Lough with help from the Forestry Commission. Ours and the adjoining woods includes ancient woodlands; and a large number of trees were planted before the Second World War.

Late last year I noticed what seemed like a coding system on some of the trees: an orange P, dots on some trees and tried to work out what these meant.  How I expected to know about woodland management beats me? I had to find out and did not to have to go far; a quick conversation with Nick was enough.

It turns out that our woods had not been managed for some time and required some TLC with some pollarding and coppicing. However it is important to get the timing right; that is in the winter when the sap is down and there are no nesting birds to disturb.

What we are doing in effect is to remove some of the branch cover and let light into the woods to encourage more ground cover plants and also to sustain the bugs and beetles that are part of the food chain for the local bird life.

The orange P is for pollarding - we take the upper branches of a tree off and the tree dies standing up. I can hear a "why"? We do this to allow certain trees to die standing up by ring-barking, or girdling, these trees, that is, cutting them all the way round the lower trunk so that they provide over 50 years shelter and food for a huge variety of grubs and beetles. The bugs and beetle in turn are food for woodpeckers and tree-creepers and mammals like shrews that feed on them.