The plane trees along St Helen’s Wharf have their branches pruned back to almost nothing every few years, but they don’t seem to mind and slowly grow back. From time to time, their roots crack and lift the asphalt pavement until the council notices and marks the offending roots
and gets them pruned and covered with fresh tarmac. But they will be back.
Earlier in the year I did a report of the tree planting by the River Thames on the opposite bank to the Swift Ditch weir. Daniel has an excellent drone video of the trees, tree removal and replanting. The following are some of his pictures and all rights belong to Daniel.
Trees.
Cut Trees
Replanted Trees
More replanted trees.
Strong winds on October 31st have blown down leaves. Today, November 1st, all was calm and sunny.
The water of the River Thames looks blue from this angle.
The works at St Helen’s Wharf have all been completed and the benches are back. The ‘Happy to Chat’ bench has moved down a tree. The ‘Happy to Chat’ bench is not just an Abingdon thing. Such benches are used in many places and are intended to combat loneliness and isolation.
Daniel took some aerial shots of the snow yesterday over the Boxhill Park Recreation Ground, with the Workhouse Estate to the right.
The pictures allows us to study the paths of the dog walkers.
Today I walked round the same recreation park, in the sun. In this picture Boxhill Road is in front, and the Workhouse Estate behind.
Beside Boxhill Road, a new line of fruit trees were added last autumn to replace some cherry trees that were thought to be diseased. There are apple trees (of various varieties), pear trees (Conference) and plum trees (Victoria). The pear trees (shown above) and plum trees are in full blossom.
It is easy for a non-expert to tell them apart thanks to the descriptive labels.
It does not appear, at this stage, that the blossom has suffered from the snowfall. This is plum blossom.