Poodling Around

Jane Hunt chats to Lucy Dawes, owner of the exquisite Mount Ephraim Gardens, in Kent, UK, ahead of World Topiary Day 2026 (founded by Levens Hall and Gardens ), in which Mount Ephraim is participating.  Also joining the chat is the Estate Manager, Tony Williams. Whilst there is a captivating exploration of the topiary on offer at Mount Ephraim, the episode reveals so much more, focusing on other p...

Born in Blackpool but largely unaware (until working on a new travel PR project), of the huge role that the popular seaside resort played in World War II, Jane Hunt interviews John Coombes, director of award-winning Blackpool visitor attraction, the Spitfire Visitor Centre.     John describes how the atmospheric wartime-themed attraction came about and the history of its home - Hangar 42 - a large...

Ahead of the 2025 Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show, Jane Hunt talks to Paul Abbott about a brand-new sport that is parachuting into the Grasmere Sports programme this year. This is the Grasmere Hike and Fly - a paragliding event that encompasses navigating between waymarks, to land and register a visit and then fly off again, around the course, and back to the starting point, on the Grasmere Spor...

Jane Hunt catches up with Alex Lewis, a Scottish student who also just happens to be a multi-title stone skimming champion, having won titles around the world. Jane first met Alex in 2018, as part of her travel PR and tourism PR promotion at Catapult PR. Having promoted the All-England stone skimming championships for about 10 years at that point, she soon recognised how Alex's performances on Lak...

Jane Hunt delves into Cleveleys' rich tapestry of history, myths and legends, as she provides insights into her very local coastal location of Cleveleys, on the Fylde Coast, near Blackpool, in England's north west. Jane highlights some of the amazing facets to Cleveleys that she has largely discovered in the course of her travel PR at Catapult PR.  The podcast focuses on the numerous shipwrecks he...

Ahead of World Topiary Day 2025, on May 11, Jane Hunt chats to Brianna Reid, a dedicated horticulturist at the glorious Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. The reason? Well, unlike many other gardens in the USA, Longwood has its own topiary garden, for which Brianna is responsible on a daily basis. Jane, on the scent of a great visitor attraction story as ever, as a tourism PR specialist at Catapult...

Jane Hunt, managing director of award-winning UK PR agency, Catapult PR, talks to the USA's very own Bubble Man, as John Reider becomes her guest and interviewee for this pet-focused podcast focusing on the pawsitive benefits of blowing bubbles for pets. Jane, as self-confessed bubble lover since her childhood days, makes an instant connection with John, who has shared the same love of bubbles sin...

In her latest travel and tourism-focused podcast, travel PR specialist, Jane Hunt, chats to Eilidh Wise, a member of the team at the incredible and awe-inspiring Langley Castle Hotel in Northumberland, England, which can potentially be regarded as the most authentic fortified medieval castle hotel in England. Located close to the Anglo-Scottish border, and just a stone's throw from the UNESCO Worl...

Jane Hunt, managing director of travel PR and tourism PR award-winning PR agency, Catapult PR,  talks to Ketty Zanutto, one of the business partners behind the inspiring Venice tour company L'altra Venezia, operating in Venice, Italy and run by passionate tourism professionals who want to allow visitors to Venice to benefit from their personal insight, as people who have been born and raised in th...

Jane Hunt, managing director of tourism and travel PR experts,  Catapult PR , talks to the founder of businesses that have, over the years, absolutely snowballed, thanks to their ability to provide fantastic mountain biking and snow-based activity holidays to everyone from athletic pros to absolute beginners and families.   All of this is down to the passion of Richard Wilford, the interviewee in...

Jane Hunt talks to Robert Stacey, the executive chef for the Levens Hall Estate, whose role includes overseeing all of the foodie developments related to Levens Kitchen and Levens Bakery, two food-related venues associated with the visitor attraction of Levens Hall and Gardens. Jane discovers Robert's prestigious background as a chef in top London restaurants and culinary roles, explores how he ca...

Jane Hunt offers unique and personal insights into a trip to the Italian capital city, offering tips as to what to do and what not to do in Rome, drawing on both her own experience in the city and the knowledge she has acquired during the course of her travel and tourism PR and blog writing at Catapult PR.   With practical advice relating to where to visit and how to best go about it, what anti-th...

