Help yourself

Last week we went to the Yorkshire coast for a few days, and stayed in Staithes, a little fishing village.  We rented a tiny cottage for two nights - it's one of the buildings towards the right of the photo.  Our bedroom on the 2nd floor overlooked the harbour.

Staithes is a very attractive place - there are high cliffs all along that part of the coast, so the fishing villages grew up where streams cut steep valleys down to the sea.  There was not much space to build, so the houses are close together, with narrow alleys winding between them.  At night, it is really quiet (though not in summer when there are lots of gulls around, we were told) - there is no public parking in the old part of the village, and no through road, so hardly any cars come down to the harbour.  All you can hear is the sea.

The owner of the cottage is a craftsperson, and there are beautiful carved and painted wooden fish and birds around the place that we think are her work.  She is a knitter too, and had left a basket full of yarn and a bundle of needles, with a note in the visitors' book saying "If anyone feels like knitting, please help yourself to wool from the basket."   I had my own knitting with me, but that was such a friendly and welcoming offer. Knitters are so nice!