It may be cold out there, but it's warm and cosy inside the latest issue of North Pennines News - 20 full-colour pages of news, features and pictures from the North Pennines. Stories this time include the £500,000 boost for peatland restoration, the Soay sheep drafted in to battle with bracken, and the lumps and bumps in the landscape that reveal daily life on Alston Moor hundreds of years ago.
A letter from the Chairman (page 2) - Introduction to the edition by the Chairman , Cllr Richard Turner.
£500,000 award puts peat on climate change agenda (page 3) - Peatland restoration in the North Pennines has received a £500,000 boost from Biffaward, one of the leading landfill communities funding schemes.
Groundbreaking work by volunteers (page 4) - Volunteers have been helping to discover how much carbon is locked in to the AONB's peatlands by finding out how deep it is.
AONB Partnership scoops award (page 4) - Deputy Director Peter Samsom accepts the award from the Durham Biodiversity Partnership.
Ensuring your drinking water is a clear winner (page 5) - Claire Lorenc of Northumbrian Water explains how water quality could be improved - and treatment costs could be saved - with peatland restoration.
Lights amnesty a really bright idea (page 5) - Swap your old Christmas lights for a brand new set of low energy LEDs at Hamsterley Forest on Saturday December 12.
Living North Pennines update (pages 6-9) - Series of articles looking at recent highlights of the AONB Partnership's Living North Pennines project, funded by the HLF. Articles include: Youngsters take a LEAP into learning; Wood you believe it! Middleton School's forestry award; All aboard for community music and film; Woodland Magic and Mystery day; In on the act - getting involved in community activities; Soays get crackin' on the bracken; Hauling logs is a breeze for 'Hurricane' horse; Chapels tour is just the ticket.
Sixth Northern Rocks a great success (page 10) - Review of the exciting and varied events that took place over the Northern Rocks Festival of Geology and Landscape which ran from May 23 to 7 June.
Sounds like Killhope... (page 10) - Artist Jane Foale reports on a schools art project with a difference at Killhope, the North of England Lead Mining Museum.
Geology a piece of cake for North Pennines Champions (page 11) - More than 200 children have been cooking up their own 'rock recipes' at Bowlees Visitor Centre near Middleton-in-Teesdale.
Hexham children track down story in stone (page 11) - Children from Slaley School in Northumberland visited Ladycross Quarry and then walked down to Blanchland to see how the quarry's stone has been used.
Alston Moor - new research on an ancient landscape (pages 12 and 13) - Stewart Ainsworth of English Heritage and the AONB Partnership's Paul Frodsham look at how new technology is uncovering the secrets of the past.
Discover Whitley Castle (page 13) - A new self-guided trail leaflet produced by the AONB Partnership's Community Interpretation Officer Abi Wylde and Historic Environment Officer Paul Frodsham takes visitors on a tour around this enigmatic Roman site on Alston Moor.
Meadow surveys (page 14) - A report on this summer's surveying work by the Partnership's Hay Time officers.
'Mr Hayrake' looks to establish Sites of Special Childhood Interest (page 14) - Lots of North Pennines children have been learning how hay meadows support many plants and animals on the AONB Partnership's Hay Time Discovery Days.
A hundred years of running water (page 15) - The reservoir at Castle Carrock in Cumbria is 100 years old in 2009: local resident Paul Bassindale looks back on the amazing feat of engineering that created it.
A 'bonny bit' of fluorite (pages 16 and 17) - Geologist Brian Young takes a look at the brilliance and beauty of North Pennines 'spar'.
Rocks of course! (page 17) - A report on the eight-week study programme on North Pennines geology held earlier in the year - and the chance to sign up for the course in 2010.
Slowly but surely for reservoir woodland scheme (page 18) - Stuart Pudney of Northumbrian Water reports on the work to introduce broadleaf woodland around Burnhope Reservoir in Upper Weardale.
Foundations of the landscape (page 18) - A new publication by Geodiversity Officer Elizabeth Pickett telling the story of North Pennines geology.
Another summer's dig on Bollihope Common (page 19) - Rob Young and Jane Webster give an update on the findings at the archaeological site.
School points to a zero carbon future (page 20) - Whitfield School in Northumberland is using cutting-edge renewable technology to take it firmly into the 21st century.
News in Brief (page 20) - High Cup runneth over; Get creative with poetry workshop; Durham City of Culture.
To get your free copy of the Autumn/Winter 2009/10 issue of North Pennines News, phone 01388 528801 - or download the PDFs at the website of North Pennines
