Author Archives: Backstreeter

Great Big Green Week and Harvest Supper

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On the Market Place this morning, there was an RAF charity collection and a Carbon Cutters stall. People who had run the park were relaxing at their favourite coffee places.

Under the County Hall undercroft, there was a plant swap stall. There was also an exhibition with pictures of people in faraway places protesting in exotic ways about the consequences of climate change, and a dolls house where children could learn about energy conservation.

Later in the day, people gathered at the Stonehill Community Garden (at Oday Hill) for a harvest supper with food from the community garden. The garden brings a fantastic mix of people together, volunteering and learning how to produce food.

It has been a tough year because of the lack of rain this summer. There is no running water in the garden, and they depend on rain.

Radley Lakes – September 2022

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I usually cycle to Radley Lakes and padlock the bike near a side gate. This time, there were hundreds of tiny toadstools near the entrance.

Inside the gate were late-season blackberries in the same place where blackberries could be found in July and August.

The first glimpse of water was of Bullfield Lake through trees. Thrupp Lake is more accessible with clearings between the trees. The water first reflected green banks, then as the view stretched to a more distant shore, the water reflected the grey-blue sky and white and grey clouds.

A dragonfly hovered, moved on and hovered again. Michaelmas daisies were in flower.

I was not the only person there, but I was the only person walking alone. I said hello to two couples, the first walking a dog, the next without a dog. The lake does seem to have more visitors since the new car park was added during the summer.

When I got to the wooden walkway over the corner of the lake there were lots of ducks and coots – eating the surface weed that is thick there. With them were younger ducks, their adult feathers showing through the feathers of youth.

Water lily flowers were still blooming in another corner. The water usually laps the platform nearby, but now the water was some feet out and I could step down onto dry mud and twigs without sinking. The water has gone down after the dry summer. I wonder if it would ever dry up completely.

As I looked back across the wide lake, there were far more Michaelmas daisies on the near side.

There were cormorants on the nearest island and even more on the island beyond.

Further on, where the biggest excavated mound rises, a family was out. Dad was with his son, who has a small BMX, and mum was with the toddler, who has a push-along bike and making brrm brrm brrm noises. I climbed and heard more BMX bikes. Later one roared up the steep incline and down the far side.

I walked down to look at Orchard Lake on the far side and saw that it has dried to the point where it could almost be crossed by foot. A single heron was down at the far end.

Walking back, I looked through sedges to the twinkling of bright water where the heron must be. Then back through the big iron gates and to the gate where I left my bike.

Green Gym with scythes and rakes

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A set of three scythes has been purchased by the Abingdon Green Gym using a donation from Annington.

The green gym volunteer community group undertakes environmental management and repair tasks to care for green spaces in Abingdon and surrounding areas. Michael sent me pictures of volunteers in Barton Fields raking hay that had previously been cut using scythes.

Stacy Whitehead, Marketing Manager at Annington, said: ‘Gifting the scythes not only helps the gym members learn new conservation skills, but also allows Annington to do its part to conserve the local area.’ Thank you to Annington for the first picture. There are more in this week’s Herald.

Annington became one of the largest private owners of residential property in the UK following the purchase of 57,434 homes from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 1996. Most of these properties are leased back to the MoD. A significant number, however, have been handed back to Annington who then refurbish and make available for sale or private rental at open market prices. They recently put on the market eight refurbished properties in Shippon, near Abingdon.

Flower Festival / Great Big Green Week

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As part of Heritage Open Days at the weekend, Abingdon Baptist Church was open and had an exhibition by Abingdon Flower Club. A lot of work had gone into the displays. At the hall’s centre, a bouquet had been placed with a picture of the late Queen with a candle burning. On the stage, a cross decorated with flowers echoed the neon cross behind.

The other flowers were grouped into the four seasons, starting with Spring

and then to summer with tea on the lawn.

There were bare branches and cotton wool and sparkles for winter. But before winter, autumn was shown with red and orange and purple flowers and some twirling looping flowers like fireworks and a harvest festival display of homely produce. Nowadays, harvest festivals are more likely to include tins or packets so that donations can be used by organisations such as the homeless and asylum welcome.

There have been harvests this September, and two people sent me pictures of the Green Gym cutting hay. More of them tomorrow.

Anne sent me a reminder that September 24th will be the Oxfordshire Great Big Green Week, with activities under the museum arches, and apple pressing and eco-art in the basement.