I went for a walk along the River Ock to see if anybody had built a new bridge. It did not seem very likely but somebody had seen something on facebook and that is how rumor’s start. A bridge had been proposed when the brewery was redeveloped but the residents didn’t want it.

Somebody had been building a stick teepee.

There was a fallen tree, and some stepping trunk segments.
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Here are a couple of Muntjac, quite safe because there is no bridge.

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.