The Christmas Tree in the Information Centre in Old Abbey House had been near perfect and hardly dropped a needle, but like many other trees it was taken to the Market Place today …
where it was reduced to chips and taken away to be used as mulch.
Most of the Christmas lights in the town centre were off tonight. That could be because we are beyond Twelfth Night (5th December).
But some of the lights along Bath Street are still on.
According to wikipedia, there are some that count the 6th December as Twelfth Night because they start each new day at sunset, so Twelfth Night precedes Twelfth Day.
Anyway, Christmas trees can be recycled on the Market Place on Saturday 8th January by a very friendly group of lads… or they can be taken to Millets Farm up to Saturday 15th January, or put out next to your brown bin if you pay for a brown bin.
The Nags Head pub has a unique location on an island on the River Thames. Abingdon Bridge connects it to Abingdon, and Burford Bridge connects it to South Oxfordshire. On warm summer days it is a popular place to sit near the river, drink a pint, eat chips, and watch the boats go by.
Boat trips leave from the pub’s island to Oxford and Wallingford. It seems to have a wonderful location, for the summer, so I’m sad to say, it has closed. Let’s hope it turns out to be just a winter closure.
More than the usual number of swans can be found waiting near St Helen’s Wharf.
The Swan Uppers – who normally catch and weigh swans as part of the royal swan census in July – would have their hands full if they arrived right now.
The black swan is still there – probably an escapee from a wildlife park and originally from Australia. The odds may look stacked against it but at one time the very thought of a black swan was a way of saying something was almost impossible.