It sometimes requires a low mist to capture a picture in the correct light. The brilliance of sunshine – like any other advantage – can paradoxically diminish the view of other things around. I am the first to rhapsodize the value of contrast – that enhancing difference awarded by something or someone else of equal effulgence. Yet as a stratagem of contemplation the lapse into and absorption of limited visibility is consoling and informative.

I swear the speed of light has something to do with it – the manifest momentum of sunlight which unsparingly propels all upon which it pours its splendour. It is considered almost chemically toxic to linger in the vividness of the day. An umbrella really doesn’t make it any easier to see the sparkling surroundings; it just removes us from the fray.

Perhaps it is the tranquillity of a foggy day which inspires discovery of elements hidden within one’s talent. A mist soothes the larger atmosphere but provides a radiation. By limiting the expanse of sight a mist elevates what is immediate, reminding us that there ain’t no ship to take you away from yourself, that the greatest resorts and secrets of happiness are at one’s doorstep, that novelty is not so much a change as an uncovering. There is so much at hand.

Grey clouds in a flash diminish the allure and glamour of a sunny day. The energy of the instant evaporation as quickly insinuates the sinews of meditation. The transition from the visceral to the cerebral is instantaneous. It is a heartfelt reduction to fundamentals.