After a couple of months of remote learning, schools welcomed children and students back for the start of lockdown easing.
It was a lovely day and blossoms lit up the walk by the almshouses in Abingdon.
From the blossoms I heard my first gathering of bees of the year.
After hibernating over the winter, some bees have woken.
We also saw our first ants exploring our house.
Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council will provide an update of its work at this meeting, which will be on-line for the first time. Last year the annual parish meeting was one of the last events before lockdown. At the meeting the Chairs of the Council’s various Committees present reports to the meeting to detail what the Committee has been doing during the last year. There is also an opportunity to ask questions. For more details, including how to submit questions beforehand, see https://www.abingdon.gov.uk/town-council/annual-parish-meeting.
Fund raising in more difficult in these times. In 2019 the Lions made over £4,000 taking round their Santa Sledge. The Virtual Santa in 2020 made £195.
The Lions donated £170 to The Stonehill Community Garden to help them set up a 7,000-litre water tank to allow them to use rainwater alone for their garden. Some of the lions volunteer with garden, and they have donated items before.
The Lions donated items for the Abingdon Foodbank. The foodbank said in February that demand at the Foodbank is still high and they were looking for: tinned meat to make hot meals (mince, stew, meatballs), instant coffee, and also plain couscous.
The Lions kicked off their Easter fund raiser, knitted Easter Chicks with cream eggs. They have had nearly 200 chicks donated so far, some with cream eggs. Tesco Extra Abingdon has also kindly donated some cream eggs. Covid has meant that they have had to try new ways of selling them, and are currently use facebook to sell them at £2 each.
Other items they donated included:
• £50 for Kennington Playgroup to help them buy a fog cleaning machine.
• £314 for a powerful blender for a family that needs it due to a medical condition.
• A promise the support a family to buy a car safety harness, once covid allows.
Thankyou to Daniel for these pictures of the new Fairacres Phase 2 and Lidl store as viewed from the air.
When the construction of Fairacres Phase 2 began I was considering visiting the revamped Hilton Garden Inn (on the left) to get some pictures from the top floor. I gave up on that idea because of the pandemic. However Daniel’s view is even better with his drone.
This views shows Fairacres in the centre, and Miele to its left, with the 50 acres of Abingdon Business Park behind, and behind that the houses of north Abingdon.