Wrexham County Borough 108 - Wrexham/ Brians charity Christmas Tractor Run/ the phone hates night shots

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Day 357 of the old year gone. Only a few days left before the New one begins. The shortest day has passed us by and if I really think about it things can only get better. Six weeks after Christmas it will be clear to see the nights draw out. Perhaps if I use my imagination I will notice the difference today now that we have past the worse part of the winter . Of course the worse might still be to come. January can be merciless in its coldness. We may get winter snow which lingers early on . We may return to the nights of below 8 degrees and icicles forming on the window ledges. Perhaps we should be grateful they no longer form on the insides . Shunayu Suzuki apparently told us that " when we live completely in each moment without expecting anything we have no idea of time". The trouble with us is that we don't always live in the moment . We are always waiting to see what tomorrow brings. We expect something better tomorrow . That might be better weather, better health, better fortune or a better day than yesterday. I guess in the winter we are always looking for tomorrow and Spring round the corner .When Spring arrives we wait for Summer . Perhaps it is better to appreciate the day for whatever it brings .

The traffic is building up with Christmas just around the corner . The village is decorated and life is moving on slowly towards the end of the year. As I walked I wondered what next year will bring? 2023 - It is hard to credit where the year has gone. Harder still to remember back to the Millenium . The year 2000 seems a lifetime away. There was little to see on my walk. Not a single flower nor did I expect to see any. Crows crowed and the odd sheep bleated to bring the monotony. The silence was deafening . And with little to see my imagination and thoughts could run riot. The sky was overcast . The clouds puthering along like smoke from a chimney. Warm and snow given for Christmas Day . If you believe that of course. We never get snow on Christmas Day. Even today I was thinking it warm enough to take my gloves , hat , scarf and coat off as I walked. Walking alone is a fine thing - time to think - back wards and forwards . Thinking time to plan. Two years have passed since we sat outside our new home argueing with the previous owner who had made no attempt to empty the property . Leaving us in the rain with a bill building up as the removal company waited . It still seemed to leave a nasty taste as I mulled over his stupidity and crass ignorance leaving us such a mess up behind up. When my mind wanders I think back to the way I felt . Two Christmas Days. Both different. One with renovations under way, living in a mess and cold waiting for heating and electrics to be sorted . Plus Covid holding everything up. A lockdown that seemed to last forever. Folks refusing to go out or work less they caught Covid and that would be the end of the world . Last year work finished . At least we had a warm Christmas . This year it felt odd . I no longer work so have been no part of office parties or Secret Santas . No Christmas away in the motorhome. It had been three years since we last spent Christmas in France. My mind was going over so many things as I walked . What would January bring? What would we do to while away the month as the National Trust properties and Cadw would still be closed . I was working out how many weeks before they re-opened .

So why is this blog about tractors? Not coming from a farming background I don't have an affinity with tractors . They are just the slow things that slow you down when you follow them.

Who ever would have thought that we would be out at night watching tractors? Yes watching tractors. We had a plan at night. A short walk into the village to watch tractors passing through. Not just any old tractors . These were to be decorated for Christmas . It seems there was a tractor run last year but we missed it for some reason. The year before cancelled due to Covid. This year I had linked up to Brians Charity Christmas Tractor run site and kept an eye on what was going on . Tractors and their drivers were asked to sign up and join the charity run which would start from a field up at Tallarn Green . About 46 tractors were expected and they would travel from village to village collecting for the local hospices . Ty Gobaith (Hope House ) and Nightingale House. The tractors would meet up decorated and then set out on the almost 3 hour round trip ending back where they started at 9. We could have gone up to the field to see them. To be fair the photographs would have been better with stationary tractors. All that driving and glittering lights were not going to come out well on a phone camera. But the field would have been muddy so we thought better of it. We followed the tractors on Glimpz. An app that can be used temporarily to track movements . Up to the Sarn the convey went . In my mind I was following it past the probably closed pub and up the hill to Threapwood . A few villagers might turn out there to put money in the bucket collection. Or maybe buy raffle tickets.

The convoy carried on towards Worthenbury where a few more villagers would turn out to welcome it. It was time to set off. At first there seemed very few people waiting but gradually the numbers swelled . Children eagerly excited carrying their flashing torches . Mums and dads talking . Then the tractors turned up. First Father Christmas carried in a trailer on the back of a tractor . The collecting elves in their blue elfmobile . It would not take long for 46 tractors to come through the village . The first ten rolled in . All lit up with horns blaring . Carols rang out from some. Then another ten all lit up with multicoloured flashing lights . As they trundled slowly through the village the next ten rolled in . The drivers waving. This carried on. 50 followed by 60 and they kept coming . The noise was amazing - The dukes of Hazard or just beep beeping. A police car ran in the middle of them . They all slowed down to a crawl trying to negotiate the tight bend by the church before they entered the Overton Road where a silent pass by would take place . The noise was deafening and more twinkling lights could be seen coming down the hill . 70 tractors - I wondered what the car drivers stuck at the back of the convoy thought about this slow crawl they could not pass. There was no gap in the lit up tractors as 80 and 90 had passed us by . STill they came . We had reached 100. An elderly man told us there were 146 so we had a further 15 minutes of lit up tractors as the remaining ones bringing up the rear appeared. It was fun. It was different. It felt very Christmassy. Father Christmas brought up the rear. Or would have brought it up had he not broken down . His quad bike stuck with the convoy of tractors heading off now to Overton , to Hanmer , to Penley and home .

Who would have thought it ? Tractors all lit up . Thankyou Brian whoever you are for entertaining us so well.

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