Windy Day, Booterstown, Dublin

Was inside all day, tinkering with poems, trying to get something together to send to the TLS.

Finally, on the way to meet the wife and wean, I managed a detour down to Booterstown (love that name) DART station to cross the bridge and see what the waves were making of this second day of blustery weather. The luminous greygreen tide was out, withdrawn under a great, broody shelf of cloud (one lone trawler balanced on the horizon), the damp wrinkled sand liberally speckled with seabirds.

A man came onstage walking his dogs, so I followed him, knowing they'd stir things up.

The larger dog, a Great Dane, came bounding towards me, barking gruffly, like a four-legged bouncer warning off the paparazzi. The owner called him off - 'Kaiser! Come here!' - though I wasn't particularly alarmed (perhaps foolishly, I found it difficult to take such a Scoobydoo creature seriously). I was going to blip THIS SHOT.

I like the way he's standing, the trick of perspective that makes him look like a goofy biped.

Here's barking at you,
Eliot Erwitt.