Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside ...

Whitby in Winter. You can't beat it. The wind was howling through the double-glazing, blowing the external door open and hammering the hail against the windows. But we didn't care, because we were cozy in our cottage overlooking the harbour. On Saturday morning, I was sitting in bed looking at the waves curling over into white horses. A dark blue line crept towards the right hand harbour wall. Two minutes later, the view disappeared into a complete whiteout, punctuated by lightening. It was all over again by the time Rick came out of the shower.

Inbetween squalls, we managed to shuffle round the cobbled streets, well wrapped up. I had a wonderful time in Bobbins wool shop, which is inside an old church hall and sells Colinette yarns. I succumbed to a hank of rich purples, pinks, greens and blues which is destined to become yet another hat. I also bought a craft pack of yarns with a view to constructing something with my hand-made paper.

We attempted to look around the Abbey, but the wind was fierce enough up there to chase us back inside. No problem; they had this bench where you could put a piece of paper over a plate of lettering, rub a crayon over it and create your own manuscript. Lots of inky stamps stood near at hand to decorate the edges with. Once the six-year olds had finished hogging it, I had a great time.

Batteries should definitely be recharged, as we must have had about ten hours sleep each night. No excuse for feeling tired now.

On the way home, we visited Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It has grown another gallery space, currently showing a light installation. There was an exhibition and sale of crafts, and I found some found object sculptures which I really liked. Perhaps I've found something to do with the bits of driftwood that I picked up in Whitby - half way up the street, I might add. The tide obviously came up pretty high.

I felt overwhelmingly creative up there - partly due to looking round some of the galleries, and drooling over the oil paintings. I found myself getting my journal out and jotting down all the creative projects I could do. A list I can return to now I'm home again with all my materials around me.