Wrexham County Borough 126 - Overton /Covid and flu vaccinations / The best season - which is it ?

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We are just a couple of weeks from the clocks going back and Autumn will definately feel upon us . The mornings are getting increasingly darker . It is now no longer light even to see the time on the alarm clock . The lights are being left on some mornings until after 9am. The blinds and curtains are being drawn ever earlier as darkness comes upon us. Autumn is one of those times when the countryside looks stunning with the changing colours of the leaves . The bright colours of summer are long gone and are replaced with the muted Autumnal browns, coppers , golds and russets . The apple trees are heavy with their fruits . There is a chill in the air but on good days with a fair wind and an Indian summer it can feel a wonderful season . The weatherman offered us snow on Eryri and in the mountains of Scotland last night. It never arrived nor did the first frost of the year. Today was more heavy rain tempered with sunny periods. Reminiscent at times of April showers.

"If your mind isn't clouded unneccessary things , this is the best season of your life " The words of Wu-Men sounded just about right for any season not just Autumn . I guess you make of each season what it is . You cannot change the seasons . Although they do feel different to the seasons of my childhood.

As I walked through the pretty Overton High Street with its war memorial which in a few weeks will be redecorated with poppy wreaths . A service of Rememberance will be held on the street no doubt. The conkers have fallen from the trees and the church doors are open for visitors . A few people walked the street. I had probably walked this street every season of the year . Spring with its wonderful feeling of freshness . We all love a Spring when the nights start to get lighter and the air feels fresher . When the garden are full of hope of a new growing season . Blue Grape Hyacinths, the smell of the large blousy pastel coloured big sister the Hyacinth. The white nodding heads of the Snowdrops and a sea of yellow . I know seas are blue I said to myself but somehow there are daffodils everywhere . In the gardens, in the graveyard. The yellow Forsythia bushes are in full bloom . Yellow cowslips and primroses peep through the bright green of the new leaves . The weather is beginning to warm up. Yes we get cold snaps .. Of course we get warmer spells and we get April showers.

We were waiting for flu injections . It is that time of the year again where we head off to the GP's surgery for firstly our flu vaccinations and secondly Covid . As I left the driver in the surgery I wandered into and very quickly out of the church . There was nothing new to see there today. I guess it would not change until Harvest which was just around the corner .

The High Street was relatively empty. For the first time I noticed the houses. Some with dates above their doors 1727 they proudly announced to anyone who looked up. I doubt many look up. The pub was closed . Scaffolding covered the walls and encroached into the pavement . As I walked round it I felt sorry that such a village as Overton appeared to no longer have a pub . A communal meeting point. Perhaps it would be let out again soon. It did look as if renovations were underway . Who knows it might be open for Christmas .

Christmas will be the next thing around the corner with Winter bringing on its colder snap. Frost to wake up to. Icy roads . Not my favourite season . Is it yours ? There will be lights up and shops will be decorated for a few short weeks . It may snow .

And then we will round to Spring again and the start of a new year .

As I slowly retraced my steps I passed the artisan butchers shop with his display of sausages, bacon , pies and hams in the windows . Vegetables in racks on the pavement. A small shop was full of people . I don't know what it was nor could I work out what the people inside were doing . They seemed to intent talking and chatting . I may have been a cookery school . Now that was something new . I was heading back to where I started . Perhaps as a friend who also travels said we need to go back to the beginning .

So home it was . The travel books came out and a plan was being hatched . It felt like a return to a past holiday life . But I guess we have to start somewhere .

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