Hallowe'en Pumpkins

Who doesn't love an indoor market, or a bunch of bright pumpkins? I took the road to a nearby church today, hoping to find some fabulous stained glass windows, but it was closed. I waited for the charity shop to open, bought a load of random items (a toast rack to help me display gift wrap on my stall, for example), then walked down the hill into town. This seemed to take hours, but I did visit several shops. By the time I discovered a sign saying Market, I was weary. And what a spacious purpose-built market hall it turned out to be! I bought a hot chocolate from a cafe upstairs so I could look down from the gallery, and picked up a bunch of tourist leaflets so I could try planning ahead for tomorrow (Whitby). In a beautiful shop, Preen, I bought a soft starry reversible patterned scarf for myself. I also got some more Christmas shopping done.

As I went down the Lifeboat Steps, the scent of fried onions assailed my nostrils, and the screech of seagulls grew louder. It seemed I'd finally arrived at sea level. Traffic trickled along the front, barely moving. Recent October coastal holidays have all had their own signature: Fife's East Neuk in 2017 was quaint and charming. Tenby in 2018 was exhilarating. Bude in 2019 was geographically puzzling. Ilfracombe in 2020 was wild, with 12-ft waves. Scarborough today was more of a bucket and spade and slot-machine resort than any of the above. I haven't quite worked out what its individual character is.

Back along the South Bay I went, intending to eat at the Clock House cafe at the far end. To my great surprise, they only took cash, and I didn't have much on me, so I sat on a bench facing the sea and ate a sandwich I'd only had since yesterday! Then I hauled myself up the cliff by a series of winding paths, made a cup of tea for myself at the hotel and went out to the church again. This time St Martin-on-the-hill was open, and I was able to view the stained glass windows by William Morris, Ford Madox-Brown, Dante Gabriel Rossetti et al, but my favourite was the musical angels on the organ screen (?) by Spencer Stanhope. One of them is playing the bagpipes. Quite right! See it in extras, below.

The weather grew cold while I was in the church, and the 'confiserie', aka sweet shop that I wanted to stick my head into, had closed early. I headed back to the hotel again. I had already done over 14,000 steps, and my boss kept pinging us about the arrangements for next week. Three of our team of colleagues now have CoVid. Sigh. Monday will be deep cleaning day. WhatsApp groups can be a nuisance sometimes.