I was in the Lake District for my annual Easter get-away and the only reason I mention the encounter is that I want her job.

Every morning, 365 days a year, come rain, snow or shine, she drives up through the forest roads of Dodd Wood to the osprey viewing point looking out over Bassenthwaite Lake and feeds the red squirrels.
She also feeds the multitude of birds that flock there with seeds and nuts stored in a secure trailer on the hillside.

Personally, given half the chance, I wouldn't bother going up and down every day, I'd be quite happy living in the trailer.
I had gone to the wood specifically in the hope of seeing the squirrels and I wasn't disappointed.

The short hike up Dodd was like walking through a fairyland.
It was snowing, great big fat flakes that drifted down through the trees swaying and soughing in the bitter wind that was to keep careful walkers off the high fells for most of the weekend, and I stopped often to savour the experience.

And to catch my breath and bemoan my expanding girth.
Still I was out in the fresh air and had travelled 300 miles to try out my new camera on the Lakes wildlife and landscape, so I wasn't going to let being out of puff put me off.

Unfortunately, photographing the Dodd squirrels was more difficult than I anticipated.

They refused to co-operate and stayed in the shadows ignoring the nuts left for them at the feeding posts and scampering off with those the woman had tossed among the trees, with the result that my pictures were a bit on the fuzzy side.

All was not lost, however, because later that day a red squirrel ran across the packhorse bridge not five minutes walk from Caldbeck pub The Oddfellows Arms, where I have stayed many times and can heartily recommend for its steak and ale pie – with shortcrust pastry.

I spent many freezing hours stalking that arboreal rodent, but it was worth every second to come home with a dozen or so half-decent photos of a truly wild red.