‘A press release earlier this week said ‘South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse district councils have taken the difficult decision to activate their business continuity plan and suspend their garden waste collections.’

‘The councils’ bin crews will be prioritising the collection of food waste, recycling and general waste collections following government guidelines in a bid to reduce the disruption to waste collections.’

Not everybody has got the message. These shots along the Oxford Road in Abingdon were this Saturday morning and the collection should have been Thursday.

There was a delay to the collection of recycled and garden waste two weeks ago.

‘The disruption is due to the ongoing issues of a shortage of HGV drivers who are needed to drive the councils’ waste collection vehicles. This is a national issue, not just affecting the districts.’

It could be down to the need to self-isolate.

The council will review the situation towards the end of August before providing an update.

Yesterday in West St Helen Street the Abingdon Country Market were selling home made cakes and jams and pickles.

In East St Helen Street, the Little tea room had the smell of freshly baked cakes, with a pile of cake boxes for people who had ordered cakes.

Today was the second lockdown Mother’s Day. Takeaways and home cooking were the options for the Mother’s Day meal. Some people could not visit mothers yet.

The gardens of the stilt houses in Mill Paddock have been attracting a lot of attention with the floods.

Nearby, at St Helen’s Mill, there have been people from the Environment Agency pumping out water from behind the flood protection wall.

The water level is almost up to the level of the wall of the Margaret Brown Gardens.

The River Thames may have only gone up a small amount since yesterday but to do that it has to cover a huge area of flood plain on the other bank.

Hales Meadow, the home of the Abingdon Vale Cricket Club, has known floods like this during many winters and occasional summers.

There was no way to walk down the road to the Marina Park. The Marina car park is hidden behind these swans, and the road to the car park would go over the top of a wellington boot.

On the other side of the A34, Rosemary says ‘our plot at Wildmoor Allotments isn’t looking too great!’

Looking back to St Helen’s Wharf the wharf wall is awaiting repairs – almost a year after the damage first became obvious.

Another new house has been built along the stretch on Wilsham Road, with river views . In the last five years, four new houses have been built, all bigger than what was there before. The old Ferry Boat House is still there though. I expect an architect will already have plans for that small frontage with the long piece of land behind.

Geese in Abingdon enjoy the grassy areas by the river where they can graze. They are very sociable animals, a bit messy, and loud, and so in some ways similar to humans. The river is a place where they can escape if humans or their dogs are at all threatening. We weren’t, and  this group walked towards us and then parted to let us by.

This walk was not long but, to use a horse racing term, the going was heavy. One could even say boggy. Gracie-Lou can be seen out of the water, like a large piece of driftwood the high flood has left behind. Behind are the lights of Abingdon School boathouse.

After crossing Culham old bridge, we crossed the A415 and returned to Abingdon along the causeway, moving aside at one point to let a cyclist by. They said thank you.

It was beginning to get dark as we neared Abingdon. Cars came in bunches.

The lights on the Christmas Tree outside Annie’s Tea Rooms were shining. The Old Gaol walls were floodlit. The new flats alongside had large windows glowing but there were no lights to be seen in the small Old Gaol cell windows.