Wrexham County Borough 122 - Bangor on Dee/The quieter you are the more you hear /splishy splashy /the french say NON

---

What was on my mind this morning as I walked the riverbank along the fairly fast flowing Dee . It had been a wet night with heavy rain which meant that the grass was dripping and my shoes would be wet by the end of the walk . A misty, moisty day. The sort that comes along mid to late September. The mornings are taking a longer time to lighten up. The sun no longer streams through the bedroom windows. It feels colder . A slight chill that ripples through your clothes as you walk . To wear a coat or not to wear a coat is the question that first has to be addressed . The temperature last week was up in the muggy high 30's. T-shirt and shorts weather . The sort of weather that takes people to the coast. A weather that is reminiscent of Europe in summer . Weather that is as fleeting as April shower. The heat of last week was replaced to day with a day where trousers and jumpers were the order of the day . It was a splishy splashy sort of day too.

As always the village was fast asleep when I set out . I wondered if no-one worked in the village . Was that why there was never any life this time of the morning ? Did those who worked not get up until 8 am or later ? The rest of the population were retired . They had no need to get up early. No work to go to. Nothing pencilled in for the day. I guess they were not interested in Keep Fit nor walking . Perhaps that would come later in the day. There was yoga a few times during the week . Perhaps the late sleepers went to that event. The new Pilates class did muster up some kind of enthusiasm on a Monday evening but now at early o'clock the village felt dead . No dog walkers . I had the High Street to myself . An occasional car drew up outside the open village shop. The occupant fell out of the car, into the shop, picked their morning paper up and were on their way . Some added a pint of milk to the paper order but they were few and far between.

The two pubs were closed . None had bed and breakfast guests so no need for them to open their doors until mid-day . I stood outside the self catering cottage as I always do . In the window was the latest message left for me. I wondered how many walked past and noticed anything at all in the window. It started when I commented on a glass bumble bee which hung in the window . I added it as photograph in my blog on the village. That was during Covid . At Keep feet about a year ago I mentioned that I loved the bumble bee and the lady who owns the rental was surprised that I had noticed it . Since then she has changed the window item every few weeks . Today the message read " The quieter you are the more you hear" It was one of those unnoticeable things. The tiny message was placed in the corner of a window . In plain sight but I guess most walked past and never even noticed it . I wondered why they did not look . Were their lives so full of other things that they did not notice the small things that make you smile? Did they walk past and think it impolite to look into a window ? It felt like my secret . A secret shared with the person who left the message for me.

As always it gave me pause for thought as I continued my walk . The river rushed by . Some days I could walk by and not hear it when the level of water was so low. Today it was fairly noisy . Perhaps 5/10 on a scale I suddenly invented . When it was quiet I might see a black comorant fly by or a heron waiting patiently whilst he waiting for the unsuspecting fish to come into sight . Sometimes the gooseanders would be out or the mallard ducks . It might be wind rustling through the long grasses . Or in the Spring the hammering of the Woodpecker in the woods . Summer might bring the sound of the swallows or swifts ducking and diving . Winter the crackle of ice under my feet .

The message had been thought provoking to be sure . I had reached the Racecourse . Quiet today but in a few days the sound of horses hooves would be heard , the voices from the crowds and from the tannoy. A tribute Queen act would be heard belting out We are the Champions and such like . Today there was no sound of cars, bicycles nor humans . A squirrel ran across the road and athletically climbed the nearest tree . Perhaps I could reword the note to read the quieter you are the more you see.

I began my way home . Across the top where someone had left an old green plastic watering can against the gate . The cows watched me with curious eyes. One relieved the itching on his back by rubbing himself along the wire that ran from the ground to the top of the electricity pole . I could hear the rubbing sounds and smiled as the cable wobbled from side to side . The honeysuckle was smelling simply divine . The clouds were drifting by . The sky that leaden grey that threatened rain . My feel were indeed wet by the time I arrived at the main road .

The village was still asleep . The workmen had been out placing magnetic numbers 3 over the road signs in readiness to remove them later when the speed limit in Wales in residential areas to 20mph. A law that was not popular . A blanket speed limit was never going to be popular. As I got closer to home I was looking forward to taking my shoes off, wiping myself down , taking off my moisty clothes and getting that coffee on . Why were we not like the French I thought ? Why are we not saying NON very loudly to the First Minister as he tries to force us off the roads .

---