Ravenscar...

It’s years since I last took the cul-de-sac to Ravenscar. It was planned to be a holiday resort to rival Scarborough, a few miles to the south. Roads were laid out, sewers were dug and a few houses were built. Plots were put up for sale, but, since Ravenscar sits at the top of a cliff, with a long climb down to the rocky beach, nobody wanted to buy.

The Raven Hall Hotel still sits on the headland, with great views north to Robin Hoods Bay. It’s a somnolent sort of place, where the unspoken promise to guests is that nothing ever happens here and nothing ever will. The Bulgarian national football team were billeted in the Raven Hall Hotel during Euro 96, though it only took a few days for the players to request a move to another hotel because, in blighted Ravenscar, there was “nothing to do”…

Croquet at the Raven Hall Hotel...

Gull...

Maybe the gull that stole my pastry yesterday...

Robbed again...

I’ve learned nothing. I bought a pastry in Scarborough and took a bite. Even before I could regret my purchase - it was dry and tasteless - I was mugged by a herring gull: a flurry of wings and my pastry was gone (along with my dignity). Thankfully, that was the worst thing that happened to me in Scarborough, and I got loads of pix.

It’s hard to go hungry here. There’s a fish & chip shop on every corner; down on the promenade, overlooking the harbour, they are even more plentiful. But the smell of fish & chips, so appetising at most times of the year, holds little appeal on a hot day in August… though that didn’t stop visitors queuing up for a take-away. I had a pint of lager shandy instead, and a sit-down in the cool shade of an unpopular pub…

So we're buying and selling babies now? Stop the world, I want to get off...

Bempton Cliffs

Spent the morning at Bempton Cliffs, an RSPB reserve. There were thousands of gannets still nesting on the limestone cliffs. It takes a few weeks for the young gannets - known as ‘gugas’ - to take flight. I saw them, perched on their tiny ledges, exercising their wings. It’s amazing how they keep their footing; with one wrong move, or a sudden gust of wind, they would plunge headlong into the sea… where they’d be prey for marauding skuas.

According to an information panel, the head of a gannet is “sunshine yellow”. Hmmm, I’d say the colour is more like the nicotine-stained fingers of a heavy smoker. The gannets share the cliffs with smaller numbers of fulmars, kittiwakes and herring gulls. The fulmars fly on stiff wings, with barely a wingbeat and, seemingly, the minimum of effort. Superficially, they may look like gulls, though they’re actually related to albatrosses…

Viewing platform, Bempton Cliffs...

Wedding...

West Yorkshire I know pretty well, North Yorkshire too. I’m on less sure ground in the south and east of the county, which means that I can still find many places that I’ve not visited before. I took photos yesterday at Burton Agnes Hall, a rather fine Elizabethan house, near Driffield, then at Sewerby Hall, near Bridlington, where I caught a wedding in progress. Bride and groom, family and friends, were all dressed up for the status-enhancing occasion. I’m no great fan of weddings, but, looking on the bright side, at least it wasn’t mine… 

Nuptuals at Sewerby Hall...

Burton Agnes Hall...

Beverley...

St Mary's church and a conveniently sited curry take-away...

Twiddling my thumbs...

I’m parked up by the marina in Hull, as the rain is tip-tapping on the roof. I’d planned to take more pix of Hull today, but will have to settle for plan B. I’m surprised, after two years ‘on the road’, that boredom isn’t more of a problem. With TV now a distant memory, I don’t have the most obvious remedy to hand: no list of channels to scroll through, no inane programmes to distract me from the existential void. I don’t even have the distraction of housework to keep idle hands from mischief (though the vehicle could do with a tidy-up). The existential void ain’t so bad, really…

Oliver Burkeman has some interesting thoughts about 'doing nothing'.

The evocative ruins of Guisborough Priory...