Quarter of a large ammonite on a beach

Posted on November 13, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged ammonite, ancient fossil, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2121, Holiday, North East Yorkshire, Whitby2 Comments

What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever found (and kept)?

The blue lias cliffs near Whitby in North East Yorkshire are full of fossils. The cliffs are very crumbly and made of a grey clay peppered with rocks and stones and things like Whitby Jet (fossilised Monkey Puzzle Tree).

One year we were on holiday and decided to walk along the pebbly beach. But parts of the cliffs had crumbled following winter storms and the debris was about 10 foot high and had fallen in large piles onto the stone and rock below.

On the first pile slightly embedded in the clay was a large rock about a12 to 18 inches across. It was roughly the size of a large quarter of a pie, and on its surface was the ribbed outline of a large ammonite.

We hid it under a bush and headed along the beach over the temporary headlands of clay. Walking up and over the landslips we managed to go about half a mile when we decided to climb up onto the coastal path because the tide was coming in!

I was quite scared, I’m not a climber, and as I looked down into the cracked surface I could see down into the interior of the material. Some cracks went all the way down to the beach. But I slowly got up the the top and then we walked back.

We found the ammonite again undisturbed. I took it home. I have other fossils but this is my favourite.

Music and memory

Posted on July 20, 2025July 20, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Learning, Life, Memories, Music, Scarborough, Singing, Whitby, Words, YorkshireLeave a comment

A song I love. We are re-learning this soon, I’m used to the unison version, but this has harmonies. I don’t read music well. But we will learn it by repetition and copying.

I love the Simon and Garfunkle version.

I’ve been to Scarborough and it’s an old Victorian resort and fishing town although the majority of it’s trade is mainly tourism these days. It is South of Whitby in Yorkshire. As you come down towards it from the North you can see it’s castle standing on the headland. There is a north and south bay on either side of the castle. The town is mainly old Victorian terraces which are 3 or 4 storey and either hotels or bed and breakfast properties.

We stayed outside the town in a caravan site. There are plenty of places to visit, like an old museum set back from the coast which has information about the local geology amongst other things. A lovely park that feels sub tropical and I think I remember a car and motorbike racing circuit at a place called Olivers Mount.

Strikes

Posted on May 1, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, ammonite, Art, Drawing, Felt pens, Fossils, Fun, hammer, hit, Lyme Regis, Sketching, split, strike, strikes, WhitbyLeave a comment

Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was strikes. Here I am again with a sideways idea. Strike a rock with a hammer and you might find an ammonite or another fossil within it. I have been to Lyme Regis and cliffs near Whitby and found fossils there…

Stairs

Posted on September 4, 2022September 4, 2022 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, 199 steps, Bay, Bram Stoker, Dracula, harbour, History, Life, North Yorkshire, Steps, View, Whitby, Whitby AbbeyLeave a comment

Look up Whitby steps on the Internet and you find out there are 199 steps from the town up to Whitby Abbey at the top. Dracula by Bram Stoker was set there. The town has many tourists visiting because of this. There is also a history of jewellery making in the town because it is the home of Whitby Jet. This is a black, fossilised substance that was originally ancient monkey puzzle trees. The steps or stairs offer a spectacular view down over the harbour and bay.

For #bandofsketchers prompt today ‘stairs’

Yorkshire Poster

Posted on January 22, 2020January 22, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Blue lias, Fossils, Interesting, Life, Moors, North Yorkshire moors railway, Pickering, Poster, Steam trains, Trains, Trees, Whitby, YorkshireLeave a comment

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My hubby came home today with this print of North Eastern Railways ‘the Yorkshire Moors’…. Tranquil solitude. What is interesting is its a railway poster, with no railway visible!

Yorkshire is the largest county in England. It is home of the National Railway museum in York and is crossed by the North Yorkshire moors railway which runs through wooded hills and moors from Whitby on the coast to Pickering in the heart of the moors.

All of the East coast of the county is interesting. There are towns like Scarborough there. A lot of the coast is not very stable. There are cliffs where landslides occur and parts made of mud, called blue lias which is crumbling and full of fossils. You can find Whitby jet in it which is fossilised monkey puzzle trees which is jet black.

Whitby Abbey was a setting for the Dracula story and every year they have goth and steam punk festivals there.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Whitby