Wrexham County Borough 10 - the old railway line /Blobby snow / trying to be positive in 2021 /Mr Woodpecker taps away

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I missed my walk yesterday due to the ice on the pavements . I have had to get my head round a different regime since arriving in Wales . Back in Derbyshire I shopped on a Saturday , Walked on a Saturday . Here shopping as moved to the early hours of Tuesday morning .Xmas and New Year have been so different this year and it is hard to get my head around lockdown It is Day 228 of Lockdown and our world feeling very different . Good news - the Oxford vaccine has been approved and is being sent out to hospital hubs for the first injections today . I wonder if that will give us more of a sense of normality . Would we start to see a reduction in positive cases ? Would the spread slow down? I don't suppose I will know the answer for some time .

I set off late . The day had already started by the time I left the house and headed up an unfamiliar road . I had that feeling that if I walked half way up our street , turned left instead of going straight on I would be able to end up on the Malpas road . My plan to walk to Worthenbury . That is the next village up the road . It is smaller than our village by some way. A hamlet rather than a village . A few houses and an impressive church . Built in the Georgian style it mirrors our own church St Dunawd, St Alkmunds in Whitchurch and St Marcella in Marchweil . It boasts box pews and apparently has the distinction of being the best example of a Georgian church in Wales . If you feel like it when the weather is better and Covid has gone away there is a tour available of all the local churches and chapels . Taith - a journey in Welsh . Perhaps sometime I might manage it . There used to be a pub in Worthenbury . The Emral Arms - long gone and replaced by housing . What would I prefer? A pub where I could get a nice meal or a housing estate . I think I know the answer to that one .

Are you still with me? You need a thick coat today to keep out the cold . Gloves and scarf too. We are heading out . Up the hill to the old railway bridge . Someone has fly tipped builders rubble there . Why do they do it ? I thought of the village children who once would have sat on the bridge with their legs dangling over the lines . They would have watched the steam trains and probably put pennies on the line for the train to run over . I was passed by a van ., It is quiet and the air feels fresh . It is a bit of a lonely walk . No walkers or runners. I hear a noise . It is the crows in the farmers field . Gregarious , noisy creatures. In the background I hear a familiar sound . An echoing tap , tap , tap . I hear it in front of me . I can hear it behind me . Not one but two Woodpeckers tapping away at the bare trees . I could not see them. They must have been well camoflaged but I could hear them . That was until I got close when they stopped tapping . As I walked away the noise like a pneumatic drill started up again . Tap , Tap , tap until it receded into the distance .

I realised that Worthenbury might be a step too far so made the decision to turn right for Holly Bush . Another narrow lane . Another one with the fields sodden and the water spilling out and flooding the lane . I picked my way around the puddles . Two derelict houses . One looked pretty impressive . A Victorian substantial property . At closer inspection the windows had no glass in and it was empty. The second a barn with a large crack down the brickwork . Ivy climbing the walls. The cottage in disrepair . The garden overgrown. I saw no life along the road until I reached the Whitchurch/Wrexham main road . Down the hill - no pavement . A farm or two along the way . I crossed the bridge over a tiny stream . I passed the old embankment for the railway line . The old bridge over the road had been carefully taken down in the 60's leaving just the piers . Someone must have bought the cut stone and the toppings and used them for the new wall that surrounded a house.

My last stop was a caravan site on the main road . It looked empty . Covid had temporarily closed it down .

By now I had returned to the starting point of todays walk . I wondered if I had done my 10K steps today .

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