Wonderful Whitby

The River Esk flows all the way into Whitby alongside the railway, so you witness the river's joyful arrival. The bubbling waters become more stately and  the gulls swoop and glide calling out in welcome as the river widens and then majestically joins the sea.

You can see at once how hard the river has worked to create a steep sided valley and on the top of the far side are the magnificent ruins of Whitby abbey, a Benedictine abbey founded in 651 AD. Whitby was called Streonshalh (Streanæshalch), then, and it was in those days (664 AD) that an important synod took place there, when that King Oswiu of Northumbria ruled that his kingdom would calculate Easter and observe the monastic tonsure according to the customs of Rome, rather than the customs practised by Irish monks at Iona.

As you step outside the station you feel ten years old again. It is like entering a child's story book. Dotted about on the water there is an amazing variety of sea craft. Rowing boats, tug boats, pirate ships, fishing boats, all jostling for attention and inviting you to take a trip around the bay.

Anyone who grew up before the arrival of package holidays will feel they have stepped back in time as all around are the well-loved attractions of an English sea side resort, amusement arcades with their lights flashing and enticing you to get rid of your spare cash, fortune tellers inviting you to sort your life out, sticks of rock in old fashioned sweet shops to take home for friends, tea rooms, souvenir shops, lovely cottages to rent, beaches to romp on when the tide is out, and all the time the swooping and the calling of the gulls.

We crossed the swing bridge enthralled by all the activity of the boats on the estuary below and on through pretty, narrow streets towards the steps that lead up to the abbey.

It's then that you start to wish you were hungry and hadn't had so much breakfast because here they make the very best fish and chips in the world . Relish in the sight of everyone sitting in the sun, holding their fish and chips parcels with reverence, licking the salt off their fingers, their faces with a blissful expression.
Simple pleasures are so precious, fish and chips in the sun by the sea in Whitby.

Hold on though maybe we can fit in a cup of coffee and a scone, and maybe jam and cream too. Then we can discuss whether it is better to put on the jam or the cream first and we have to have two so we can decide...

Luckily we are about to embark on a climb up to the abbey to work off the scones.

There are one hundred and ninety-nine steps and you might hear the swish of a long Victorian gentlewoman's skirt, or the heavy stomp of a Norman soldier as you pant your way to the top. Here the view is breathtaking. Fill your lungs with the sea air and scan the horizon.

The view as you start to climb the 199 steps

At the top of the steps is a church called St. Mary's and it's worth a look round. Again you are aware of history, of the past, of all the people who have sat and admired the view and found inspiration in the words that were spoken in the church. The wife of one of the Victorian preachers was deaf but so keen to hear her husband's sermons that she had enormous hearing aids that look like trumpets and are still hanging there today.

Even on a sunny day it is not hard to imagine that Bram Stoker found his inspiration for his novel 'Dracula' here. This is where he is meant to have met Lucy. For the brave there are spooky tours and Dracula walks.

After exploring the abbey ruins it is time to walk back down away from the wind.

On the other side of the town, across the estuary of the River Esk, is a monument to Captain James Cook. He was born in Middlesborough in 1728 and when he was 17 he went to Whitby to join the Navy.
In 1769 Capt.Cook was chosen as commander of the ship HMS Endeavour and sent to observe the planet Venus pass in front of the sun in the southern hemisphere in Tahiti. He then went on to discover New South Wales. Around the foot of the monument is an inscription from the people of Australia thanking him for founding their nation.

Near Captain Cook's monument are two enormous whale rib bones because Whitby used to be a whaling station.

Whitby isn't very big, you can walk around it quite easily but the depth and variety of its' history is astounding. Dracula, the discovery of Australia, Whitby abbey, Celts, Anglo Saxons, Normans, have all trod here. Oh yes and Lewis Carroll found inspiration here to write 'The Walrus and the Carpenter'. There is a feeling of past, present and future, of people enjoying life and loving their town and happy to live here.

There are many shops selling jewellery made from jet, which is similar to coal but much harder and can be made into shiny stones and beads. Crystals and minerals have been used for healing and protection from primitive times, the Romans used them extensively and believed in their properties.

The jet in Whitby might not seem very appealing, being black and among all the spooky stuff about Dracula and Halloween but it is considered to be a stone of protection that carries wonderful healing properties. Carry some jet around in your pocket to ward off negativity and protect you.

Certainly after our day in Whitby I felt very positive and renewed, maybe it was the sea air, the wonderful friends, the momentary glimpse into the intriguing history of this lovely sea side town, the scones and cream and maybe all the minerals in the earth do radiate positive energy too.

