Well we are off to Whitby this coming sunday, and there is a certain reluctance on my part, because it means that the family will be on the move once again. Their house is sold but stuck in a black hole of land registry and probate on the other house in Todmorden. Land registry did not come into being until the 1960s and the Todmorden house has been owned by the same family for 50 years, to release it from the hole my son-in-law got in touch with the head solicitor and then spent a whole hour on the phone going through the minutiae, so maybe something has worked. But the caravan has been bought now, three of them go off to Todmorden next week, Matilda and Ben to their new schools, and my daughter, little Lillie and the cat stay behind, (not of course forgetting Tom who won't be back to uni till October) till everything is finalised.
I shall be sad to see the old large terraced house go, 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms it housed them perfectly, we even thought of buying it not so long ago, but the slog up the hill from the town is not the most perfect of walks with the shopping......
What trips to take, I love Pickering town, the drive over the moors and then this quiet market town. Staithes or is it Robin Hood Bay in the following photos, at least in both of them you park your car at the top then walk down, to an untidy clutter of cottages that jostle for space near the cliffs. Haunted by long dead families whose only livelihood was fishing, now tourists wander their back street lanes and holidaymakers settle in the tiny cottages.
Meals out in Whitby, always chocolate cake for Lillie, as she digs in very, very slowly, and then offers the crumbs to any takers in a generous spirit. Meals with Lillie are not necessarily fraught but she can take seemingly hours to eat up, everyone disappears, someone may stay with her to keep company but there is a certain amount of exasperation at her tardiness.
I would also like to see a couple of the Cistercian Yorkshire abbeys, but they are fair bit away. I did a thesis on Wiltshire abbeys and became fascinated by their rise and fall from grace. Spent hours with the 19th century Harold Brakespear on the subject who meticulously measured them, I note he was an architect and archaeologist so that perhaps explains his passion for straight lines and plans, fell in love with Lacock Abbey and its cloisters, not forgetting the pretty village.
The Cottage -
Think I will have to face the VisitEngland lady again, to get 'starred' I do not want to be starred but it is seemingly compulsorily on the part of the agents. This VisitEngland thing is just another way of lining the pockets of government 'friends' and makes me mad... someone has devised a long list of things you must have, such as a non-burning wastepaper basket (bought this morning) for the attic, and pictures to hang on the wall. True I did dally over what I wanted, too expensive for a start, but yesterday found two perfectly good frames at a charity shop, which now hold two photos of Avebury, and cost £4 for the pair, and I like them to ;).
The Cottage -
Think I will have to face the VisitEngland lady again, to get 'starred' I do not want to be starred but it is seemingly compulsorily on the part of the agents. This VisitEngland thing is just another way of lining the pockets of government 'friends' and makes me mad... someone has devised a long list of things you must have, such as a non-burning wastepaper basket (bought this morning) for the attic, and pictures to hang on the wall. True I did dally over what I wanted, too expensive for a start, but yesterday found two perfectly good frames at a charity shop, which now hold two photos of Avebury, and cost £4 for the pair, and I like them to ;).
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| Cannot find Staithes but bleak seas are part of Whitby's charms |
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| Just love this bad tempered undertaker and his gorgeous horses, the wind was blowing so strongly they jumped around nervously |
Am I reading this correctly Thelma - are you going to be living in Whitby or is it your family? If it is you then we might be able to meet up some time in the future.
ReplyDeleteNot quite, my daughter and her family are departing to Todmorden, we have a small cottage in Whitby, down Flowergate way, which we go to occasionally, basically to be with them but is also let out. But it would be lovely to see you sometime and we are going from sunday to sunday next week. Where we are going to live in the future is up in the air, Whitby was a possibility until they decided to move.
DeleteSorry if it was not clear but this small cottage, has, over two years taken a lot of work to make it habitable, my son-in-law, and the builders of course, updated it, furniture was a nightmare to find when you live in Chelmsford a couple of hundred miles away and had to be taken to pieces to get up the steep stairs. So am not parting with it for couple of years everyone has put so much effort into it....
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