Market Place - Fairtrade and RBL

The Abingdon Fairtrade Group were giving out free cake to the people of Abingdon - an Old Abingdon tradition this.

It was a chocolate and toffee cake made by the chef at the Broadface and contained Fairtrade and local ingredients.

Also at the Market Place were the Royal British Legion. Their social centre in Spring Road has been refurbished. They'll have an open weekend over Easter. But, and this suprised me, you don't have to be an ex-service person to join. You can just go along, see if you like it, and then become a member.

There were gusts of wind, and threats of rain. But it held off.

Carpark Sign Makeover

This is what the sign looked like a couple of weeks ago. Lettraset updates show the recent level changes. A huge Warning at the bottom.

Time for a makeover. Add a few colours.

Get the Warning in proportion. Its looking more children friendly now.

The Wish Tree

The Yoko Ono wish tree has been outside the library for a few days now (since the start of the Abingdon Arts Festival) and the wishes are tangled in the wind.

Nearby the crossing at the top of Bath Street has been changed from a Toucan to a Pelican crossing. That means that the stop time for traffic is no longer quite so fixed or long. That should help a bit with the hold ups on Stratton Way. One can only wish.

Abingdon Fairtrade Town

Its Fairtrade Fortnight at least up until the weekend. Food to drink to taste at Frugal Food.

Cafe Gias support Fairtrade too.

At Trinity there was a huddle round the Fairtrade stall after church.

There were Fairtrade wines and chocolate to try in Waitrose last weekend, and Fairtrade goods on offer. (By the way at the Abingdon wine circle where they tried various Fairtrad wines, Los Robles - the nearest bottle in the picture was a clear favourite.)

And this coming Saturday there will be a number of stalls at St Nic's church for the Fairtrade Big Brew, and a stall on the Market Place with a big Fairtrade Cake.

Abingdon is a Fairtrade Town.

A square in Prague

Pictures from the Abingdon Arts Festival Photography Competition are on display on the High Street for the next two weeks.

The pictures are a welcome relief from an empty shop window.

The winning entry is quite stunning. Its of a square in Prague.

We visited Praque when Czechoslovakia existed as a communist country - in 1973. At the border control they found some books in our luggage they didn't like. The border police interrogated my dad about the books for some hours. Then they let us in, having stapled a note about the books on our visa to ensure we brought them out again.

The main square in Prague had flags and posters celebrating the day the Russian Tanks had arrived five years before to freeze out the Prague Spring. Life went on. A painter painted.

The busy flower week is over

Its been a busy week leading up to Mothers Day. Fabulous Flowers opened their first shop in Abingdon in 2004.

They now also have an Oxford shop - near to Gees Restaurant on the Banbury Road. A picture very like this can be seen on their website.

Fabulous Flowers have also set up an Online Shop - so I suppose that is three shops in all, but with only two rents. In retail parlance that is three for two.

Bigging Up Holbein

Throughout the day a collection of Abingdon Artists have been working away in the Guildhall, each painting one square from Holbein's picture 'The Ambassadors'

Jennifer Gerrard, who did much of the organisation, chose 'The Ambassadors' picture - at least partly - because every square had enough detail to make it interesting to paint.

From 4 PM, the bigger picture was assembled.

This is the children's version.

And this is the adult's version with the collection of artists beneath.

Both pictures can be seen over the next two weeks, for the duration of the Abingdon Arts Festival, in the Guildhall.