There were swallows near Abingdon Bridge this morning. Having recently arrived back after wintering south of the Sahara, they were feeding on the clouds of insects over the River Thames. This swallow is pictured over the roof of Annie’s Tearoom.

Near the tearoom were geese with young. They seem to be communal birds: a group of adults look after the young.

Unhatched eggs are also kept in a communal way.

After a mild winter, the Plane trees on St Helen’s Wharf are coming back into leaf.

A little further along, on Wilsham Road, a bungalow, called Isis, has been demolished, and is being replaced by a four bedroom house.

Near St Helen’s Church a group of Ladybirds were looking for food on a Comfrey Plant.

They had woken up from their group hibernation.

Forsythia was in flower nearby.

Walking along the Ock Valley Walk there were many blossoms and tiny leaves.

Celandine flowers grew up among the young nettles and ivy.

Throughout the month of October there has been a crate of pumpkins outside Waitrose, on Abbey Close. When I went there today there was one very squashed pumpkin left.

Outside and inside Fabulous Flowers, on Bridge Street, there have been pumpkins and gourds throughout October.

Masons wool shop, on Stert Street, have pine cones, leaves, and horse chestnuts; spiders, webs, witch and brooms. and skull patterned material. These things you might see in other Halloween themed shop windows. What is unique at Masons are the orange and black balls of wool and the orange and black knitting patterns.

The Children’s Air Ambulance charity shop, on High Street, has a heart arresting display.

The British Heart Foundation, on Bury Street, removed their Halloween display today. They are now on the run in to Christmas.

There was good hay making weather in Abingdon today.

On Wednesday Tony Tyler from the Old Farm Shop at Rowstock brought a tractor to mow the grassland area at Barton Fields. On Thursday the Barton Fields Green Team raked the hay.

Then today Abingdon Green Gym and the Green Team completed raking and stacking the hay.

The toad in the picture was more easy to see with the hay cut, but well camouflaged. Grass snakes are attracted to piles of hay as they provide a warm ambient temperatures during the winter months.