Under the spreading chestnut tree

These horse chestnut trees, on the other side of the river, are turning brown before the surrounding trees.

and dropping their conkers like there is no tomorrow.

The Clear up Continues

Temperatures are beginning to drop. It seems even sadder now seeing the empty houses.

This group of bungalows have been fenced off for flood renovation work. The people continue to live in hotels and probably will do until early next year.

Here at Meadowside work is progresing in some houses. The industrial dehumidifiers continue to whirr away in empty downstairs rooms. Plaster has been stripped from the lowers walls. Furniture is still piled outside.

And on the Ladygrove Estate people are in a similar state: people living away from their houses. Their local resident newsletter says in the October edition "Whatever happened, there are sluice gates to 'manage' rivers, so it cannot be beyond the wit of the Environent Agency to prevent such residential flooding on such a scale from such a little river as the Ock."

Abingdon Fashion Events

A lot of balloons attracted my attention to the Sandman fashion event earlier this evening.

Over the road from Sandman, work has started on the opposite pavement of Stert Street. A report on the BBC local news this evening asked 'Could Abingdon be a model for other towns to follow?' If it all works out in the end and helps cut town centre air pollution..

Anyway back to the Abingdon Fashion events. The second fashion event...

Down the Subway at Midnight

The distant echo
Of faraway voices from faraway times
No way home from their painted kingdom
to the place they knew

I was down the subway at midnight. da da da da...

Swimming round
Reflections of people from faraway times
One of the drains not working well.
I could go further but don't want to get wet.

Down the subway at midnight. da da da da...

(Lyrics loosely based on Down the Tube Station at Midnight)

'A' Boards

This may look like an 'A' board, but in fact it is a rather battered basket ball board at Southern Town Park so forget that and move on...

An 'A' board is an easy to move, fold up, and store board where the message or poster can easily be changed. 'A' board pavement signs help attract the public to an event, a store or even a local library. The Abingdon library 'A' board has a PVC cover to hold 'The Big Wild Read' design.

'A' boards seen here along Stert Street are Jennifer Gerard Gallery, and Mostly Books.
A bit of clever positioning here at Frugal food means that you don't get the message once but twice.

'A 'boards can add character and colour to a market town like Abingdon. But there are more and more of them about and I've only shown some of the better ones.

West St Helen Street Traffic

At the bottom end of West St Helen Street you can have a long wait. There is no easy way for North bound traffic to get into the flow coming from Culham on High Street (shown on Friday's post). This is during the rush hour during term time.

This van trying to get out of Lombard Street into West St Helen Street has the name 'Air Action'. Its a courier though, not a champion for better air quality.

(Possibly a sad Note: As you can see things have moved full circle for Crystals. It started with white blinds on the windows in March 2006. So does it end with white blinds on the windows in Sept 2007? What next? )

Abingdon Quakers

There is an exhibition at St Ethelwold's house down East St Helen Street called ' Discover the Quaker Way.'

The exhibiton is a simple introduction to the quakers (or Friends as they are also known). Quaker meetings for worship are based on silence, but may include spoken contributions from anyone present. The Abingdon quakers meet every Sunday at the Abbey Centre at 10:15.

One of their guiding principles is:'Live adventurously!'

One that got away

Is it a fish?

Or is it a bird?

Harvest Festival

Harvest Festival at Trinity Church this morning. Hymns included 'We plough the field and scatter' and ' Come ye thankful people come'.


A good crowd were there for what was Revd Ruth Whitehead's penultimate Sunday. She is going to lead four churches in Cambridgeshire (two anglican and two URC) and will be missed.

After the harvest festival service, ninety people took part in a Harvest lunch at the Conduit Centre next to the church.