Author Archives: Backstreeter

Palm Sunday

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Palm Sunday
M sent a more hopeful picture of blossoms along the path this Palm Sunday Morning.
Palm Sunday
Judith sent me this picture of a Thrush in the Abbey Meadows – seen hopping about as it caught and ate a worm.
Palm Sunday
New leaves are visible on the large trees over the road from our house in West St Helen Street. With this slow down in life, due to the virus and isolation, we watch new leaves forming when normally we are too busy to notice.
Palm Sunday
On Palm Sunday, here is a picture from the 2013 Abingdon Passion Play where crowds cheered Jesus on a donkey through the Abbey Gardens in Abingdon.

In our Trinity Service Sheet today, Deacon Selina recalls the crowds in Kenya when the Queen visited in 1979. Selina says ‘We were so close to her and marvelled at the way in which she was the most exquisite, flawless person we had ever seen!’.

The Queen will be giving a message to the nation this evening at 8 pm.

Here is the video from which that picture of the Abingdon Passion Play was taken. We were seven years younger then.

Isolation then and now

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Isolation
This old postcard shows what Isolation looked like in Abingdon one hundred years ago. The postcard of the Isolation Hospital was published by T. Leach, Abingdon.

Founded in 1901, Thomas Leach Colour are still printing to this day, having survived the Great Depression, two world wars, and countless recessions.
Isolation
Forecasters have predicted a sunny weekend, but with all the play parks closed, families today were going for walks and playing in open grassy areas, during their allowed time out for exercise.

People were keeping their distance as much as possible but in places like the town end of the Ock Valley Walk that was not as easy as usual.
Isolation
Peter sent me this Thank-you NHS picture from the Radley Road.
Isolation
This painted mirror was on the Caldecott Road. The Isolation Hospital building now makes part of Abingdon Community Hospital, run by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.
Isolation
The message coming across from the NHS Trust looks more stark this evening. On the news the message being repeated is stay at home.
Isolation
M sent me this picture of a seat in Albert Park with 10 cider cans and a wrapper. M says No-one is going to pick them up without gloves and a grabber. If this is the sort of thing some Abingdon people do they need to stop, especially at a time like this.

Fifty Six Names

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Fifty Six Names
Steve King says that after many hours of research his book has been published. It comprises twelve chapters telling the circumstance of how the 56 men named on Abingdon’s war memorial for WW2 met their untimely end.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, copies will be late in the stores. Mostly Books, Abingdon do have some copies in stock available to deliver. It is also available on Kindle.
Fifty Six Names
Steve also found out about the men buried in Commonwealth War Graves in Abingdon cemeteries who are not mentioned on the memorial. He also found out about two Abingdon heroes who survived the war and the seven Abingdon heroes who died at Dunkirk.

The early May bank holiday in 2020 will move from Monday 4th May to Friday 8th May to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day which takes place on 8th May. That move was made to enable people to pay tribute before Covid-19 became such a threat. Any celebrations are likely to be scaled back, cancelled, or postponed to protect veterans and others.

The Virtual World Expands

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Virtual World
The ‘Share a Poem’ poetry group usually meets at St Ethelwolds on the first Wednesday of the month and they did intend to have the theme of ‘Fools and Folly‘. The April 1st meeting was cancelled – as was April’s Fools Day by common consent. Then some of the group met virtually using Zoom. I could not make it as I was at work but would have liked to have been there.

The Quakers, first Thursday evening of the month meeting at St Ethelwolds, has also decided to use Zoom to bring people together.

I gather that Zoom and Skype and Whatsapp and Facetime are all being used for video calls and meetings. At work I am supporting people with learning disabilities, and they are currently not allowed visits, or their usual range of activities such as: shopping, gym, day centre, craft workshops, church, bingo, pub etc. There are Easy Read guides to help explain what and why this is all happening. Those with iPads can use facetime and there are laptops with Zoom and Skype for others.
Virtual World
Youtube is being used for live streaming and recordings. Nicky Thornton  will be launching her latest book The Cut-Throat Cafe on Thursday, April 2nd using a youtube live stream  . It should have happened at Mostly Books.