Walking out this evening there was a mixture of sunlight and rain.
No real suprise then to see a rainbow over the almshouses.
There was another good view from the Margaret Brown Gardens.
There was also a dramatic sky looking downstream towards Didcot.
The other impression that came to me on returning to Abingdon was that the lawn was green again, as was the grass in front of Queen Victoria in the Abbey Grounds where the grass had looked parched back in June.
(The Abbey Grounds have also retained a Green Flag award for the second year.)
I saw a few broken branches underneath a horse chestnut tree and wondered whether somebody had been trying to bring down conkers much too early.
Then I saw more broken branches. It looked like vandalism …
Then I saw whole tree trunks… this fallen tree trunk was the other side of the River Thames.
This split willow was the other side of the River Ock.
The willow has already been cleared from the Ock Valley Walk.
But even though some of the evidence has been removed, there can only be one real suspect …
The wind.
There was more rain in the last 24 hours and I can see a few more blades of green grass springing up. A few more days like this and Queen Victoria could be looking out across a nice lawn and not a dry savanna.
But I would not bet on it yet. We are near the start of the school summer holidays, and tomorrow, July 15th, is Saint Swithin’s day. It could go either way.