Wrexham County Borough 33 Bangor on Dee /Week 17 of 2021/May Day or Labour Day take your choice /the germ of a plan

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It is Week 17 of 2021 already. We have slipped quietly through a miserable January of floods and snow . February a cold a dismal month and then March with the feeling of Spring in the air. April with its inclement weather and now May. The fifth month of the year . As I walk I feel that the months have become very blurred as they run seamlessly from one to the next without me even noticing . Is that because of Covid when all days and months have felt the same ? I am not sure . I feel that sort of sense of frustration that the first four months of the year have felt wasted. No trips out and not much sign of changes . Although there are changes . As with the seasons and the months you can feel them . Wales is third in the world in the vaccination stakes. We have for once upped the anti and have vaccinated more than the other home nations . So that is an improvement on 2020. Perhaps I thought there is some light at the end of the Covid tunnel .

As I walked my thoughts went to the young and the middle aged who tell me that I should not be worried that I never went away in 2020 . There is always this year . Or next year . I think that might be the case if I were in my 20's or 30's or even 40's and 50's. I don't remember worrying about not going on holiday when I was younger .Now time feels precious and 2020 feels a wasted year when it comes to travel .

Our shelves look bare . Normally each year two or three photo albums are added . April 2020 - the Scandanavian trip missing . A space where the September/October trip should be . Christmas 2020 missing and nothing for April /May 2021. The lack of books tells the story of Covid without saying a word .

My walk took me down the usual roads. The hedgerows now are beginning to fill with the Cow Parsley gently swaying in the breeze. I no longer hear the tap tap of the Woodpecker. Just the constant chatter of the Hedgerow Sparrows, the Blackbirds and the Robins . I pass the lady with the phone held out in front of her. I wonder if she walks because she cannot get a signal at home and this is her only opportunity to talk to whoever is the other end . She does lift her head and acknowledge me.

The pheasants are sometimes disturbed by my walking and occasionally I see someone walking across a path way out in the distance . It is quiet . My thoughts which are deep are only disturbed from time to time as I spot a couple of hares running along the road in front of me. First time I have seen hares for years . I drift into thoughts about holidays . Will we get away in June? Still on the agenda but will it happen ? Life is opening up and we should know something by mid month. I catch a glimpse of a pretty bank of Greater Stitchwort. The white flowers are gleaming in the sunshine . In the field there is some sign of life on the ponds . I have done Spring in Bangor on Dee . I wondered what Summer would bring to the table .

The older lady who looks like she has in the past suffered a stroke walks towards me . She smiles and we greet each other like old friends . Perhaps that is what you do in such a small village . Owl Cottage is selling free range eggs . I can see the free range chickens wandering around the garden . Where to go on holiday? In two weeks only France will work . Assuming that France wants us . We have looked at the Aveyron . Passed through many times but never really explored . Conques , Rodez - we had seen them before but never quite stopped off there . We reckon we can get a good fortnights holiday there if we try. So there is a germ of a plan coming up. A plan that needs padding out but perhaps it is just wishful thinking at the moment . Trying not to be too enthusiastic about it . It might not happen .

I reach the edge of the village . I cannot walk the river . National Resources Wales have blocked off the footpath as they repair the damage to the riverbank after Storm Christophe . It is going to be summer before that walk will be available to me . At least the swimming baths are re-opening this week .

I am almost home . It is May Day today . A Bank Holiday. Shops and offices closed . A well earned rest for full time workers . A shorter working week . I have forgotten what a shorter working week looks like . Labour Day - thats the newer name for it . Take your choice May Day or Labour Day . Not quite sure I like Labour Day .

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