Here come the day trippers

April:  At last the sun has come out, the grass is growing & the sky is blue whilst  Easter has come & gone like a politician chasing a floating voter. I think therefore, it is fairly safe to say, the 'Season' is upon us.  The season that sees empty country roads reduced to a snaking crawl of nose to tail traffic, the season that finds all roads lead to the coast, the season that sees our ice cream vans trundling up and down the Yorkshire Coast restocking beach side kiosks, farm shops, gardens & tourist attractions. 

Yes, we have survived Easter, the Caravan Club 5 pitch certified site was, well to be blunt about it, more akin to a swamp than beautifully manicured lawns.  Thanks to the pretty aweful winter weather consisting of snow & rain, the ground was, & up until just now, been well & truly water-logged. The forecast for the Bank Holiday was, as is so often the case, broadcasting heavy rain.  Did we get this? No.  I do get so very angry when l hear the BBC weatherman telling us that 'this weekend the weather is not going to be good........' and then we get sunshine.  We got sunshine for the Easter break.  Caravans who had parked on the winter hard standing pitches fearing the worse,were able to move onto the gravel trackway in the rally field. 

So what about the ice cream parlour? Well, it was MANIC, so very, very busy.  All the staff managed really well.  Coffees, ice cream sundaes, cakes & lunches being served with not to long a wait for the customers.  We have remained busy all through last week, customer numbers being similar to those of August.  We were not alone in being hyper-busy, our customers based along the coast have had a similar experience, Hippy Shake at Whitby sold out of ice cream as did the Beach Hut in Sandsend. This is unheard of at this time of year.  Sunday we had the car park filled with the rumble of 32 Mazda MX5, c/o the Yorkshire Ridings MX5 Club. 

So as l come to my closing paragraph, what happens next & where are  we heading to? Well for a start,Tesco [Yorkshire] have had their first delivery of our more unusual flavours which, according to the data, are flying out as fast as the stuff goes into the freezer, so that's pretty encouraging news, must be doing something right, whilst on the farm we are trying to fit in fencing so that the heifers, which are coming over from the farm at Harpham, wont go for a leaisurely stroll along the cliff top! So have l forgotten anything? Hmn, the new investment is a very large white board sat beside me, on which all this week's deliveries are written up on in bright red plus things that are happening or need chasing up or what time is tea.And so on that note, l can hear the kettle boiling away on the aga so had better go and pour some hot water into the tea pot and pass around some cups of Yorkshire Tea.

Distruction at Withow Gap

This morning should have been a lovely one, the sun was shining, clear blue skies that in this part of the world seem to go on for ever until disappearing into the distant horizon. Dogs frolicking about, chasing rabbits and searching out for anything dead that might just prove to be one more delicious Scooby snack.
This week the tides are out during the morning, right out past the old rusting supports from some pre-war jetty, miles of pristine sand, interrupted only by the concrete tank traps and pill boxes left insitu since WWII. The tank traps, slowly being eroded by the action of the North Sea, are gradually being colonised by barnacles, mussels and seaweed, sometimes totally exposed by the action of the sea, other times covered by sand. These important 20th Century bits of modern archaeology have proved a really useful asset to protect the SSSI, which is Withow Gap, from rapid coastal erosion it has also provided a good anchorage point to prevent the currents removing sand from this stretch of beach, perhaps though for several generations of children, these concrete outposts have been an impromptu table or chair for that high summer picnic.


It was therefore with some sense of outrage, and thank the gods l had my camera with me, that today the large concrete lumps have been wrenched from their resting place of 60 years, torn from the beach and dragged off a mile up the beach to Ulrome where someone, [who l have no idea], although someone mentioned 'environment agency ' & another a' caravan park owner' was taking these 'unwanted' and 'free rocks' to reinforce their cliff base to prevent or slow down erosion further up the bay. I believe that this may well be an illegal operation and most certainly is plain wanton vandalism!