The Swan Upping was scheduled to arrive at approximately 17:30 but really arrived at about 15:45. So apologies to anybody who went down and missed it having seen this blog. I was just too late as well. There were quite a few disappointed people about.

There were not enough young swans on the Thames to keep the crews busy. They did catch the large brood by the Marina, but a lot of nests got washed away by the high water earlier in the year.

At Wilsham Road there was a camera crew and local reporter doing a piece on Abingdon one year on. It is a year to the day since the July floods.

The building of the new Co-op was put back many months when two Co-operative Societies merged to form the Mid Counties Co-operative. They are now based in Oxford and Walsall.

Yesterday the UK’s largest co-operative, the Co-operative Group based in Manchester, made a successful bid to take over Somerfield for a reported £1.57 Bn.

From this in May

to this two months later.

The Horse Chestnut trees along the Ock Valley walk were in a worse state than those alongside Caldecott Rec. The one above is from Ock Valley, and the one below from Caldecott Rec.

So what is doing it?

It is definitely not drought this year. It could be a very serious condition called Bleeding Canker which kills the tree off under the bark. More likely, for most trees (and I say this after having done a few minutes research on the internet), a moth called the horse chestnut leaf miner has laid its larvae within the leaves. The leaves eventually shrivel and drop off prematurely, but grow again the following year.

Scrivens, the new optician on the precinct, is really Russel Caulton under new national management. They moved from the Market Place to the precinct. Their new shop is between Adams Kids and Bakers Oven.

At the other side of Adams Kids is the Abingdon Eye Centre.

At the other side of Bakers Oven is Specsavers.

Abingdon town centre has five opticians in all, three of them now close neighbours on the precinct. The precinct used to be Shoe Parade, then Greeting Card Row, and now it has become Optician Alley.