Saturday, March 2nd:

The local NSPCC group will have their usual tombola, bric-a-brac, books, and plants for sale on the Market Place.

Thursday, March 14th:

An Evening with Poet Andrew Jamison (6:00 PM, Abingdon Library): Award-winning poet Andrew Jamison will be reading from his latest collection, Swans We Cannot See. Tickets are £2 (including a welcome drink) and can be purchased at the library counter, by emailing abingdon.library@oxfordshire.gov.uk. Andrew also helped select the ten poems and wrote the forward for the book Ten Poems about Abingdon.

March 11th – 16th:

View a variety of artwork by local artists at The Abingdon Artists’ Spring Exhibition (St Helen’s Church).

Tuesday, March 5th
The February meeting of Agnostics Anonymous had around 60 attendees. The March meeting has the topic “Is there a God?”

The Abingdon Drama Club annual walk into Oxford left Abingdon at 11 am. The walk is organised by Kevin Thompson, author of Willy and Wally the windscreen wipers. Kevin has been a stage manager for years. The walkers included directors, actors, lighting, and sound. They usually have a drink at Sandford Lock on the way.

One of the first things they saw on the way was the other swan family, the Mill Stream swans.

At St Nicolas Church, a book sale with coffee and cakes raised money for church funds. Books were good value at 50p each and 3 for £1.

On the Market Place, one scooter was parked. Others drove by, but not in huge numbers. At Abingdon  Rugby Ground, the Oddballs Scooter Rally is on all weekend. Many people are camped there and enjoying the festival.

Some famous tribute bands are performing in the large Marquette, including Abba.

This has been a bumper year for pumpkins. They are being sold in large amounts at Waitrose, Tesco, and at Peachcroft Farm.

Even Fabulous Flowers have had a display of pumpkins.

Most Abingdon streets have some pumpkins on display. These pumpkins are in a wheelbarrow on Francis Little Drive. Carved pumpkins are always pretending to be other things.

The most famous pumpkin was turned into a coach for Cinderella, and turned back into a pumpkin when she failed to get home in time.

Yesterday was the annual Ride and Stride. This is where people do a sponsored cycle, walk or ride round the many Oxfordshire Churches listed by the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust for the event.  The sponsorship money is split between the Trust and the person’s church.

The Covid-19 restrictions meant the event looked a little different this year. Not as many churches had people at the door welcoming. In Abingdon, three churches still had welcomers (St Helen’s, Abingdon Baptist, and St Michael’s).

The toher churches left out a form to be signed to show who had visited. In Abingdon,  this included: Trinity, Peachcroft Christian Centre, All Saints, and St Nicolas

Here are two Ride and Striders signing in at St Nicholas on the Market Place.

I took part and photographed my bike outside the churches I visited as not all of them remembered they were supposed to be taking part and left no form to sign. Some were in the grounds of private houses like at Milton House and the Chapel of St Thomas More in Fox Lane on Boars Hill. So with those I took a picture at the front gate of the house.

I cycled around all the Abingdon churches and churches in nearby villages (Shippon, Sunningwell, Bayworth, Boars Hill, Kennington, Radley, Culham, Sutton, Milton, Steventon, Drayton)

Both the Drayton Churches were open. They both allowed you to look round.

St Peter’s Church looked very smart from outside

and from inside.

Drayton Baptist Church also had a sign in sheet.

I cycle by this chapel going to work and always wondered what it was like inside. Now I know.

The posters in the window of Oxfam, Abingdon are like a time capsule on what was just about to happen before we went into Coronavirus lockdown and all public events stopped.

The What’s On section on the Town Council site has a cascade of cancelled events.

Two days ago the June 2020 Town Crier, published by Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council, and Round & About Magazine dropped through the front door together.

Round & About had no Idle Ramblings about forthcoming community events, and the Town Crier had no What’s On.

We could do with a What’s Streaming in Abingdon to find – in one place – the streamed concerts and church services, virtual jumble sales, Zoom fitness classes and Instagram art exhibitions.

Here are a few pictures of the 50th anniversary of VE Day in Abingdon.

My diary says … “May 8th 1995 – As Bank Holidays go this was a good one. In the Market Square we joined the crowds to catch buns thrown, from the museum roof, by the Mayor and other Town Council Dignitaries . From where I was, the sun in my eyes, I saw buns like black disks shooting off in all trajectories, often coming in bursts. One landed on my head and got trodden on. Another came with a plop into my hands. It had a V for Victory on top. The ladies next to me got a VE bun. They said they varnish the buns and keep them. While we were talking another bun hit me on the head and bounced off behind. Somebody behind shouted ‘Well Caught!’ Alex (our son) got very competitive and got into a tug of war for one bun. We did not see any of the prize M or AM buns from the Morlands Brewery…”

Before the bun throw we watched bands on the Market Place’

There were national flags of the twin towns.

The town council walked back afterwards.

The Mayor could be Dr Colin Kemp, and behind him is Dr Jim Halliday, the Deputy Mayor.

There was also an event at the Kingfisher Barn called ‘50 Years Ago Britain said farewell to arms’.

In the evening my diary says “We went to watch the bonfire in Rye Farm Meadow from across the River. The huge tongues of flame, reflected in the Thames, made the river look on fire. We then went home and watched a very good Dad’s Army – the one where Corporal Jones got married; and watched national beacons being lit round the country and the Queen and Vera Lynn. Jessica (our daughter) asked amazed ‘Is that our Queen?’ The Queen wore a blue outfit and a spangly broach.’

VE Day 75 in Abingdon will be quite different as we are in lockdown to stop the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. Abingdon-on-Thames have a page on VE Day 75 Abingdon virtual celebrations.

My mum who is staying inside during the lockdown remembers VE Day with a little sadness. She belonged to the Exclusive Brethren, and that meant she was not allowed to mix socially with others not in the group. She remembers watching all her neighbours celebrating in a field and not being allowed to join in.

I went for a walk this May Morning in Abingdon after watching the Virtual May Day Morning from Oxford. It contained a fascinating history of May Day celebrations put together by one of the Oxford Waites.

Fabulous Flowers’ flower containers shone in the early morning sun. For any in the florist trade it must be a nightmare trying to guess what will happen in the weeks and months ahead.

On the far side of The River Thames some adult geese were shepherding their young.

They were a little wary but not aggressive. The fabulous views of Abingdon can be seen beyond them.

There are many good viewing points for seeing St Helen’s Church around Abingdon and beyond.

The main parish church seems to have been placed to help direct people from afar.

Volunteers manned an ATOM Science and Technology Festival stall on the Market Place for people who had not heard by other means that the festival was cancelled. Most people had heard and were very sympathetic to the volunteers who had worked so hard to organise the event.

One of the helpers from Abingdon School told me that he had given a presentation just last week on the need for good hygiene for disease prevention. Normally this talk would be directed at disease in less developed countries but this week the message was of far more local relevance.

There is a lot of Science related to the virus and its spread that is of interest. For example: The science of soap – here’s how it kills the coronavirus. And here is a Youtube Video to explain the mathematics of how a virus spreads ….