Wrexham County Borough 111- Hidden Garden at Ty Pawb/a games fair /Chinese dragon and Welsh drum band /A day in town/city where nothing happens and the streets are empty

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Well Well what an odd experience . I had seen a photograph this morning of an empty sad looking town/city centre. I wondered if perhaps so early the shoppers decided not to come in and pay parking fees . If they waited until 11 am the parking was free. And of course the workers who did not work would not fill the spaces in the car parks and there would be plenty of for shoppers. And day visitors if we get such a thing.

We left home at the usual time of 12.15 . Being creatures of habit we liked to go into Wrexham early, park up in Glyndwr University Car park before it filled up and pick up the pre-match burger and cup of coffee. We paid up our £3 to park and left my car recently returned after the accident in one of the spaces guarded by the security guards and the gateman a member of the Supporters Association . A short walk up past the Cae Ras and we stopped off at the burger van. A quick chat to the two ladies running it and we found ourselves standing behind what once was the Spion Kop . Now flattened it looked strange . We had been used to the Kop being derelict and condemned for safety reasons but now nothing of it was left . The rails sold off. The demolition company had removed the structure of the stand and removed tonnes and tonnes of soil that once made up the high banking and the rows upon rows of concrete terracing . In one more week they will move off the site and will be replaced by the company installing the new floodlights . Floodlights even higher than our now famous ones . Floodlights that have the capacity to be brightened to provide enough light for international matches and dimmed for Conference and English Football League requirements . We stood with emotions ranging from sadness to see the history going before our eyes but pleased that what will replace it will increase the ground capacity by almost 5000 spectators and might just bring international matches back to the town. Long overdue for us in the North .

We walked up town with the intention of going into Ty Pawb. The town had a different feel to it. With the sun shining the crowds were out and the streets full . A lone busker sang a Beatles song. Sadly though his rendition was poor and he could hardly hit the notes . A man on the street corner shouted to all of us that we needed religion and forgiveness in our lives . Not many listened to him as he did give the feeling of some ranting and raving. A colleague handed out religious tracts .

We headed for Ty Pawb which was heaving . Mainly children and their parents playing computer games . Some on massive screens . All the tables were full and it was a noisy happy space with food stalls being well attended . As we wandered around we encountered a Ghostbuster waiting to go into the toilets . Not often you see that . A yellow blobby character mingled with children and various science fiction characters moved between tables talking to people or just ambling along. It seemed that this was an event that took place a couple of times during the month.

We had not gone for the gaming event but to visit a new exhibition to town . Hidden Garden was its title. We had no idea what it was all about but hopefully were soon to find out. The small gallery was being used as a space for an exhibition said to explore community and alternative growing. This was in response to the urgencies of climate change ,loneliness and food poverty . An odd sounding exhibition which was profiling art from the Useful Art and Social arts projects ,community gardens and visual artists . It was to encourage us to visit community gardens locally. We had the gallery to ourselves and had the opportunity to see some interesting modern artworks . The Museum of Wales had loaned out artwork by Graham Sutherland .

The first two paintings were the Sutherland ones . Both were green and blues with very little description of their content . Sutherland was born in 1903 and died in 1980. He was prolific depicting the Pembrokeshire landscape . Most well known for his depiction of Christ in Majesty in Coventry Cathedral . A bit controversial some of his portrait paintings were destroyed . What exactly though were we looking at ? Green forms, leaves and other shapes. Perhaps modern art did not do it for us .

We moved through paintings of bright scenes set in the landscape of what looked like the Caribbean . Watercolours of beautiful flowers and jungle scenes. Huge banana leaves and exotic foliage . . Now they were indeed lovely and we spent more time looking at those than at the more famous Sutherland paintings . Glass domes were filled with stuffed birds and dried flowers . We were not fond of those . I guess they were beautifully made but not to our taste.

A table was covered with a tablecloth. The tablecloth had placemats printed onto the fabric. . The idea was that it was to be used a thought provoking table where ideas about climate change could be discussed and where ideas for change could be nurtured . A sort of brainstorming table where ideas should flow freely over a coffee or tea.

It was an odd exhibition . Enjoyable and interesting but strangely odd. Over the years we had been to various exhibitions. Exhibitions of bricks, Klimt in Venice , Breugel in Vienna . But none had left us as perplexed as this one had done. We always go in openminded but this one was perhaps not what we expected . It did fill in the time between arriving in town and the start of the football match .

We left the exhibition in time to walk back to the football ground. A bright yellow lookalike for Mr Blobby wandered around the streets together with a brightly coloured Chinese Dragon. The Welsh drum and pipe band set up banging their drums and filling the streets with music and sounds . Another Saturday in a town/city where nothing happens. Oh yes Will Ferrell turned up to watch our football team today.

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