M sent a more hopeful picture of blossoms along the path this Palm Sunday Morning.

Judith sent me this picture of a Thrush in the Abbey Meadows – seen hopping about as it caught and ate a worm.

New leaves are visible on the large trees over the road from our house in West St Helen Street. With this slow down in life, due to the virus and isolation, we watch new leaves forming when normally we are too busy to notice.

On Palm Sunday, here is a picture from the 2013 Abingdon Passion Play where crowds cheered Jesus on a donkey through the Abbey Gardens in Abingdon.

In our Trinity Service Sheet today, Deacon Selina recalls the crowds in Kenya when the Queen visited in 1979. Selina says ‘We were so close to her and marvelled at the way in which she was the most exquisite, flawless person we had ever seen!’.

The Queen will be giving a message to the nation this evening at 8 pm.

Here is the video from which that picture of the Abingdon Passion Play was taken. We were seven years younger then.

This old postcard shows what Isolation looked like in Abingdon one hundred years ago. The postcard of the Isolation Hospital was published by T. Leach, Abingdon.

Founded in 1901, Thomas Leach Colour are still printing to this day, having survived the Great Depression, two world wars, and countless recessions.

Forecasters have predicted a sunny weekend, but with all the play parks closed, families today were going for walks and playing in open grassy areas, during their allowed time out for exercise.

People were keeping their distance as much as possible but in places like the town end of the Ock Valley Walk that was not as easy as usual.

Peter sent me this Thank-you NHS picture from the Radley Road.

This painted mirror was on the Caldecott Road. The Isolation Hospital building now makes part of Abingdon Community Hospital, run by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.

The message coming across from the NHS Trust looks more stark this evening. On the news the message being repeated is stay at home.

M sent me this picture of a seat in Albert Park with 10 cider cans and a wrapper. M says No-one is going to pick them up without gloves and a grabber. If this is the sort of thing some Abingdon people do they need to stop, especially at a time like this.

Tony sent me this picture and asked What is going on here?

Tiger Moth, a longboat covered in camouflage rigging, is a familiar sight in Abingdon, but what is it doing moored at 90 degrees to the flow of the river, at the end of the island near the lock? Is it a case of shipwreck? Or extreme social distance measures?

I did hear from the owner that he had let his boat for a while and was living on dry land.

At Abingdon Lock, a public notice say that the lock keeper is avoiding social contact (more so than usual) but still carrying out all essential duties.

There was no sign of him but near the lock there was a digger and some work people doing something to the banks.

Government-allowed-exercise, during the Covid-19 pandemic, is a chance for us landlubbers to walk and cycle and revisit out of the way places near Abingdon. I now realise this could conflict with the interests of boat owners who are seeing a bigger footfall than usual. One BBC Report says ‘canal boat residents say they might as well be living “in the middle of Tesco” because towpaths remain open making social-distancing impossible.’

The EA are advising little boat movement currently. They cannot yet identify and deal with buoys, that have moved during the strong stream conditions, or deal with fallen trees.

The short waterways season will be late starting. When the restrictions are lifted there may not be as many boats about because a lot of people (including those from overseas) have cancelled their holidays.

The EA have also suspended fishing at lock and weir sites until further notice.

Our walk took us away from the Thames towards Swift Ditch Lock, the first pound lock on the Thames. For 50 years up to 1790 it was the main navigation channel. The overgrown lock walls can be seen beside a footpath that goes to Clifton Hampden – a ten mile circular walk.

There is a sign outside The White Horse pub saying Thank you NHS.

There is a Healthy Abingdon web page with information about the NHS and other services to help people at this time… http://www.healthyabingdon.org.uk/coronavirus.htm.

Lucy asked me to let people know of a new scheme she is setting up to help some of the independent shops through this time. …https://www.facebook.com/pg/ox14independents.

Most independents are closed and probably still need to pay rent.

Most supermarkets have introduced queuing as they limit the number of customers in shops at any one time.

Tesco Extra prioritise the elderly and most vulnerable for one hour between 9am and 10am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and NHS staff  between 9am and 10am every Tuesday and Thursday.

Waitrose dedicate the first hour to elderly and vulnerable shoppers, as well as those who look after them.

Both shops now have new flow signs, and dedicated marshals to help manage queues, and remind customers of the two-metre social distancing rule.

Hopefully the days of panic buying toilet rolls are over.

Who would have predicted the two-metre social distancing rule: certainly not Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council with their Happy to Chat benches.