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.

Near St Helen’s Church a group of Ladybirds were looking for food on a Comfrey Plant.

They had woken up from their group hibernation.

Forsythia was in flower nearby.

Walking along the Ock Valley Walk there were many blossoms and tiny leaves.

Celandine flowers grew up among the young nettles and ivy.