Scarborough...

...at its most beautiful in sparkling winter sunshine.

St Peter's is a fine church and there were a large number of people at weekday Mass - so many, in fact, that I thought it was some sort  of a special day...but no, it was just the normal nmber for a Thursday morning. Fr William Massie is a hard-working and cheery priest and we were soon busy  on a couple of projects for the FAITH Movement...this involved a lot of  checking things on the internet. The splendid 19th century Rectory is a fine building of four storeys and thick walls but the latter poses some problems for internet access when you are on the higher storeys, so I sat on the comfortable thickly-carpeted staircase where all worked well.

While Fr went off on various home-Communion visits, I took letters to post and enjoyed the sands and sea. The sun was glittering so sharply on the gleaming silver of the water that it hurt the eyes - I had to walk with the light behind me, heading out around those glorious cliffs topped with the fortifications... here the sea was blue'grey, cold and swooshing, and along the Parade the seaside-in-winter feeling was in full force, the  sellers of ice-cream and local seafood all  closed up...but there was delicious coffee and shortbread at a friendly  coffee-shop and people sitting in the sunshine.  A group of workmen in blue overalls had been busy with enormous rebuilding projects further along the shore and were tucking into a large fry-ups. It was lovely. I sat tackling some letters and enjoyed the latest Scott Hahn (called, with an agreeable nod to the fitness of things  Consuming the Word).  

An evening train to Leeds. The White Rise eaterie at the station is one of many places where you can get good food, and it had the irreistible offer of eggs-on-toast and freshly brewed coffee  between 5 and 6pm at a special price. Delicious.

Lecture on St John Paul the Great. This took place at Holy Trinity Church in the city centre, a fine building with wonderful monuments to local worthies, solid pews, and good accoustics. The shopping centre is named in honour of the Trinity too, which gives a pleasing irony to the splendid gothic Unitarian Church which stands at its entrance.