Picture of the week goes to the Purplebricks LPE who took this photo of a red squirrel for the images used to market a house for sale near Coniston in the Lake District.

The red squirrel’s decreasing habitat in the UK includes Cumbria so it’s not unusual to see the arboreal, omnivorous rodents in the area.

Beatrix Potter

But what’s most fitting is that the property used to belong to Beatrix Potter following her acquisition of the surrounding Monk Coniston Estate for £15,000 in 1930, part of her attempts at the time to stop holiday home developers hoovering up large tracts of Lakes countywide, and to preserve traditional farming and countryside traditions.

One of Potters’ more enduring characters is Squirrel Nutkin, the tale of an impertinent red squirrel who loses his tail after baiting an owl. Or in this case, photo bombing property marketing materials, with his tale intact.