Iris is having an artistic moment.

Looks like Storm Dennis has abated enough that the kite surfers are heading out again.

The girls appear unimpressed by my efforts to get them to go for a walk in the face of Storm Dennis

A new town, alone and on foot

Martin Belam, on the joys of travelling to see his team play an away game:

I also think there’s something useful socially about travelling around the country more. To get out of your normal locale. To see people and places you don’t normally see. To experience a miserable afternoon in Aldershot and feel the way it has been neglected, or the way Northampton’s town centre has been hollowed out in favour of an out of town retail park you couldn’t possibly entertain going to without a car, to see that Cheltenham looks lovely and there’s more to it than horses. To mind boggle about the drugs that council town planners must have been on at some points in the seventies.

20 years ago I had a wonderful job. I got to spend one or two days a week travelling to a different part of the country, and profile the property markets there. Like Martin, I always took the time to enjoy a little of the town itself, to explore the residential areas, and the town centre. It was even more interesting when I could stay overnight.

I regret that it was in the pre-digital camera, pre-blogging (for me, at least) era, because I have very little record of those experiences. Martin’s post made me achingly nostalgic for those trips - and makes me wonder if I can’t find a way of bringing them back into my life.

Spotify is trying to become podcasting’s gatekeeper. We musn’t let them.

Riders on the shore.

Watching the boats on the Adur rise as high tide approaches.

The psychology behind Boris's war on the media

Nick Cohen on why Boris Johnson is so suspicious of the media:

I suspect there is a strong element of projection at play. It is because Johnson was a partisan columnist that he is an enemy of press freedom. He assumes all journalists are like him, and that they will twist, distort and censor accordingly.

Good insight that makes a lot of sense.

Plain old driftwood.

The information ecosystem is badly polluted — and journalism is playing its part. We need to clean up our act, and depollute the information ecosystem.