Jane Hunt talks to three of the overseas wrestlers who head, with their compatriots, to compete at the traditional Lake District event of Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show each year, in the Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling events. Interviewees Guðmundur Stefán Gunnarsson and Jana Lind Ellertsdóttir, from Iceland, explain how a similar version of the sport of backhold wrestling is conducted in...

Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling is a sport with roots that go back centuries and which now has participants only in the northern counties of England – in Cumbria and Northumberland.  To discover more about this form of traditional wrestling, in a backhold style, Jane Hunt speaks to Linda Scott and Robert Wharton, both part of the Cumberland and Westmorland Wrestling Association. Jane finds ou...

Teenage athlete and fell running sensation from Yorkshire, Charlotte Rawstron, talks to Jane Hunt about her progress through the world of athletics and the fascination of running up the seemingly impossible steep fell at Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show - and back down again! Jane discovers how Charlotte got into running up hills and why it's something she loves to do, despite the commitment invo...

Jane Hunt meets Brian Johnson, pet parent to social media doggy star, Pip the Golden Retriever, someone who Jane avidly follows on X and who has fans worldwide. Jane discovers all about Pip and his social media journey, finding out where Pip likes to poodle around, how he spends family time and what being a doggy with followers entails, whether good or bad. Jane, a Golden Retriever lover, and form...

Jane Hunt homes in on the delights of a formal English garden in the summer months, by talking to the head gardener of Levens Hall and Gardens, in the Lake District, Cumbria. This amazing garden was first established by the French gardener, Monsieur Guillaume Beaumont, in 1694 but has been under the care of current head gardener, Chris Crowder, for the past 38 years. Whilst best known for its topi...

If you can't head off to Italy this year, you simply have to bring the tastes of the Mediterranean to your own home and what could be better than a tasty woodfired pizza, bubbling with cheese and with a beautifully charred base worthy of any pizzeria in Naples?  Maybe a pizza  - or even better, another recipe concoction, rustled up in your own garden oven? But how do you top that?  Maybe by servin...

With the worldwide phenomenon that is World Topiary Day just around the corner, the creator of the multi-award-winning gardening awareness day, Jane Hunt, managing director of Catapult PR, talks to Patrick Salembier, President of the European Boxwood and Topiary Society in Europe. Jane discovers why the award-winning idea is a huge hit in France but also in the USA, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and ot...

Jane Hunt records some of her own impressions of the city of Bremen, in Northern Germany, whilst building on her own experience with the knowledge and insight provided by experienced Bremen tour guide, Guido Klostermann.  Jane provides details of her own experience, quizzing Guido on some of the things she saw, to discover more about this incredible but lesser-known city that has so much to offer...

It's so easel!  That sums up the forthcoming 2024 season at Levens Hall and Gardens in the English Lake District,  as Jane Hunt discovers when interviewing self-taught artist, Bob Sutcliffe OBE.   Jane learns how first a diagnosis of epilepsy, and then a heart attack 10 years later, resulted in Bob picking up a tin of watercolours and painting for the first time, using art therapy to manage his he...

Jane Hunt gets on the scent of a historic and traditional canine sport that is largely these days confined to the beautiful countryside of Cumbria, or as some people may better know this  part of the UK - the Lake District.   Jane discovers all there is to know about the dog-focused sport of houndtrailing, which involves trail hounds following their noses, to race to the finish line, having expert...

  Jane Hunt explains the motivation that drove her towards a visit to the Viking Ship Museum, in Roskilde, Denmark, having been to a meeting, as part of her travel PR work, in which the need for DNA testing around Hadrian's Wall become evident and where the arrival of a DNA testing kit was as exciting for the recipient as a knock on the door by Axl Rose would have been for Jane!  Jane describes he...

Jane Hunt talks to Sarah Miller, a passionate tour guide at English Elizabethan Hall, Levens Hall and Gardens, in the northwest of England, and discovers why just visiting the gardens would be a real case of missing out.  Jane discovers the history of this unique historic property and the perils of gambling, as she finds out how the Hall changed hands.  She also learns of the wonderful decor withi...

How difficult is it to come up with a name for a dog and what are the most popular choices?  What could inspire a choice of name for a dog and what examples do we have in the celebrity, movie and TV world?  What are the real no-no rules when it comes to a name and what name should you choose if you want your doggy to respond to you?  After spotting a dog named Axel, rather than Axl, and having pet...