Freedom of expression...

A few choice words from Salman Rushdie in today’s Guardian (full article here). “We live in a time I did not think I would see, a time when freedom – and in particular, freedom of expression, without which the world of books could not exist – is everywhere under attack from reactionary, authoritarian, populist, demagogic, half-educated, narcissistic, careless voices; when places of education and libraries are subject to hostility and censorship; and when extremist religion and bigoted ideologies have begun to intrude in areas of life in which they do not belong”.

Licensed today: cricket at Bristol, in 2017, England women v Australia women…

"A lifestyle choice"...

Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has gone on record to suggest that homelessness is “a lifestyle choice”. No wonder so many Tory MPs are scanning the ‘situations vacant’ columns for alternative employment opportunities. The sooner they are out of government, the better.

Licensed today: Broomfield Campsite at Ullapool, in the Scottish Highlands…

On writing...

Some observations on the solitary nature of writing from Rachel Carson, the author of Silent Spring. “Writing is a lonely occupation at best. Of course there are stimulating and even happy associations with friends and colleagues, but during the actual work of creation the writer cuts himself off from all others and confronts his subject alone. He moves into a realm where he has never been before – perhaps where no one has ever been. It is a lonely place, even a little frightening”.

Licensed today: Burnley town centre at dusk... 

Castleford...

If Donald Trump’s self-pitying bleatings sound familiar, he may be channelling this pre-trial statement, in 1927, from mobster Al Capone. “I've never done anything wrong. Nobody can prove that I ever did anything wrong. It's pretty tough when a citizen with an unblemished record must be hounded from his home. I am feeling very bad - very bad. How would you feel if the police, paid to protect you, acted towards you like they acted towards me?”

Photographed yesterday: Castleford's curving footbridge across the River Aire, and a shot up-river, taken from the bridge...

Masham...

In his 1991 book Consciousness Explained, the cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett describes the juvenile sea squirt, which wanders through the sea looking for a “suitable rock or hunk of coral to … make its home for life”. On finding one, the sea squirt no longer needs its brain and eats it. I know some people who behave like this, and I don’t have to swim too far to find them.

Licensed today: The Bay Horse pub in Masham, North Yorkshire…

Levens Hall...

I drove past Scalby Grange Farm, where, in summer, I make occasional stops for strawberries. Today the fields were full of pumpkins, instead: thousands of them, the colour of Donald Trump’s spray tan. Of course, one day after halloween, no one was taking up the invitation to ‘pick your own pumpkins’. What happens to them? Do they all end up in landfill, or are they ploughed back in?

Everything about Levens Hall, in South Lakeland, is spectacular: the architecture, the topiary gardens. There’s so much to gladden the eye… until you venture inside. This is the gloomy drawing room, licensed today…

Nipples...

I read in today’s Guardian (yes… the Guardian) that Kim Kardashian is launching a new bra, which will accentuate the wearer's nipples, making her look either sexually aroused or rather chilly. I am trying, in vain, to generate an opinion about this.

Licensed today: the formal gardens at Holker Hall in South Lakeland...