Wrexham County Borough 36 - Bangor on Dee and the roads that surround it/The river is up again , the Kingfishers have lost their eggs and the Sandpipers have lost their young

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Days 430 to 434. Week 20 the year . A whole shedload of days disappeared and no sign of life on the horizon as things change day on day. The weather has been awful . Rain . Heavy most of the time swelling the river Dee up by over a metre. The river looks lovely when it is fast flowing but nature is cruel . The Sandpipers chicks have been washed away by the sheer force of the water. The Kingfishers late to arrive had built their nest into the river bank as normal . The water last week was a foot below them and dropping . The incessant rain has caused a rise of such proportions that whilst not flooding the village it has washed away the Kingfisher eggs .

It has thundered and we have had lightening on a scale that I have not seen since our last trips to southern Europe. Ferocious , loud , making the house shake . Lightening grounded on the telephone exchange . A small fire caused the internet to go down . Wind . It blew the tile verges off the house. And then there is sunshine . Not a lot of it . May has been poor compared to last year . I wonder what this week will bring ? The forecast suggests more of the same . Our drive is being dug up tomorrow and hard core put down ready for the paviours. Will it happen? It has been put off week on week since the last week of April . We have been promised the job would be done each week and it never was . If it rains tomorrow as the forecast promises then it will not be started tomorrow and Gabby will languish in her home away from home. She only has another four weeks before we have to make a decision . Bring her home and try to park her up or pay another six months storage .

As I walked I pondered all these things . Minera mountain looked purple in the distance . Too early for the lovely purple heather it had to be a trick of the light on the rocks . The clouds were barrelling in . I needed to get a wriggle on and get my walk in before the rain made yet another appearance . I walk the main A525 on a Sunday . A Sunday walk as there are less cars and lorries on the road . The pavement is available to me for a short while and I follow the old road over the top of the new one. A dog rushes out and jumps up at me . A runner passes me by. I climb Rag Hill. There are paths through the woods but I cannot see where to go .. No-one has trod those paths for some while . Too many nettles and brambles to clamber over . I listen all the time for traffic. I can usually work out which way the traffic is coming . If from the Wrexham direction I just continue walking as they will be on the other side of the road . If from the Whitchurch side I jump into the long grass and wait until they pass . I never enjoy this part of the walk as too much of my attention is on the traffic rather than on the flowers that are coming up in the hedgerows, the cattle in the fields and the sheep.

I reach the corner where I know I turn and the road becomes a lane . I doubt I will see one car on this part of my work . I probably will not see a single walker at this time of the morning . The Queen Annes Lace looks pretty alongside the road and this week the Buttercups have come through . Buttercups - we picked them and took them to school where we dissected them . We drew them or more accurately I drew them badly and were taught rudimentary Botany. My thoughts were flitting back and forth . General Science lessons in school . Holidays of the past . No photographs to remember them by. No diaries kept . Just vague memories . The first trip to Austria . A bus journey . Never again I said as we ate , slept and drove our way across France , Switzerland and then Austria. I remember the town we stayed but not the name . St Georgen came to mind but many trips on Google Earth never quite found the right one . We were taken out on trips to the Saltzkammergut , a photo opportunity for Sound of Music fans. We paid to ride a cable car. No views from the top as this was February . It was cold , it was snowing and very foggy . I remember Vienna with its Baroque architecture and wonderful museums . We visited Saltzburg with its opaque blue river , its white church and fountains covered over with wooden structures to protect them from the Winter elements . Am I remembering all these places because I cannot travel . That thought went through my mind times many as I recalled the castle in Saltburg and the lovely weather we had . Odd for February with the sun shining . Munich on the way home .

A cyclist went past me and shouted a Good Morning . I was brought back to the present . Not far from home I was climbing up to the railway bridge over the now defunct railway line . Which way to go ? The choice of the river and probably mud or stick to the main road. I walked the main road and continued home. Not far now . Italy a bus ride again . This time waking up to a wonderful Swiss mountain view . We stayed at a terme - a town devoted to spas. I don't remember walking round it . I remembered clearly the October misty and wet visit to Venice. A flooded St Marks Basilica , duckboards and a visit to Ravenna to see the wonderful mosaics . Memories that never left me . As I neared home thoughts were on San Marino and a visit to Paris . Two trips on the ferry to get to Europe and one on the newly opened Eurotunnel . The Louvre , the day time orientation trip around Paris to view Notre Dame , the River Seine , Les Invalides and the Eifel Tower. An evening of Parisian cafe culture followed by a trip on the river before a nighttime drive of the city . It was 1999 and the clock on the Eifel Tower was counting down the days to the year 2000. 21 years ago - it felt like a lifetime . Was that Covid making me remember ? A trip to Montmatre , the artists and the church with its views of the city laid out beneath. Versailles and its Hall of Mirrors . How odd to be walking in Wales but thinking of trips where I never took photographs and never wrote a blog .

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