Whitby, the last bit

Thursday morning I went to see John Connolly, a wonderful songwriter, with such classics as Mr Punch and Judy Man and Fiddlers Green. He did a great hour of his own songs which are a mixture of very serious, to very funny. Very enjoyable way to pass the time!


Then met friends for lunch in the Rifle Club where I had a very nice ham and pease pudding sandwich, not something you get every day! An important task then lay ahead, shopping for tea. We bought an assortment of seafood, dressed crab, dressed lobster ( a snip at £4 each!), smoked salmon, prawns, smoked mackerel..... Back to the flat to drop it off and prepare some salads, as well as a bit of what we like to call chef's privilege, aka white wine, and up to the Met to join everyone else for The Sultans of Squeeze - Chris Parkinson


And John Kirkpatrick


Two mighty squeezebox players.
Then back for the famous Whitby Seafood Salad extravaganza, washed down with fizz of course.


The fancy dress ceilidh theme was Harry Potter, and so it was time for some dressing up:


And then a walk through the streets, much to the amusement of the residents.
The ceilidh was great, and there were some studding costumes. The band, 422 came as Slytherins


Martyn Harvey and the band looked pretty good

But the best had to be Earlsden Morris who came as a variety of characters, most of them travelling in the Hogwarts Express!
 There's a video of them arriving here

Friday morning was spent walking round Whitby, and trying to get the death eater tattoo off my arm from the night before. Tried everything but ended up leaving it on.

Went to check on the Penny Hedge which had survived its three tides


And then walked up to the Church and the Abbey where you get some stunning views



And down the 199 steps, then a walk to the kipper smokery


And lunch in the Duke of York.
In the afternoon we walk out along the west pier, and even the donkeys looked tired at the end of folk week


Watched Thrales Rapper do an interesting variant on a tumble, which had Star and Shadow as well as members of the audience running underneath it


And then went to The Elsinore to watch the final parade, complete with piper and the heather covered garland being carried by Goathland Plough Stots



After pie and mash from the pie and mash shop (where else) it was off to the final ceilidh, with some fabulous dancing to Peeping Tom.
The dance spot was Star and Shadow doing a combined clog and rapper routine which began with them dancing with hankies instead of swords!



Eventually the garland was carried in


We all sang Wild Mountain Thyme,


 
got our heather, and that was it for another year.

We saw the only rain of the week on the way home, and got absolutely drenched, but we were happy!


Next morning up too early, out by 10am, and off for coffee in town and a bit of shopping. Saw the Frumptarn Guggenband from Barnsley which was a bit of a surprise. Love their new steampunk outfits!



On the way back did a short detour back to Thornton Le Dale to see the scarecrow festival. This is just a couple




Crooked Billet at Towton for lunch as usual, and home.

What a great week!


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