Somebody did tell me that they enjoyed the flowers on Stratton Way

and the tulip mix below the County Hall. So here they are, if you have not seen them.

There is a more calming display near Saint Helen’s Church

This new notice next to the District Council Offices says ‘ This is a low crime area.’

“Help us keep it that way.”

While walking in Sutton Courtney a while back, I noticed this familiar Mother and Child sculpture, surrounded by trees. It is where Franta Belsky, the Czech born sculptor, used to have his studio.

Entitled The Lesson, the sculpture is permanently on display in Abingdon near the library, and bears the inscription ‘In memory of Margaret Belsky‘ . She was a well known newspaper cartoonist in the 1960s, and the wife of the sculptor. The Lesson was one of her favourite works.

It was presented to Abingdon by Franta Belsky, in 1989, the year of his wife’s death, and is the second bronze casting.

The first was unveiled in 1959 in Bethnal Green, London. I presume the verdigris one in Sutton Courtney is a prototype.

(Thanks to the Information Centre for an Abingdon Herald article on 21 Sept 1989 called “Sculptor’s memory in Bronze“)

It did at least warm up by this afternoon,

and there were more boats going through Abingdon Lock…

more people about doing their own thing …

out in the open.