One of the almshouse residents said the flowers along St Helen Wharf have been a good show this summer.

The flowers still need watering, and the town council’s waterer was out keeping them going. So, with summer beginning to wind down, the flowers are still doing well with a little help. They haven’t grown leggy like they do later in the season.

There has been a little rain over recent days, although not enough to do much of the job after such a dry summer. There is no green in the lawns apart from some non grassy plants with deeper roots.

We are into another hot spell, and all the petunias planted by the Town Council staff in the beds and hanging baskets around the town centre are looking colourul.

I saw a flatbed truck full of plants going up West St Helen Street last week, and now that they have been planted they need regular watering to help them establish during the dry weather.

There is also the ongoing work of weeding and dead heading to keep the displays looking their best.

Petunias are a favourite choice for town centre and park displays because they flower continuously from early summer until the first frosts.

Mothering Sunday comes around each year three weeks before East Sunday, so the date moves about. It usually falls in March, though occasionally it can be in early April.

Walking around Abingdon today there were lots of people carrying flowers, particularly after church. Fabulous Flowers had their display outside, Waitrose had buckets full, and at Trinity Church baskets of flowers were prepared before the service. The younger members of the church helped put together the posies that would later be given out to mothers and carers.

In earlier centuries Mothering Sunday was about returning to your Mother Church – the church where you were baptised, or the main church in the area. Over time the Mothering Sunday has become Mothers Day and is more about thanking mothers, though the church traditions still continue.

After church this morning I met a young Mormon missionary for the second time. He said he liked the flowers I was carrying. When I explained it was Mothering Sunday, he said that in the United States Mother’s Day isn’t until May. It was promoted in the early 1900s by Anna Jarvis as a day to honour mothers and became an official US holiday in 1914, though she later complained that it had become far too commercial.