All roads, not created equal

Bloodied by yesterdays confluence of road works and accidents I swore off the nearest town route to work this morning, clogged as it already is by gas-main repairs. I was lucky yesterday to avoid the worst effects of the traffic mess, in part because I had chosen my route to pass a petrol station in case my recollection of the level of fuel in the tank had been a little optimistic.

This morning began with a plan to avoid everyone else by selecting my longer route to work and, after a couple of turns, and before I had left the village, I was confronted with a broad patch of road inundated to about 8 inches. Such is considered no barrier to navigation and so I simply drove sensibly, avoiding the bow wave of others (more suitably dressed in 4x4 vehicles) until the tarmac came to the surface again. The road carried the marks of yesterday's chaos. Tracks on the verges marked the departure of many a heavy vehicle from the hard standing, and coated the paved surface with mud. This will take a few weeks to mend at this end of the year in contrast to the New Forest Show traffic peak in July, which grasses over in a couple of weeks.

Half way and my route was disturbed again by a diversion with, rather than against my direction of travel; many vehicles that would otherwise simply cross my path now joined me for a stretch commonly blocked by wandering herds of cattle. Fortunately today there were only a few animals on the road and so the flow was steady, if busy, to the next junction where normality was resumed. I saw some deer, including a white fallow I think and a small herd calmly grazing the rain-soaked heath at Ocknell. The sky was clear in patches here though the clouds grouped into a small fleet to the East, already stacking up in height, though quite narrow.

Lunchtime was sunny, but in the afternoon it has rained cats, dogs and antelope. The antelope were mostly on the roof I think. In the usual way the car-park drains backed up after a few minutes of deluge and a lake formed over them. The intensity was such that it caused me to wonder what would happen if an inch of rain fell en-bloc. A big splash I expect, but not as pretty as the sweeping, soaking curtains that patterned the ground today , forming twisty linear shapes and paisley shapes in the gusty wind that accompanied the squalls.