Thanks to Captain K for this report …

This week on behalf of the Environment Agency, an independent company has been dredging the river just up from the swimming pool and being a boater I couldn’t resist the opportunity to ask about the operation.

“Are you going to remove the huge tree and silt near the entrance to the lock”

“No, we’ve only been tasked to dredge this bit!

“But this stretch doesn’t need dredging?”

“We know that, what’s more yesterday we had to pull a boat off that ran aground in the middle of the river at the stretch by the lock you refer too!”

“Clearly then you’re dredging the wrong part?”

“Quite possibly! but this is where the E.A want us to dredge, not up there!”

“So where are you taking the spoils? I see you taking it by barge downstream.”

“We’re dumping back in the river just past Culham Cut !”

“But that will silt up the weir and new Culham Hydro Project?”

“Quite possibly.”

Abingdon Lock is getting to be more than a way of getting from one level of the River Thames to another.

The Whippet Kitchen opened last weekend – serving coffee, tea, home-made cakes, and ice cream. It got its name from the whippet that lives at the lock cottage. The cafe will be open most weekends over the summer, but being a small operation that cannot be guaranteed.

There are now even more sculptures by the artist known locally as ‘River Banksy’. Sculptures just appear overnight and very little is known about the artist.

Abingdon Lock has some new signage – taken from ‘The Idiots Guide To Boating’.

There is also a sign warning of a bee nest at the weir. At first the bees were suspected to be the endangered White Tailed Bee, but on closer inspection they turned out to be just common tree bees (see inset).

There were lots of little goslings out with their parents this evening. They will need to keep warm through the current cold snap.

Looking across to St Helen’s Wharf, there are the very old Long Alley Almshouses (built 1446-7), and the newer Brick Alley Almshouses (built 1718-1720), and the pollarded Plane trees. They create a harmonious view with all those vertical lines in the water.

Next door is the Old Anchor Inn where new people have recently taken over.

At the Cricket ground somebody has made a fence out of pallets, possibly so they don’t loose their cricket balls quite so often.

The river by St Helen’s Wharf looked like a painting – the River Thames was so still and the clouds had an evening glow.

At the Margaret Brown Gardens some young lads ran over when I was taking this picture. They looked into the water for a scooter that another lad had allegedly thrown into the water.

All that was visible in the shallow water was a bicycle somebody else must have thrown in

Over the road from the Margaret Brown Gardens, the former Hygienic Laundry site has been made into flats.