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.

You can make a visit to some fine snowdrop displays in Oxfordshire during February. The nearest are probably Kingston Bagpuize House, where the gardens open on selected days, and Waterperry Gardens, with more than sixty different varieties spread through the gardens and along the riverside walk.

But you don’t have to go far to find masses of snowdrops. Walking across the Ock bridge on Drayton Road, it’s worth looking over the side. Below, along the riverbank, is a spread of snowdrops that don’t appear to have been planted or tended. They have grown where conditions suit them.

Last weekend in Abingdon was a mix of old and new, of history and creativity. Among the creativity were flower displays.

Abingdon Flower Club had floral displays across some of Abingdon’s open venues. Their arrangements could be seen in the Roysse Room at the Guildhall, under the County Hall, in Unit 25 on Bury Street among others.

On the Market Place, members invited passers-by to make hats decorated with flowers.

Abingdon Flower Club marked their 65th anniversary earlier this year. They have more than 60 members and meet on the first Tuesday of each month (except January) at the Northcourt Centre, where members take part in demonstrations, flower arranging, and social time together.