Sandsend Beach

It was wet on and off today but we were still able to make the most of it . Fuelled by a coffee at Runswick we walked back and forth along the beach and up the little maze of alleyways amongst the cottages perched on its hill .
After a picnic with a view we went into Whitby to visit the Museum in Pannett Park . We had tickets still in date from last year and it really is the gift which keeps on giving - always something different to take one’s eye . We studied the paintings by the Staithes Group of artists as we went in but I’m always interested in the anthropological exhibits such as the ‘dead hand ‘ which superstition believed would aid burglars intent on incapacitating their victims . The one in the museum was found in a cottage at Danby . They were cut from the hand of someone who had been hanged !
Later, we walked along the beach at Sandsend where the light was dramatic after the rain had stopped. There were lots of sanderlings flitting along the edge of the shore as we walked . They almost seemed to be chasing the waves .