Abingdon had a red weather warning area today. Strong winds meant that a number of businesses chose not to open today. (There was a limited Farmers Market . Styan’s veggies from Worcestershire struggled in as did the two local butchers, the Bath cheese man, the honey man and the trout farmer. However their stalls were reduced in size with no awnings.) There were not a lot of people about. during the peak winds during the morning and early afternoon. The skies kept changing from blue to cloudy. There was a little rain.

Down West St Helen’s Street at least two properties lost roof tiles onto the public pavement, and The Salvation Army chose to close their pavement. There were also a couple of garden walls fell down along St Helen’s Close.

A tree had come down onto the pathway through the Box Hill Woods.

The winds lessoned by late afternoon. Paths were strewn with twigs under trees and some larger branches had split from trunks. Examples here are across the River Thames from St Helen’s Church.

A large branch had fallen from the large tree in front of Cosener’s House and drifted down the River Thames. There were work people with chain saws chopping damaged trees in the Abbey Meadows.

A Yew was damaged in Albert Park.

The sun was shining today after a hard frost last night.

Here is the Old County Hall reflected in yesterday’s rain.

But being January the sun never got very high in the sky. Here are trees with long shadows in the Abbey Meadows.

This is some of the old man’s beard nearby.

These swans were on the Mill Stream. Somebody was telling me you can tell the male swan by the thicker neck and the bigger black brow.

Saturday was wet. There were people from One Planet Abingdon talking to people about some of their projects under the old County Hall.

There was a blue sky today, Sunday. This Kite was circling over when we walked out along the Ock Valley Walk. For anybody not from these parts, the Kite was saved from extinction and now is a common bird over Abingdon and central England.

There were lots of people out on the Ock Valley Walk. The path itself is sticky and muddy. Ivy grows up a lot of the trees and stumps. So there is still a lot of green about.

The back path is less muddy. Lots of birds singing and flitting about. Near here new trees get planted with plastic tubes, and some make it and grow strong, and some don’t.