Paragliding Parachutes Into Grasmere Sports
Poodling Around
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 Sports showfield. Jane, again promoting this event with her company, Catapult PR, discovers why this is such an appropriate and suitable sport for inclusion at Grasmere Sports and what it will take to...
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No Stone Unturned With a Stone-skimming Champion
Poodling Around
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 Lake Windermere, in Cumbria, were beyond phenomenal! Jane discovers all that Alex has done in his international stone skimming career since then, what it takes to be a champion stone skimmer and what...
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From Shipwrecks to a Sea Ogre: Undiscovered Cleveleys
Poodling Around
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 here, the tales that surround them and how these are remembered today, but also covers everything from a tsunami to the mystical world that can be explored by strolling along the promenade and...
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Longing to Visit Longwood Gardens, USA
Poodling Around
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 PR, discovers the back story of topiary at Longwood Gardens. With Brianna, she explores how the French origins, love of travel and lavish lifestyle of the gardens' founding father probably...
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The Pawsitive Power of Bubbles
Poodling Around
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 since stumbling across a business opportunity that took him into the bubble-making sector. Jane discovers how this business started and then had to pivot fast during the pandemic, when its original...
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Snooping Into the Battlements Tour at an English Medieval Castle Hotel
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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 World Heritage Site of Hadrian's Wall, hospitality provider, Langley Castle, has seen 675 years of history pass by. This is all very much on show to visitors who stay at the hotel - and who travel from...
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Discovering the Secrets of the 'Other' Venice
Poodling Around
Jane Hunt, managing director of travel PR and tourism PR award-winning PR agency, talks to Ketty Zanutto, one of the business partners behind the inspiring Venice tour company 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 the city. Ketty explains the ethos of L'altra Venezia and gives a sneak preview into what lies in store for those who head to Venice and want to see beyond the classic tourism hotspots, whilst also having interpretation...
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Tracking Down Mountain Biking and Wintersports Fun in Morzine
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Jane Hunt, managing director of tourism and travel PR experts, , 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 this episode, and his business partner, Ben, who discovered a delightful place called Morzine, in the French Alps, and started to build their business dream there. Jane discovers all that Morzine...
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Discovering a Lake District Foodie Bolthole
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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 came to be in the South Lakes and discovers how the vision for Levens Kitchen has evolved. They discuss the ideal location of the foodie bolthole, in the beautiful tourism destination of the South...
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Visiting Rome - the Do's and Don'ts
Poodling Around
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-theft measures to take, how to survive the regular summer heatwave in Rome, how to keep the mosquitoes at bay and even where to find the best gelato, Jane offers some useful travel planning...
info_outlineWith 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 other far-flung places and not just in the UK where it has put Levens Hall and Gardens, the founder of the day and the world's oldest topiary garden, at the top of the topiary tree.
Jane explains about some of the specifics of the World Topiary Day activity this year, both in terms of what is happening with regard to activity between participating gardens and what is specifically happening at Levens Hall and Gardens.
She also gives listeners an insight into why the day of World Topiary Day - May 12 - had such significance and why the raucous Radish Feast, which preceded it centuries ago, was so notorious.
Patrick highlights what worldwide gardens find so appealing about the concept and describes some of the French gardens participating again this year, including an amazing garden that is his society's current award winner and his personal favourite, which is just 'perfect' all year round.