Taken by Amanda Lewin

I’m sure that you will have seen the news of the Cumbrian flooding this week. I live in Carlisle now but grew up near Workington and Cockermouth so I know these towns very well. My friend Amanda took this photo of the River Derwent in Workington which has destroyed a couple of bridges completely, and damaged others beyond repair. She lives in nearby Seaton and has been trapped in the village due to the bridge destruction or flooded roads. The loss of bridges has also led to the loss of life – PC Bill Barker died when Northside Bridge collapsed and he was swept away in the current. Many tributes have been given to this brave man and condolences to his family. The general consensus is that the rebuilt bridge should be named the Bill Barker Bridge, in his memory. I hope Allerdale Council listen to this request. My parents and grandparents have also been affected by flooded roads, lost landline telephone lines for several hours on Friday but fortunately they are safe. The same cannot be said for the poor residents of Cockermouth as almost the entire town has been devastated.

Carlisle is pretty much unscathed by these heavy rains, unlike the floods of January 2005. However the weather did threaten to spoil my weekend. I am a member of the knitting and crochet community, Ravelry, and have made many friends there. One friend, Sandy who lives in Scotland, had been spending the week on holiday in south Cumbria. On her way back up north we were supposed to be meeting in Penrith for coffee, chat and knitting. As the week went on we were growing increasingly worried that we wouldn’t be able to meet after all. Trains between Carlisle and Penrith were cancelled due to a landslide and Sandy wasn’t sure if she would be able to stop as her and her mother’s houses are at the side of a tidal loch and that area had been affected by the severe weather conditions too.

Saturday came and although it wasn’t a lovely day it wasn’t immediately raining. After a phone call Sandy confirmed that she could meet up as all was safe at home. The West Coast Mainline was up and running again but Sandy and I agreed it was best to meet up in Carlisle; I might not be able to get home again if the weather took a turn for the worse and she had to drive past Carlisle anyway to get home.

With her husband sent off on his bike to amuse himself for a couple of hours, Sandy and I went to the gorgeous cafe at Carlisle Cathedral. We had elevenses of fair-trade tea and coffee and homemade cakes in the atmospheric setting of the undercroft with its beautiful vaulted ceiling. Whilst we let that go down we chatted and knitted, Sandy working on a sock she had just started and I worked on a scarf I’m hoping to finish in time to give as a Christmas present.

We then ventured outside into the rain which got heavier as the day went on. Fortunately there aren’t many steps between the Cathedral and any of the yarn shops in Carlisle. As Sandy had just been on holiday she had no money to splurge on increasing her stash so had to restrain herself from temptation!

In the first shop I bought some essential purple tweed cotton yarn so I can make a flannel for a friend’s Christmas present. Next stop was the craft stall in the fabulous indoor market, especially fabulous in horrible weather. Here they don’t just sell yarns but almost anything you could want to undertake a crafting hobby. Stickers, tapestry sets, embroidery threads and various stuffings adorn the walls next to a great range of buttons. Sandy couldn’t resist some lovely blue/white/silver yarn that was reduced – a bargain at less than £4 for three skeins! Onto the last shop and although we were impressed by the market’s choice of buttons we weren’t prepared for the wonder that awaited us in Fun 2 Do. It’d been a while since I’d been in so I’d forgotten all about them! We spent most of our time poring over the buttons rather than yarn as they had such an extensive and glorious collection. I bought some reduced yarn which, as a redhead, I couldn’t resist as the colourway was called Ginger, plus it was a bargain!

Back to the Cathedral for lunch of homemade quiche and sandwiches and more knitting. I have never managed to get the hang of knitting with double pointed needles so Sandy gave me a welcome lesson, even if she did manage to confuse me by trying to make me do it left handed as she’d passed it to me back to front!

The time passed all too quickly and it was soon time for her to meet up with her husband and head home. I’ve invited her to come and stay, she has done the same and we’re going to meet up at Woolfest 2010 in Cockermouth. Hopefully there’ll be some stalls there that are raising money for the families affected by the awful floods of November 2009.

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Thank you Sefronia. You can read more from Sefronia here.

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