Womens Cycle Tour race through Abingdon

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This Monday at around noon, the AJ Bell Womens Cycle Tour, raced through Abingdon.

It was the first of six days of racing from Oxfordshire to Suffolk. Before they came through, the bollards were removed from Abingdon Bridge (weak bridge awaiting repairs), and the road was brushed.

Lots of outriders on motorbikes came through before the race. One rider stopped and stood in front of a car in Bridge Street, with a flag, to warn the riders of the obstacle.

There was a reporter interviewing spectators near the Crown and Thistle.

The riders came up the rise of Abingdon Bridge in a large bunch (called a ‘peloton’ in the Tour de France), with support cars behind. Crowds cheered as they came up Bridge Street, and by the fair on the Market Place. They raced by in seconds

More people were waiting to cheer them through Stert Street.

The race highlights will be shown this evening at 9pm on ITV4. Also I have made it my entry for the city daily photographers start of month theme day on ‘winning’. More entries here. Thankyou to Elizabeth for the last picture.

Abingdon Street Fair set up and Fair Service

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This is the view from our window, early this morning, as a children’s ride awaits its turn to join the other rides in the fair.

This is the view at about midday as people work hard to put together the many parts of the Hebborn’s Waltzer.

This is how far they had got.

Here are some of the people who, like me, take pictures of the workers setting up the fair.
Just before 7 pm, Revd, Charles Miller arrived to lead the Fair Service .

Music for hymns was provided by Abingdon Town Band

The Mayor and Abingdon Town Councillors helped to lead the service. The Mayor thanked many people for making the fair possible, including Mr William Wilson M.B.E., and his wife Emily, who lead the organisation of the fair.

After the service, those that wanted could have a ride on Hebborn’s Galloping Horses carousel. Pictured are Mr Nigel Warner, the Town Clerk; Cllr Samantha Bowring, the leader of the town council; and The Mayor, Cllr Cheryl Briggs.

Abingdon resident Joan celebrates 100th birthday

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Joan Watt had her 100th birthday on Monday 4th October in Abingdon. Family travelled from Plymouth, Bristol, West Bromwich, Stafford and Lincolnshire to celebrate this special occasion.

This picture, taken in September 2018, shows Joan with Ena Mitchell. Ena is now 103.

Joan was born in Deal, Kent in 1921. The family moved to Lodge Hill which was a munitions depot, near Chatham. A Naval launch would cross the river Medway to pick up the school children and take them to the dockyard and the children could then walk to school in the town.

At the start of the Second World War Joan was an aircraft spotter.

She and her husband moved to Abingdon in April 1963. She has three daughters, five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

Joan and Ena are well known at Trinity church. Joan has been knitting clothing for the homeless for 25 or 30 years. In her early 90s she walked all around Abingdon, including the mile to Trinity and back again, but cannot walk so much anymore.

These pictures were taken on the day of family and Joan receiving her telegram from the Queen.

The Complete Philosophy Collection at Abingdon Library (181 – 199)

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The path: a new way to think about everything
From Confucius to Xunzi
six of the great – but largely unknown –
Chinese philosophers
show us the way to live well.

The Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet
The wisdom of the Tao
winds its way
through these children’s books
in a whimsical way.

The hemlock cup : Socrates, Athens and the search for the good life
This biography puts the physical
back into the metaphysical.
We think the way we think
because he thought the way he thought.

Lessons in Stoicism by John Sellars
The ideas of the great Stoic Philosophers –
Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius –
“Don’t explain your philosophy.
Embody it.”

A practical guide to philosophy for everyday life
Philosophy can make you aware
of what you think and why,
and help you take charge
of what you think and why.

A Short History of Modern Philosophy
Descartes by way of Spinoza, Leibniz, Hobbes,
Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer,
Kierkegaard, Marx, Nietzsche, Mill, Frege, Husserl,
Heidegger, Wittgenstein to post-modernist philosophy.

(written for Abingdon Share a Poem October 2021 where the topic was Philosophy)