It is an irony that Essex as a county improves when approaching its northern borders. The Villages become prettier; the paths more remote; and the claustrophic pressure of suburbia that suffocates its southern towns peters out. This could be called the 'London influence'.
We have had a good summer. For walking in England, this translates as a lack of rain. Yesterday made up for that absence. We may stoically walk through the rain (and will be better prepared than a daytripper). And once it starts coming down, the rain is bearable if there is little wind and it is warm. Both of these conditions were fulfilled yesterday. Then eyes can lift and enjoy the joys of the English landscape in rain. Was it the enduring play of light and mist that allowed Constable to suffuse Suffolk onto canvas?
Some countries may have spectacle and breathtaking scenery. So strange and different that even photos strike a poise. Yet, seek such uniqueness all the time and a modest mist arising with a church steeple rising above will be set aside, forever available at one's door. And as such: never visited, always mist.