Traditionally, November mornings for me are  misty affairs when mild damp air has been chilled down

overnight. It may burn off after a few hours but walking in poor visibility has always been associated with Autumnal days, before it gets really cold in December. This month has been an exception, so far, it’s taken all month to become typical; but this morning on the last day of the month we can’t see very far at all.

It’s like walking in a bubble that extends a couple of hundred yards all round you. Outside that is a grey world that you’re only aware of by sound. Near the harbour there are countless birds out of sight which you can hear clearly, redshank, Curlew and Oystercatchers to

name but a few. In the meadows at the head of the harbour it’s the road noise is indicative of another world. The distant rumble of traffic on the A27; individual, invisible vehicles moving across the soundscape on the Emsworth Road. Sound seems amplified by the mist or maybe it’s just that our hearing has become more sensitive due to our lack of vision.

In the channel the indistinct shapes of yachts appear faintly, then fade from view. In the stream where the Lavant flows out a few ducks can be seen

moving around the mud bank that soon disappears as the tide comes in. The still water doesn’t seem to be moving but sure enough it’s rising fast, the bank is covered in the twenty minutes it takes for us to make the circular walk around the meadows before our return.

Underground there might be more activity that on the surface, this molehill has recently appeared. Underground there’s even less visibility than there is on the surface, maybe it might be warmer though.