It's been a dramatic and tough week in my world. An editor's life in multi-media days of the 21st century always is busy and stretching – but an arsonist's strike added an extra and frightening dimension.

More of the fire-raiser shortly – but in best 'cup half full' tradition I'll ping straight to moments of joy and inspiration from the columns of our EDP and stories from its Norfolk heartland. I spent a few days on the great county's rivers and broads recently and started to flip through my pictures... How could I have forgotten Mr Swan? I was at the helm of our Wroxham based cruiser when noise caught my ears and rapid movement attracted my eye. It was a male mute swan taking off noisily, flapping and paddling the water to get airborne, the waters of the River Bure his runway. A sight I shall treasure forever – but I forgot I had managed to grab a picture. I found it this week and wanted to share... a graceful moment indeed.

The wildlife of Norfolk never ceases to amaze me, from otters gorging themselves on fish at Thetford, to seals slumbering around the county's coastline and naughty gulls at Yarmouth. For just a few minutes on Wednesday, I stopped at Great Ryburgh and marvelled at the crystal clear waters of the upper Wensum. What a wonderland greensward county we have, if only we reach out to it, protect it, and walk amongst it. Great stories continue to inspire us –the Good Morning America TV show called me midweek and asked for our front page on Beetley couple Ron and Eileen Everest who have enjoyed a whole lifetime of friendship, love and partnership. We broke that story as an exclusive and put it on our front page – soon it went national and international. My thought was this: Would anyone else have found it if had we buried it inside? I think our outlook on 'inspiration' was the reason the others copied. Ron, Eileen and the EDP inspired the world!

Three other stories took me to a special place. I loved Matt Usher's great pictures and Kathryn Cross's spine-tingling words on Jessica Lawrence, four, who now has a trampoline to bounce on as she remembers her soldier daddy, killed in Afghanistan. Bill Smith took a great picture of Dame Judi Dench when she visited Norwich School and ex-EDP deputy editor James Ruddy today reminds us all of the great efforts EDP readers made on behalf of delightful Tenneh Cole. But part of the news this week was the inferno I photographed after attending a meeting with Archant colleagues in Suffolk. I was on hand to take pictures and video of a barn burning to the ground after an arson strike. Norfolk and Suffolk officers have mounted a major inquiry and I wish them well.

When dreadful events like this happen nowhere shows a great sense of community and togetherness like East Anglia. In the way we work together, from campaigning to appeals, in the way we publish inspiring stories in the EDP, we are helping to maintain Norfolk, Suffolk and east Cambridgeshire as such brilliant places to live for our elder kinfolk, for ourselves, our children and their children.

Have a restful weekend – I'll be back here for more meanderings next week.

Follow me on twitter @Nigel_Pickover

First published June 22, 2013