Monthly Archives: January 2016

Jibber Jabber – talks for parents with young children

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Southern Town Park
Jibber Jabber is a regular social group aimed at parents with young children which aims to provide stimulating talks and discussions. The sessions are relaxed enough that parents can bring their child and feed / change / play with them while the talks are going on. Location Christ Church, Northcourt, Abingdon. Next one Monday 25th January 2016 from 10:00 to 12:00.
Southern Town Park
Next speaker is Manfred Brod, a local historian specialising in the Thames Valley in the 16th and 17th centuries, whose books include Abingdon in Context, and The Case of Reading.

Southern Town Park on a cold January Morning

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Southern Town Park is at the southern edge of Abingdon on a former landfill site beyond the houses. At 9:30am this morning cars were arriving with dads and mums bringing their children to rugby practice at Abingdon RUFC. The car park was getting full, and cars were starting to park in the road.
Southern Town Park
The play park beyond the Sunny Vale of White Horse District sign was deserted at that hour so I took a few pictures.
Southern Town Park
There was little more than a couple of broken swings and a makeshift seesaw when we first visited with our children 25 years ago. It felt like a derelict out of season place.

Now there is a colourful fenced off area with little spring rockers, climbing apparatus, swings, and slides.
Southern Town Park
There is also a more rugged looking adventure play area with a zip chord, big swing, a series of pieces of equipment to climb across in sequence,
Southern Town Park
and a sand pit with large rocks, tree trunks and several springy circular boards.
Southern Town Park
There is also a basketball court. The backboards were painted by a brought in grafitti artist, with help from young children, about ten years ago, That original graffitti art has faded and been added to by the more usual graffitti of the area …
Southern Town Park
‘OX14’ and ‘SAKY’.

A Cold and Picturesque Start to Saturday

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Cold Start
The temperatures have been below freezing for the last three nights, and this morning there was a frost on pavements and roofs. This picture shows Long Alley Almshouses, built in 1446-17 by the Fraternity of the Holy Cross. It is now maintained by its successor, Christ’s Hospital of Abingdon – established in 1553.
Cold Start
Catching up after the Christmas and New Year breaks, the recycling lorry was out collecting recyclables from the large green wheelie bins, and food waste from the little green bins. Another lorry was collecting Christmas trees and compost from people who have brown wheelie bins.
Cold Start
Near Abingdon Marina, the view across the River Thames shows three of the six large cooling towers at Didcot A Power Station. The first three were blown down in July 2014, and the other three will be blown down later this year.
Cold Start
There was a layer of ice near the slipway at the Marina.
Cold Start
and large puddles were iced over,
Cold Start
as was the water where the boats are moored.

Butterworth, Clyne, and Elgar

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Anna Clyne
Dr Les Clyne, who many of us know, can be very proud of his daughter, Anna Clyne, who is becoming a well know composer on the world stage. Currently she lives in the USA, but spent some of her formative years in Abingdon.

This evening there was the UK premier of her Violin Concerto ‘The Seamstress’ at the Barbican in London. It was on Radio 3 in a concert with the BBC Symphony Orchestra containing pieces by Butterworth, Clyne, and Elgar. You can listen again here. The introduction to ‘The Seamstress’ starts at about 14:38 minutes.