Lakeland Dipper

I frequently drive on the A66 towards Keswick.
Today I drove along thinking this could be one of those times where, by the time I head back home, everything might be very different. It turned out that that was the case.

As well as all the political chaos on a national level we have been going through huge uncertainty on a local level with our Trust being split and divvied up between Lancashire in the south and Northumberland, Tyne and Wear in the north. It has been very unsettling and it still remains very uncertain as to how it will pan out. My particular role comes up very rarely generally, the last vacancy that came up in Cumbria is the one that I went for and am currently in and that was almost three years ago https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/2231039716260579235

A couple of weeks ago a post came up in the north and I decided to go for it. It’s still a big commute so I probably wouldn’t have gone for it if we were still under the one umbrella but the thought of being cast adrift was the decider. My pals, my supervisor, are in the north. They are the ones that have provided the stability that has helped me keep going in what is a difficult enough role since my husband died. It feels as though the heart, or certainly my attachment, is in the north, even though it is having to go through some pretty brutal, and to my mind unnecessarily, surgery and we still don’t know where this will take us. I just know that I want to set sail on this uncertain voyage with my buds and although the west is still a bit out on a limb at least I get to see the sea again.
When I went for the interview today I went for a quick look at the harbour where this dredger was hard at work and I loved the view of Canute sat at the waters edge clearly also wishing he could stop the tide of inevitability.
By the time I got home I’d had a call to say I had been successful and my friend and I went down to the lake for our swim and I was treated to a little bit of the bubbly stuff and some smoked salmon. Lakeland Dippers do it in style...