Most of the new play area in South Town Parks has been open for a while, but the Chair of the Vale, Alison Rooke, was there to open the refurbished basketball court. This work has been possible thanks to a grant from WREN.

Not everybody quite understands the rules of basketball yet, but it will come.

There was also entertainment and amusements….

Two swans and three cygnets got caught this year by the swan uppers down near the Margaret Brown Gardens.

The swans were weighed and health checked, and the cygnets ringed before being released.

Their work done, for another year, the swan uppers rowed the last stretch by St Helen’s Church…

then they performed the Royal Toast by Abingdon Bridge.

For the first time Her Majesty the Queeen was there to watch the start of the Swan Upping near Windsor.

Like every year the citizens of Abingdon were there at the end.

Until Sunday there is a Fun Fair in Ladygrove Meadow – thats the land next to the River Ock off the Drayton Road and next to Hartwells.

Its runs until Sunday. This fair happens in years when the ground is not flooded.

At the corner of Spring Road and Edward Street a new pharmacy is preparing to open. They describe themselve as ‘a new extended hours pharmacy close to the Community Hospital, with strong links to local health carers.‘

The shop use to be creative corner – now moved down to near the double roundabout at the bottom of Spring Road, where the model shop used to be. The model shop also originally came from Edward Street but I don’t know where it went.

I did mention the new pharmacy to two Ock Street residents, who don’t have a car, and they said they’d rather have somewhere they could buy bread and a pint of milk – lots of takeaways and pubs down that way but no convenience store. Even the Off-Licence has stopped doing milk because not enough people used it.