The Trough

I had a near miss, this morning. I left the Minx's house sometime after eight o'clock to head up to work but literally as I was turning onto the slip road, I could see it was completely backed up and that, beyond that, the M61 looked like a car park on the northbound side. 

Executing a deft - if slightly hazardous - manoeuvre, I managed to get back onto the roundabout and exit on the other side, heading up towards... well, I wasn't quite where. I rang the Minx for a bit of assistance and, having determined that the M6 was largely out of action, too, she dispatched me along the M65, heading north.

Whilst this was a considerably longer route to work, I wasn't at all unhappy, as it meant that I'd be driving up through the Trough of Bowland, which is a favourite journey of mine, possibly up in my top two, along with the road between Moffat and Edinburgh.

I'm not quite sure how far along I was when I stopped to take this photo but as you can see it was a melancholic day, which was just perfect. Not that I felt gloomy myself, but it lent the scenery a timeless, disconnected quality, like stepping out of life for a while, a sensation totally enhanced by the complete lack of mobile 'phone signal :-)