Anyone walking the Ock Valley Walk between Drayton Road and St Helen’s Close this December will be struck by the number of yellow leaves still on the trees.

The path is muddy and despite wearing boots I got splattered.

The Ock Valley walk is between two streams that carry rain water and some sediment down from the Vale of White Horse.

The River Ock flows under the busy Drayton road through two main arches.

There are other arches which allow more water to flow during flooding. In 2007 even they were not enough. The water backed up and flooded the Drayton Road.

The rounded concrete on the far side is where the bridge was widened.

The water can flow from the upper to the lower stream at this mini weir – put in to protect Ock Street from floods.

At the lower end of the walk there are a lot of old tree trunks, left where they fell, or piled in damp heaps and covered in moss – a home for creepy crawlies.

I went out quite early to collect some post from the Abingdon sorting office with the red slip the postman had left. Pre lockdown they would be open most of the day for collection. That was changed to 7-9am on weekdays and a bit longer on Saturday, and now it has changed again to 8-10 am on weekdays.

At 8:10 am traffic going into town stretched most of the way back along Ock Street.

I walked back by the Ock Valley Walk. The water level has gone down from a week ago, but the water looks browner than usual.

There must be a lot more sediment being carried down from the Vale of White Horse.

This evening I went for a walk along the Ock Valley Walk. Most people were either out with their dogs, or running or cycling.

Somebody had discarded today’s Oxford Mail. The front page was about the fallout, on Cancer research jobs in Oxford, from the virus.

A mother duck, with four ducklings, got very agitated and noisy towards a ginger cat – who was attempting to follow them from the bank near the Meadowside houses.

The walk is between two rivers. Trees arch high over you on the end furthest from town. At the town end there are younger trees and the path divides in two. A trail, with wood chip laid by the Green Gym, follows the top river. The main path follows the lower river.

People and dogs are so happy now that the Ock Valley Walk has re-opened here in Abingdon.

Blossoms brighten the way.

The River Ock trickles by on both sides, the higher stream and the lower stream. They cascade together at two different weirs along the route

Then there is all the wildlife that has got used to humans not being about. This little muntjac looked a bit worried by the sight of me.