Abingdon Synod

Traffic was again tailing back as it was reduced to a single lane, and stopped by temporary pedestrian lights at the bottom of Stratton Way. Here is the tail back along Ock Street at the junction with Conduit Road.

This was an added complication for the two hundred and fifty delegates attending the Methodist church synod (Oxford and Leicester District) at Trinity Church on Conduit Road. Trinity has a large church building, and so often gets chosen for hosting such get togethers.

I am not sure why the Methodists built such a grand Gothic church in 1875. It was designed by J Woodman, and has a matching church hall called the Conduit Centre.

Something a bit more contemporary. The lawn is shown here with the Conduit Centre behind. A prayer labyrinth has been drawn onto the grass. The instructions on the board tell people to go prayerfully round the labyrinth.

Abingdon Art Galleries

There is a new art gallery that opened a week ago in Stert Street. The work inside is contemporary, and has been collected for sale by Jennifer gerard. A gallery like this would not be out of place on the High Street in Oxford.

Abingdon already has an art gallery in the precinct (The Gift Centre and Abingdon Gallery). They are just finishing an exhibition of water colours of local scenes by Ken Messer. This one shows the Old Gaol. From May 20th they will be featuring original watercolours of Oxfordshire landscapes, and rowing by Ron Cosford.

A Young Tree Needs Protection - Part 2

Just catching up on these three young trees last seen in February.

The first two are just coming into leaf,

but no leaves yet on the third.

Tesco Garden Centre

The Abingdon Herald has a front page article "TESCO looks poised to win its battle to expand its Abingdon store by more than a quarter." This will be at the expense of the Garden Centre.

It used to be a good garden centre with a good variety of herbs, heathers, and alpines. However of recent years it has looked less cared for.

The garden centre shop used to be turned over to a toy shop during the pre christmas period, but that function has been taken over by the main store.

Over the road, on the Fairacres estate, Homebase have a garden centre. The Homebase Stores group have recently been brought by the group that owns Argos, and the store has had complete refit.

B & Q also have a garden centre. They and Homebase are open until 8 PM, whereas Tesco which has the main store open for 24 hours, has a garden centre that closes at 5.

I can only conclude that the Tesco Garden Centre has not got the full interest of Tesco management.

Ha Noi Cafe

One could easily pass by without noticing this small Vietnamese cafe on Stert Steet. Anybody who has not been to Abingdon for a couple of years might remember this as the home of Poppies tearooms - once loved by my mother in law as a traditional tea and scones cafe.

The decor of the Ha Noi is simple with 7 round cafe tables, and the food and service simple and good. We went there for a meal, and took our own bottle of wine to accompany the noodle dishes - which is allowed, and makes the meal very reasonably priced.

New Rectar at St Helens Church

The new team rector of Abingdon, the Rev. Dr Charles Miller, was Inducted at a service at 7:40. It should have been 7:30 but the AbITs program was doing some major works today (the Ock Street / Stratton Way junction was down to one lane), and the queues were so bad around town that the service was delayed.

At one stage in the service called "The Induction" a chap introduced by the Bishop as the Arch Deacon gave the temporal keys of the church to the new Rector and said "I induct you into the real, actual and corporeal possession of the parish churches or St Helen, St Nicholas... Christ Church with Long Furlong and St Michael and All Angels, with all the rights and responsibilities belonging to them."

The new Rector might be worried about the state of the St Helen church building he has inherited with all that scaffolding round it. But it is only for the new bells and clock.

Anyway, a lot of the service was ceremonial, and the service booklet was a huge 20 pages long. But the Bishop did explain at one stage to the uninitiated that the bishop's hat he wore and all the ceremony did not really matter. What matters is faith lived out in love by all believers.

Revd Dr Charles Miller is an American, and the second American to hold the office.

To May - Wordsworth

Abingdon Borough Council named Wordsworth Road in about 1971. Wordworth wrote a number of poems about May Day. Here is the first verse of one entitled "To May."

Though many suns have risen and set
Since thou, blithe May, wert born,
And Bards, who hailed thee, may forget
Thy gifts, thy beauty scorn;
There are who to a birthday strain
Confine not harp and voice,
But evermore throughout thy reign
Are grateful and rejoice...

And so, some "rejoice" pictures taken, not far away, by the River Ock this May morning. The morning began dull and rainy, but by about 8:30 there was glorious sunshine:

This Robin often comes very close. Perhaps it is a bit too trusting.

This magnificent chestnut tree is next to the Ladygrove Meadow playpark, and beside the chestnut a blackthorn is in blossom.

Along the River Ock a Hawthorn bush has no blossoms yet. The Hawthorn is also known as the May because it traditionally blossomed from about May Day. That was before they rejigged the calendar.

And finally just to show that despite being May Day, bad things happen. This duck is being half strangled by the plastic holder from a six-pack. Some little children made sure their mum phoned the RSPCA.

The ninth verse of Wordsworth's poem "To May" does say:

And what if thou, sweet May, hast known
Mishap by worm and blight;
If expectations newly blown
Have perished in thy sight;
If loves and joys, while up they sprung,
Were caught as in a snare;
Such is the lot of all the young,
However bright and fair.

Abingdon Fayre 2006

Aircraft had been flying over Abingdon all morning, from all directions. The Abingdon Fayre website says "Because of the afternoon Flying Display program, NO ARRIVALS ARE ALLOWED FROM 13.15HRS WITH NO DEPARTURES ALLOWED UNTIL AFTER 16.30HRS LOCAL." After 16.30 it was like rush hour in the sky as they went home. This plane is above Prince Albert in Albert Park.

Back in July 2000 the Abingdon Fayre started as a small Fete on Abingdon Airfield, next to Dalton Barracks (formerly RAF Abingdon).

Every year this event seems to get bigger and bigger and this year was the biggest yet. The money raised goes towards Douglas house - the young people's hospice.

A lot of the visitors were aircraft enthusiasts, or vintage car enthusiasts. There were large displays of both. Round the runway I was amazed by the size of some of the telephoto lenses. The chap with the largest camera is shown here on the roof of a van. He is filming the display of an RAF Hawk Jet trainer jet. The same jet is shown starting its taxi to the runway in the previous picture.

Between the planes and the displays of: vintage cars, London buses, Harley Davidson Motorbikes, traction engines etc. were amusements for the children, and a lot of craft and charity stalls. This potter making brown flower pots has a very fine beard.

120+ MG cars had returned to the place where they were built. These enthusiasts are examining some of this cars finer points.