Wrexham County Borough 28 - Looking back at this time last year/It would take half a day .

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Looking back . That is something we seem to do a lot at the start of a year. We perhaps do it less as the year progresses. If you keep a diary you can look back at this time last year and see what you were doing and be reminded of what you were thinking. I don't keep a diary so the blog has to suffice. It comes in handy to be able to pick a date from a year ago and see exactly where I was walking , who I saw and what I thought . My thoughts were all over Covid. The same as everyone at the same time I guess. Covid was on the news. It was being rammed down our throats at every broadcast and Boris appeared almost nightly dealing out a tale of woe and misery. He quoted numbers . The number of people who were infected, those in hospital and the number of deaths . We were told that for our own good we had to stay in and stay safe. Essential travel was banned although some people did not seem to understand what the word essential meant . Swimming stopped and I wouldnt go near a swimming baths for the next three months . Life had changed .

I was walking just as I was a year ago . The only difference we are a year down the line . Covid is still with us but things are a bit different . I was no longer walking in England but in Wales . Who would have thought we would have taken almost a whole year to get back to Wales ? I was walking the A525 the main road from Whitchurch to Wrexham. I did not expect it to be busy . It was after all Good Friday and most people were on holiday from work . There should not be so many cars on the road I thought . Nor would there be that many lorries . How wrong was I? There are not many pavements along this road which means more walking in the road than I like. The cars shot past me as I walked down the hill past the caravan park .Not opened yet . Not even for Welsh visitors . Down the hill to the bottom and over the river . The embankment built up to carry the railway was clearly discernable and the old bridge long dismantled .

I thought it would take me half an hour to walk from one end of Wingerworth to the other . Here I could walk the entire village including every street and lane in about that time . I walked uphill my steps quickening . Bagend - I love house names . Back in Wingerworth there was a house called Dryden and many named after poets and authors giving a clue to the owners taste in reading material . Bagend - the owner a lover of Hobbits and Tolkein. The next house sold free range eggs . The sky was Zadar Blue in parts where the clouds had cleared . Where there were clouds they puthered in the wind . The weak sun shone through with no discernable warmth . Rays of pale colour shone down on the lane in front of me . I hopped on the grass verge from time to time to avoid the traffic which flew past me . I met no-one . Just me and the sheep in the fields. The lambs had grown since I last walked this way. In the distance I could see the distinct outline of the trees that hinted the point where I would turn left and find myself on a quiet lane .

Shopping I thought - this time last year there were queues and shortages of certain items. Thank goodness common sense prevailed and we no longer queued nor did we suffer lack of toilet roles . To walk around Wingerworth and mark the boundaries would take me the best part of half a day . Down Nethermoor Road , along the Derby Road towards Chesterfield , around the Washlands and the Addlington Estate . Up to Swarthwick Lane and the allotments , around Stubbing Pond and Bole Hill and then home . A marathon of a trip. With the weak sun trying its best to cheer me up I started to pick up speed and arrived at the first of the derelict cottages along my route . Why it was still empty baffled me? In the 1960's many of these country cottages were left empty and fell into disrepair . By the 70's and 80's things had changed and these cottages became popular and were renovated . So why had this one been left to fall in to wrack and ruin . There was another one further up the road. The glass in the windows broken and the curtains flapping in the wind . Damp showing through the walls and the front window completely covered by brambles . I had reached the pumping station and it was time to turn for home .

The hedgerows which once were yellow are now starting to turn to white . The Wild Garlic is beginning to flower and here and there is a flash of blue . The invader Spanish Blue Bell is starting to colour up. I bumped into an elderly man. I see him most weekends parked up by the old bridge over the railway line . He smiled and commented how early I go out walking . I love it early I said . So quiet and peaceful . Just me and that is how I like it . He told me he was not an early riser . He never had been and as a child was chastised by his parents who ran a farm and were dependent on him feeding the animals . He could not get up as a child and it was no different for him now .

A year down the road of Covid - I was nearly home . It is April and Easter just round the corner . We would be thinking about holidays this week . I had booked a month off starting next Friday . We would have been preparing Gabby . Instead we have no idea what we will do over the next week or so. No doubt more looking back to see what we were doing this time last year .

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