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 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 .. 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 . 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 up in the hedgerows, the cattle in the fields and the sheep.
road 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 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 .
