Grandchildren at Whitby

We took a week at Whitby partly trying to tie down all the things which need doing and partly to entertain Frances and the kids for a couple of days. Frances came up by train and we met in Scarborough. Martin is on holiday so was able to be with us most days. Lindsey is full of ideas and advice about fulfilling our holiday let ambitions. In fact Lindsey will be our day to day agent .

Already she is full of details and is preparing our web site. She now has the experience of a year letting out the cottage attached to their house at Fylingthorpe. This has been quite successful and has whetted their appetite for more. Whitby may be more of a challenge because of the scale of the completion. We have learned that of six flats in our house only one will occupied full time. Four of the others will be holiday lets with us as the fifth. We also met a neighbour in a small cottage( subdivided from a large house ) who is also similar to ourselves occupying sometimes, letting sometimes.

Having Frances , Alice and Ben to stay.did mean we spent some holiday time. Bizzarely Ben knows about “knock, knock” jokes without understanding they need a joke. So he comes out with some quite surreal variants. As Frances says he understands the structure without understanding the joke part. One day they went to the play area in nearby Pannett park and then to watch the new J K Rowling movie. On another we walked to the beach at Robin Hoods Bay and then Frances inspected the much changed house at Fylingthorpe which she hadn’t seen before followed by a fish and chip meal back at our flat.

Ellen came for a sleepover with her cousins. It is easy to see that Ellen will be a handful in later life. Miffed that she had a plastic beaker instead of a glass like Alex she went and swapped on the table. Anticipating protests she then put a reserved notice on her plate. I have to admire her nerve. I’ve always found Ellen, who can be quite charming when she wants to be, very amusing. Although very self confident within the family I’m told she is quiet at school.

Martin and Lindsey are quite knowledgeable about rock pool life and are in a project to assess certain properties. Martin collected samples of rock pool life during our walk on beach at Robin Hoods Bay. These he used to demonstrate to the children the different types, mainly crabs but a couple of small fish and a ragworm. I had never seen a hermit crab before as it tucked itself into a discarded shell it had found.

The beach around this area is famous for jet, fossilised monkey puzzle tree, which is used in jewellery. There must be a dozen shops in Whitby making and selling items made from jet. It is very difficult to spot particularly against the amount of coal and black stones on the beaches. Even side by side it can be difficult to tell them apart.  Jet is quite valuable and much sought after. Jet is a very slightly browner shade of black , takes a fine polish and is less dense. Lindsey is developing an eye for spotting jet and she has some success.

We have found problems with various traffic jams when we have travelled before. This time our journeys were straightforward except for occasional roadworks. These along the Yorkshire A roads were no problem. Past experience has shown that the A64 just beyond York can be a problem. There is a long stretch of single carriage way connecting two stretches of dual carriageway which is very busy with awkward junctions  and can be a severe problem. The A64 York to Scarborough road is strange but we have learned to follow patiently waiting for the patches of dual carriageway.