First off some 'exterior decor' snaps, taken up one of the many little 'yards' off the man street.
This is the sort of thing I'd love to do on my wall but it would just look stupid or cack-handed. I would choose the wrong shape or size of plant pot and then put the wrong plants in them, after which the plants would die and I wouldn't get around to clearing them out for ages. They'd be nothing but a horrible mess for 11 months out of 12. How great do these look though?
Ditto really for plants and tubs. We do have some pots, but they aren't as colourful as these. One year I may get myself sorted, especially as there's a man sorting out a little patio for us even as we speak. Or write and read, as it were.
The plaque on the house where Elizabeth Gaskell stayed with one of her daughters while she was doing some research for 'Sylvia's Lovers', and the house itself. Both house and plaque have seen better days but at least the plaque is now threre. Only thanks to the efforts of Dr J Billington, who was herself researching the Gaskell stay and was incensed to discover that a) there was no plaque and b) there was a plaque commemorating the visit of one Charles Dodgson Esq (aka Lewis Carroll) just round the corner. She says herself she's not sure if the Tourist Office quite knew what hit them the day she marched in and demanded to know why that should be so.
For some reason nthat escapes me I didn't take pictures of the truly delightful tea shop where my Gaskell friend Kate and I had tea. She had some angel cake, I think on the grounds that she can't be bothered to make it herself, and I had chocolate cake, as they had run out of scones. It was an amazing place, quite Tardis like in its dimensions, very old, quite dark, and full of bookcases and unexpected sets of steps. Great fun, and if I'm ever back in Whitby I shall attempt to find it again. Possibly before they run out of their quota of scones for the day.
Whitby is such an odd, appealing place!
ReplyDeleteIt's ever so slightly schizophrenic. I'd never really been to the bit where the Gaskells stayed before, it's at the top but on the opposite side to the Abbey.Mostly residential/B & Bs so I suppose it wasn't surprising I'd never been there, but it was like a totally different place.
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