The estuary of the River Esk and the coastline

The Victorian development of Whitby

Captain Cook

The view of the abbey from the Capt. Cook monument

Whale bones

Snowmen Biscuits, get ready for Winter

When I saw a recipe for  Snowman biscuits I couldn't wait to make them with my grandchildren. They are such a delight wearing their aprons, rolling away with their rolling pins with intense expressions on their faces. So off I went to buy the ingredients., and  a great time was had by all. Just the thing to keep the little ones busy on a winter's afternoon.

Snowman biscuits.

For the biscuits

300g flour
130g butter, cut into pieces
50g sugar
pinch of salt
1 egg and 2 egg yolks, lightly beaten.

Heat the oven to 180

Rub the butter into the flour.
Stir in the sugar and add the egg mixture to bind.
Form a ball and put it into the fridge for 15 minutes, covered with clingfilm.
Roll the dough out and cut out about twelve rounds.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes and cool on a wire tray.

For the snowmen

white marshmallows
smarties or m and ms
icing made with white icing sugar and water to a spreading consistency.

Put the cooled biscuits on a plate and spread with a little of the icing.. Place a marshmallow on the top. Add the smarties as buttons and then draw in eyes and arms with a tube of chocolate icing.
The decorating can be done entirely by the children,  it's amazing how a two year old can colour coordinate.

Ready to go in the oven

Everything ready to make the snowmen

Let the biscuits cool before topping with icing

One is ready

Snowman family, yum

Let's go to Whitby!

Last month we went to stay with friends in Yorkshire.
 My visions of Yorkshire always seemed to be a cross between Postman Pat and Wuthering Heights.
I knew about the War of the Roses and that it's the biggest county in England and I knew my friends deeply loved their home county. I also knew that they had taken some friends on a David Hockney Tour of Yorkshire to see the landmarks made famous in his paintings. I knew they loved going to Scarborough to see plays by Alan Aykeborne, to Harrogate, to Ripon where Lewis Carroll sat in a church where rabbits were carved into the pews and found his inspiration for 'Alice in Wonderland'.
I was totally unprepared for the incredible beauty of this amazing county, for the sights that nature has gifted to the area, for the interesting and fascinating history that is all around. You are treading in the footsteps of kings, of warriors, of Vikings, Romans of great industrialists, of miners. Stories from long ago are whispered on the wind. the past, present and future are beside you all the time.

My friend had often told me of the wonderful traditions she upholds, Christmas shopping in Whitby, train rides over the moors on New Year's Day, coffee and cakes in Betty's teashop, walking along the Cleveland way, day trips to the sea, to the dales, to Castle Howard. Such were the powers of her description that part of me felt as though I'd already been there and joined in all the fun. She had been a District Nurse in the dales and in the industrial towns. She had experienced life through the eyes of Yorkshire farmers and of people on the margins of society. She has loved and cared for them all.

When my friend asked what we'd like to see in Yorkshire I asked her if we could go on the steam train that she had talked about so much and could we go to the sea. I love going to the sea, it's always magical for me. Little did I know that this journey was going to be one of the most magical of all.

We drove over the moors to the little village station. We were told that we had just missed the purple heather, that it was a spectacle to behold in August and September, but the moors looked powerful and majestic all the same.

At the little station we seemed to enter a parallel world. The station was like the one used in Harry Potter, the Hogwart's express could have arrived any minute. the waiting room and the little shop seemed  unchanged since Stephenson had invented his steam engine. grown men became boy's again as they posed in front of the engines.

We set off on the train and stopped almost immediately on a little bridge. I looked down into a beautiful, sparkling stream and saw a salmon leap. Could it be so? I thought they only did that in Ireland and Scotland. Our friends told us that we were looking at the River Esk,  I put that in a part of my brain for crossword puzzles that ask for a river with three letters. They said that indeed salmon do leap about in the River Esk, so do trout and Freshwater pearl mussels.

Believe me, going along by train in the valley of the River Esk is like entering a magical kingdom. You almost expect to see fairies and elves popping up.

The River Esk rises at the Esklets on Westerdale Moor in the North Yorkshire Moors and flows through Westerdale. It  flows through a narrow steep sided valley with the intriguing name of Crunkly Glyhll and then runs east through the valley Eskdale and into the North Sea at Whitby.  Not even Tolkien could find nicer names than these.

You can have coffee and tea on the train, and look out of the window and breathe in the charm and fascination of the places you pass. Some of the place names have unexpected pronunciation, Ruswarp is Russop, and Sleights rhymes with heights.

All the time you are aware of how people appreciate and enjoy this beautiful county, young people in canoes, older people walking along the footpath that runs parallel to the railway line, the families in the train glued to the window, the volunteers that collect the tickets just for the sheer pleasure of admiring their home county. All this and we haven't even got to Whitby yet.