#TheGallery Black and White

Once again Tara has given me a wonderful excuse to share some pictures with you that I fully intended to blog earlier but never quite got around to it...
This weeks theme is Black and White.
I LOVE black and white photographs!
The absence of colour to distract the eye brings details out to the fore and lends itself particularly well to architectural images.
Whilst on holiday in Yorkshire recently, we visited the magnificent ruins of Whitby Abbey. The weather was, well, changeable. Wet and windy when we arrived, clearing to warm sunshine by the time we had made our way back to the entrance and the welcome presence of a vintage land rover based ice-cream van. Of course, the plus side of the dodgy weather was that the exposed abbey was almost deserted when we got there which made getting some atmospheric (ie: not full of tourists!) shots much easier!
So here is a selection from my Whitby Abbey photo album. In black and white.

Hope you enjoyed this selection - there are more black and white and colour photographs from our Whitby trip to see on the Tales from Mount Pleasant Facebook page (including the aforementioned vintage ice-cream van!)
And don't forget to head over to Tara's blog to see all the other Gallery entries this week.

Holiday - Scarborough

We headed into Scarborough fairly early on Tuesday morning - partly coz we had all been up since 6:30 (thanks Little Man) and partly coz the weather forecast was not promising and mentioned rain moving in by lunchtime.

The Little Man couldn't wait to get back on the beach and, despite the nippy air headed straight for the sea!

 Wave jumping... you really should try it!

 The Little Man absolutely LOVED the gulls but they weren't to keen on him (at least not until he starting feeding them chips at lunchtime...)

 Young gull not yet with it's adult plummage but still an impressive wingspan!

After lunch of Harry Ramsden's cod and chips on the beach (in the rain...the British sure know how to holiday!) we headed up to the castle on the promontory. The view from the ramparts is pretty impressive, over looking the harbour...

...and it's flotilla of little boats.

 The castle walls snake along the finger of land that juts out into the sea, enclosing the long, thin promontary with impressive stonework. On the seaward sides it was protected by steep cliffs.

 The castle keep itself sits on top of the hill looking dark and brooding as storm clouds brewed...

 There was plenty here to keep the adventurous amused...

The Little Man contemplates the 150 ft well in the inner bailey... that's a long way down!

Scarborough Castle was a fabulous place to visit, well kept with plenty to keep everyone occupied. If you do visit, accept the free audio tour gadget at the entrance - it's a really good way to learn more about the history of the different parts of the castle and the events that occured there. There were a couple of school parties there when we visited but otherwise it was not busy. At less than a fiver for adults and free for the Little Man as he is under 5 I felt it was excellent value for money - but beware the only parking is down the hill from the entrance and the walk up is VERY steep!!

If you want to see more pictures from our day at Scarborough, including some incredibly atmospheric black and white shots please visit the Tales from Mount Pleasant Facebook page.

07/08/11 This post has been added to the Show Off showcase - to give those who missed it the first time round a chnace to see it again. Why not pop along and have a look at all the other Holiday themed posts getting a second airing. Just click on the badge.