After Friday’s showers and a late rainbow, the floods are still going down.

Drift vegetation has been left along the fence of the Cricket Ground.

Revd Michael Hambleton’s new memorial bench is still underwater.

Bird foot prints mark the tow path.

Most striking is the smell – like when the tide goes out.

The Lock Keeper brushes off the mud from the weir. He has been kept busy removing obstructions, keeping the water flowing, and helping with stricken boats and people.

It shows again how important it is to have a man or woman on hand at every lock. (There are rumors that the EA need to save money and are again looking to cut the number of people manning the river.)

The flood waters are taking a long time to go down this time round – even after two or three drier days.

Oxfordshire County Council tweeted this afternoon “Many Oxon rivers are peaking/beginning to fall but they’re still very high compared to normal. Please take care on towpaths.”

The heron opposite St Helen’s Wharf is on the towpath.

This evening the flood warning was lifted on the River Thames in Abingdon. It has been downgraded to a flood alert.

The Water Level of the River Thames in Abingdon stabilised on the O of Bristol at the Iron Bridge. It was above the O during the last high water in January 2014.

Rob sent me a picture “Looking towards St Helen’s from the Abingdon-Dorchester road“.

The Environment Agency (EA) has been telling us since the “2007 flood” that dredging rivers is not the most cost effective way to  prevent flooding. Their resources are limited.

Spike sent this picture of St Helen’s Mill and the River Ock. He says “this flood barrier has achieved very little.”

The blue flood gate is out again at 60 East St Helens Street to keep out the Thames flood water.

The River Thames causes some problems in Abingdon, but our forebears were sensible – building on just one side of the River Thames.

Malcolm send me a picture of where the Ock Bridge goes under the Drayton Road – on Sunday. Here in Abingdon, it seems to be the much smaller River Ock, primarily, and the River Stert that are the main threat to properties. Malcolm says on the Safag website that the whole catchment area of the River Ock needs managing.

We had a lovely sunny day of it today. Flood tourists came to Abingdon to look out across the magnificent sight of so much water.

The water level upstream from Abingdon Lock was almost as high as it has been.

Downstream from the Lock it was quite choppy as the wind sent waves back towards the Lock . Those lock gates are supposed to be renovated between January and March 2014 but there has been no chance of work starting yet.

People were suprised to see a vehicle attempt to drive along the road from Abingdon Lock back to the mainland. But having got some way it reversed back and then turned to return to the lock.

The Abbey Meadow Water Park lives up to its name and warning … “If you are standing in the water play area you will get wet.”