The Abbey Cinema is open and showing films. This evening was the last showing of the blockbuster Tenet. The next films to appear will be the special features: David Attenborough: A Life on our Planet and Three Tenors: Voices for Eternity.

Circling above Abingdon town centre at around midday, today, there was a helicopter.

I was entering the library at that time and it made it difficult to hear – especially with face coverings.

I raved, to the lady outside the door, about the book I was returning. I  dropped it in the box with the other returned books. I then used the hand sanitiser. Some landed on my hands and some spurted onto the floor.

The lady at the main desk then asked whether I wanted to read anymore by the author I had mentioned. Despite the helicopter, she had overheard. She looked on the system and found another book by that author, on the shelves, at 823.
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This coming Wednesday, the theme for the Abingdon Share a Poem group is Autumn. In the same shelf as 823 was 821 – Poetry. So one thing led to another and I found some good books and checked them out with the self service system. Outside I took a picture of fallen leaves.

I have not seen the Big Issue lady for some time but she was there, today, next to the mother and child statue. My wife thought the helicopter had been looking for a missing six year old who had been found.

Seeing St Helen’s Wharf this evening, made me realise autumn is here. Today’s date – September 21st – is on or near the autumn equinox.

Green leaves have turned to browns and gold on some trees opposite St Helen’s Wharf.

Autumn events like the Michaelmas Fair and Craft Fair will not be happening this year – like so many events in Spring and Summer that were cancelled. The rate of transmission of Covid-19 is on the increase again in the second wave. This will not be a normal autumn.

We had a few days away as an alternative to the holiday abroad that was cancelled. See the Not Abingdon Blog.

I could not sleep and got up early this morning – September 1st. The sunrise at St Helen’s Wharf was awesome.

The light from the low sun caught the tops of the buildings up Bridge Street, and a cloud of water vapour spread out from Didcot B Power Station.

The sun lit up the undersides of the arches of Abingdon Bridge.

and brightened the trees as seen from the wider span of the bridge. Trees are starting to turn to their autumn colours.

St Helen’s Church and Fairlawn Wharf were lit up in contrast to the darker clouds above.

Early sunlight lit up the dewey ground and dazzled.

September is here. New beginnings. Most school children will be going back to school soon. I saw some Extinction Rebellion posters in Steventon with a picture of a tree and the slogan Build Back Better.The starker XR posters on public boxes and flower containers in Abingdon say there is a protest outside parliament today – September 1st.

There were swallows near Abingdon Bridge this morning. Having recently arrived back after wintering south of the Sahara, they were feeding on the clouds of insects over the River Thames. This swallow is pictured over the roof of Annie’s Tearoom.

Near the tearoom were geese with young. They seem to be communal birds: a group of adults look after the young.

Unhatched eggs are also kept in a communal way.

After a mild winter, the Plane trees on St Helen’s Wharf are coming back into leaf.

A little further along, on Wilsham Road, a bungalow, called Isis, has been demolished, and is being replaced by a four bedroom house.