We’ve had a lot of rain here in Gloucestershire the last little while. I don’t really mind that much, in fact it feels like for a change that the weather is doing what it should be doing at this time of year, that is, if you believe the old adage, “March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers”. Boy I hope we do have May flowers and plenty of them! I’m actually surprised that we’ve managed to get this far with the amount of water that’s fallen before having any significant flooding.
My drive to work takes me across the Gloucestershire countryside and through a few spots that are susceptible to flooding, Tirley being one of them. There have been many times over the years when I’ve had to take a different route because I’ve driven round a corner and been faced with a river running across my path. So far though, it looks like all of the work they have been doing to clear the ditches etc is working because although the rivers have completely burst their banks and the fields are full the roads have remained open.
I decided on this Friday afternoon to have a little stop on the way home and to take a few snaps of the flooding. I pulled the car over in a lay-by, donned my wellies, climbed over the gate and made my way up the hill to get a better view. I have to say that flooding is awesome. Good old mother nature taking over and making mince-meat of our silly little, small-minded human notions like roads.
It was such a lovely, warm afternoon and luckily, up on the hill it was pretty dry on the ground, so after a little wandering I found a spot near a beautiful, big old oak tree and plonked myself down to take it all in. I ended up sitting there for quite a long time listening to the birds and just doing nothing. There was really no reason to move so I just kept on sitting there and it was glorious. In fact at one point I even indulged in laying back and having a little daydream.
Ironically, despite the masses of water in front of me and the still bare trees and hedgerows, this really felt like Spring. Maybe it was the warmth, maybe it was seeing the first butterflies of the year fluttering about or maybe it was just being somewhere remote in the countryside and being able to sit and enjoy it. Whatever it was, I’m really glad that I took some time just to stop and notice how wonderful it was.
