I wasn't really sure why, but the oppressiveness I'd felt on my previous few outings had completely dissipated today; my mood was much lighter. Perhaps it was simply because I'd played out all those difficult thoughts in my head, and now there was nothing left but a refreshingly cleansed and empty mind. Or perhaps it had to do with the fact I'd set off an hour and a half earlier. Whatever it was, the familiar flat landscape seemed to be sparkling today.

Colours seemed purged of their heaviness, the horizon was vibrant once again; and, strangely, for the first time I found I'd become interested in the water.

Although the fields were also looking good, I should add.

There was a slight haziness in the air which could almost pass for a morning mist (although that would be exaggerating). Whatever it was, I liked it. I'd grown so used to seeing everything in the full unblinking clarity of sunlight that a little haziness seemed more than welcome. Sometimes there could be too much clarity, I thought to myself. It wasn't always helpful for everything to be so sharply in focus. That was kind of obvious, really.

It wasn't that I hadn't noticed the water here before, just that I'd always seemed to pass it on the way home from somewhere else. I'd therefore always been too tired, too wet, too wind-blown, too hot, too distracted, or simply too burnt-out visually to really pay any attention. I had noticed though that the reflection of the sky had often seemed bluer than the sky itself here, which was odd. And now that I was for once properly paying attention, I noticed it again.

Warming to the theme now, I decided to pursue it further by throwing some stones into the water.

Could all this positivity have been purely down to the earlier start? Or the very slight haziness in the air? Surely not. Those were just trivial details. No, it must have been the water, I decided: the metaphoric desert of my wanderings must have been brought back to life by this sudden and much needed influx of moisture.

I was glad to be here today, I thought to myself, as I walked home.