This morning, I climbed a mound with a view across wild flowers and grasses, fenland, and houses at the Abbey Fish Ponds. The sky was cloudy with small patches of blue. Later on in the day the clouds broke up and the sunshine got much brighter.

Where the grasses and meadow flowers grow are brown meadow butterflies. They flutter about. One comes one way, and meets another. They loop round each other, and then carry on.

Sometimes they land long enough for a picture.

There must be millions of flowers and insects at the Abbey Fish Ponds in July.

Birds are well hidden. They can be heard in the bushes but are difficult to see, apart from blackbirds

and wood pigeons.

Some Abbey Fish Ponds remain as ponds all through the summer.

Others get overgrown with tall reeds and sedges.

The Abbey Meadows Outdoor Pool will open for the season on July 12th and has been filled with water in readiness.

A male blackbird can be seen near the blue water. Swimming pool water is high in chlorine and is not good for him to drink. The chlorine does kill off bacteria and viruses.

Outside the pool area, in the splash pad area, the geese have been enjoying fresh grass this summer.

The splash pad will be opening on Monday 19th July. That is subject to government Covid-19 restrictions being lifted.

Geese droppings will need clearing and, as in previous summers, that should include attempts to keep the geese away.

A field of poppies brightens up the route for people travelling the corner between Radley Road and Twelve Acre Drive.

The field escaped being built upon when outline planning permission for 55 dwellings was refused in 2013. Those were the days when a green belt could protect fields from being built upon. Reasons for refusal included:

• Inappropriate development in the Oxford Green Belt.
• Visually harmful development without a distinctive sense of place.
• Harmful impact on existing services and social infrastructure without enough compensating financial contributions.