Thankyou to David for this report …

Abingdon Naturalists Society’s Green Team have looked after Barton Fields Wildlife Site for the last 15 years.  During that time they have worked to enhanced the grassland by sowing and planting native flowering plants.  Last year as a trial, they sowed a small patch of ‘cornfield annuals’.  These are annual flowering plants which used to be found in cereal fields before the widespread use of herbicides.  The trial was successful and this year, helped greatly by a team from Sophos, they have sown four more patches of these annuals.  The Sophos staff can be seen working hard one day in March (C Graham Bateman)

and the resulting display this month (C David Guyoncourt).  The flowers benefit bees and other insects and the public seem to like them too. These plants self-seed, so we hope the display will be repeated each year, provided that encroaching grasses are removed by our team during the winter.

The Abingdon Horticultural Society Spring Show was held at the Northcourt Centre, yesterday. The day was lovely and sunny, and the doors were wide open so that bird song could be heard – giving it a most spring like atmosphere.

The judges had been round earlier in the day awarding prizes in a large number of spring bulb and potted plant categories. There was also a Spring photograph competition; conserves and cakes competitions; and some excellent entries in the children’s competitions.

The first prize painting of Spring was very colourful and lively.

And the winner in the best decorated egg competition showed Mohamed Salah who that afternoon scored his 40th goal in a remarkable debut season for Liverpool.

As every year there is a crescent of daffodils over the River Thames from Abingdon.

Another flower that frequents the wet area under the trees is the Snake’s Head Fritillary.

New signs have recently appeared over the river saying there is three days of free mooring for boats in Abingdon-on-Thames. Cars get two hours free parking in the council carparks.