Whitby the historic sea front town

On Saturday I celebrated my birthday in Whitby, the historic, picturesque sea front town in North Yorkshire. The harbour splits the town into two parts, with the older located on the East bank. Whitby has old houses, narrow cobblestone streets from mediaeval times, beautiful shopfronts, colourful doors, taverns, cafés, sandy beaches and cliffs, not to mention the famous ruins of the Whitby Abbey, the gothic church on top of the East Cliff.

Whitby is probably familiar to those who have read the Gothic horror classic Dracula by Bram Stoker. Count Dracula is shipwrecked off the Whitby coast and comes ashore disguised as a black dog, and then the "fun" begins! After having been to Whitby I must say that it is the perfect setting for the tale.

The marina in Whitby and in the background the North York Moors National Park

The view from the 199 steps in all directions is simply breathtaking. When you look over the old red rooftops it feels as if you have travelled back in time or have entered a fairy tale. I can recommend entering the town from the steps, which have an adjoining donkey track (there is parking on the East Cliff by the Whitby Abbey ruins). When you walk down the steps you step right into Church Street (see my images below), a charming narrow cobblestone street, where you will find all kinds of wonderful shops, inns and cafés.

Everywhere you look there is something to photograph but on Saturday the town was packed with people, which made it difficult to snap photos. We drove to Whitby and on the way into town you have to pass the North York Moors National Park, which has a beautiful landscape.

Marie Antoinette's Patisserie in Church Street

There was only one thing I spotted in Whitby that bothered me (not for the first time). As we were walking in Church Street I saw the sign of Marie Antoinette's Patisserie with the phrase 'let them eat cake'. It's a phrase commonly misattributed to the Queen. She was supposed to have said it upon learning that the peasants couldn't afford bread. The fact is she never uttered these words; it was just French Revolution propaganda. It so happens that in my bag I had my copy of Must You Go?: My Life with Harold Pinter by Antonia Fraser (an early birthday present). A few years back I read Fraser's biography Marie Antoinette: The Journey, where she corrects the 'let them eat cake' story and I think it's my duty to do so too, in case you spot the quote in my photo of the sign.

I took some photos of the Whitby Abbey, which I might share later. As I said earlier, there were so many people in Whitby that day that made it difficult to take photos. This trip was also a pleasure trip for the family and I wanted to spare them; it's no fun continually having to stop walking while someone is photographing. The idea is to return to Whitby on a weekday and go for a stroll with the camera while they relax on the beach.

Peonies and V&A Indian floral patterns

At some point I scribbled down in my notebook that the Chinese name for a peony is sho yu, which means the most beautiful. What a fitting name! In Iceland, where I grew up, peonies are called farmer's roses - bóndarósir. Perhaps a blog post about peonies is a cliché but last year I accompanied them with a book on textiles and I thought textiles and peonies were a good annual theme. The latest textile book in my collection is V&A Pattern: Indian Florals.

On the cover: Length of furnishing fabric, cotton embroidered with silk thread, Gujurat
(for the European market), early 18th century

The V&A Pattern: Indian Florals is a small book with only four pages of text by Rosemary Crill. It has 66 pages of prints, plus the one featured on the cover and a few additional ones (a total of 71). There are short descriptions below the prints (like my captions) and the book includes a high-resolution images disc with all the patterns.

Bed-cover, dyed and quilted cotton (chintz), Coromandel Coast
(for the European market), c. 1725-50

Length of dress fabric, block-printed cotton (chintz), South India
(for the European market), 18th century

The V&A Pattern books are a wonderful introduction to the design archives - textiles, decorations, wallpapers and prints - of the Victoria and Albert Museum. For textile enthusiasts or students they are ideal for collecting. Next time I think I will go for Kimono or William Morris, or perhaps the Box-Set III, which includes the books: Spitalfields Silks, Chinese Textiles, Pop Patterns, and Walter Crane.

I find it a bit difficult to make up my mind, but the books aren't expensive so I believe that in a short time I will have a good collection on my coffee table and on my bookshelves.

As I write this, my last bouquet of peonies this season is sitting in a white ceramic vase on my kitchen table. I am going to risk sounding dramatic (I'm anything but) when I say that I wish I had the powers to stop the peonies from withering. I don't want to wait for almost a whole year to breathe in their heavenly scent again.

Peonies are indeed the most beautiful.

Kember & Jones deli café in Glasgow

Yesterday we took a trip to the Scottish city of Glasgow and I fell head-over-heels in love with its West End district. Somewhere in the heart of this beautiful and laid-back district, with cafés and restaurants on every corner, I turned to my husband and asked him: Where has this city been all my life? At 134 Byres Road we found Kember & Jones deli café and when I opened the door I was home. We got a table upstairs with view over the ground floor where we took in the wonderful atmosphere of this place.

I never write any of those 'my week in Instagram' posts on my blog (sorry folks, I find them pointless) but when I took the camera out of my bag to snap photos of the West End district to share on the blog, I realised that I had left the battery in the charger at home ... duh! Luckily my husband had his phone with him so I was able to snap these two at Kember & Jones and share them on Instagram. This only means that I have to return to Glasgow one day.

Back to the café. Personally, I cannot stand it when my latte is served in a large glass. Dazzled by the café's rustic interior style, I forgot to ask how they served it at Kember & Jones and it arrived in a medium-sized, vintage-looking glass, which didn't bother my latte-soul at all. More importantly, it was good! I ordered a sandwich from their menu with roasted vegetables, hummus, spinach and harissa chilli dressing, with beans and salad on the side, and it was heavenly. When I thought this café couldn't enchant me anymore I found pretty much all the cookbooks on my wish list on display on the ground floor (Sunday Suppers by Karen Mordechai and A Kitchen in France: A Year of Cooking in My Farmhouse by Mimi Thorisson, just to name a few, and I added to it The River Cafe Classic Italian Cookbook by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers). This café is simply a charmer.

As a final note, let me just say that if you ever travel to Glasgow or have a stop-over, don't make the mistake of staying only one day. I could spend days in the West End district alone. In fact, I think I could spend days just enjoying the cafés, restaurants and scenery on Byres Road.