I AM glad the long, dark winter is over.

I’m fed up of sweeping out the log burner and, indeed, getting the thing going in the first place. I’d be hopeless living out in the wild, I’d pass out with hypothermia before I got the fire lit.

Now that Easter is out of the way and we are all heavier than when we started that new year diet - I blame Cadbury's for the chocolate eggs - it’s time to look forward to summer.

Festival time in the UK will soon be upon us. I’ve never been a huge fan of camping in a muddy field for the weekend - maybe it’s something to do with my lack of camp fire skills - but I am wanting to indulge in live music, mud and canvass this summer. Glastonbury is lying fallow for 2018 so the obvious choice is Kendal Calling. And it means no long journey home when you look and feel like you’ve been dug up.

I was a teenager in the 90s, the days when curtains were not just floral cloths hanging over the patio doors but a fashionable men’s hairstyle. Girls were bombarding salons requesting the Rachel cut and, forget the Big Apple or the Hollywood Boulevard, musically Manchester was the coolest place on the planet.

There is plenty of nostalgic Britpop at Kendal Calling to scratch my 90s itch. Ocean Colour Scene are on the bill who recently celebrated 20 years since their defining album, Moseley Shoals, and I’m sure plenty of tracks from it will be on the set list such as The Day We Caught the Train and The Riverboat Song. Alongside them, other Britpop favourites are playing such as the brilliant James and Shed Seven.

The main Friday headliners this year are Catfish and the Bottlemen. They won best breakthrough at the Brits two years ago and their second album was a critical and commercial success, reaching No.1 in the UK. They are also having a whale of a time across the pond with many American fans. That’s enough fish puns, sorry.

Saturday’s headliners are the influential New York trio, Run DMC. Credited with bringing hip hop into the main stream, even the casual listener will know the huge hits It's Like That and Walk This Way with Aerosmith.

On Sunday the Libertines take the stage. Pete Doherty is now back with the band and it should be an energetic end to the festival.

What a great line up. I just need to be prepared now with factor 50 for the blistering Cumbrian sunshine! I am forever the optimist!