Every Poppy Counts

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Building Work
Volunteers will be running a pop-up Poppy stall outside Abingdon’s Royal British Legion this weekend to ensure everyone who wants to, can donate and wear a poppy.

Alongside the traditional paper poppy, they will be offering 2020 and VE day pin badges as well as Remembrance crosses and even teddy bears.

100 poppy boxes have gone out to schools, churches and shops in the town. But like so many things this year, the Poppy Appeal has had to adapt to the threat of COVID-19. This means there will be NO poppy sellers on the street, doing house-to-house collections or at Tesco Extra or Waitrose.

Clare Oldfield, poppy appeal organiser, said: ‘Abingdon has always taken the poppy to heart raising some £200,000 in the past four years alone. The impact of COVID-19 has left some in the armed forces community in dire need of support and we need your backing more than ever because every poppy counts in the help it provides.’

The pop-up stall, which accepts contactless payments, will run outside the Spring Road club from 10am – 4pm on weekends from Saturday October 24 to Saturday November 7.

Poppies will also be available at:
* Costa Coffee
* Java
* R&R
* The Co-op
* Masons
* The Bookstore
* The One Stop shop on Wootton Road
* Budgens, Peachcroft
* The Royal British Legion
* The Conservative Club
* Trinity Church
* St Michael’s Church
* St Nicholas Church
* St Helen’s Church
* Ock Street church cafe

A dedicated Poppy Appeal page appears on the Legion website and can be found at www.britishlegion.org.uk/get-involved/poppy-appeal.

Earth movers on North Abingdon fields

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Building Work
It looks like building work is about to start in the fields to the north of Abingdon. The earth movers are making a road to take lorries from the Wootton Road.
Building Work
There is no sign of the south facing slips roads on the A34. They are funded by this building work to try to prevent Abingdon’s local traffic getting worse.
Building Work
Here is a picture of the Drayton Road in South Abingdon at the weekend, where housing was put in without road improvements.

Reflections on Ock Street

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Illusions
Cars turn from Ock Street into Stratton Way, and are reflected in the shop window glass.

I stood watching until the traffic lights changed. The liquid amber trees can be seen beyond in The Square.
Illusions
The Town Council have not yet said publically what form the remembrance ceremony will take. The big light-up poppies have been installed. Wreaths from the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII are still there at the war memorial.

Church under Covid-19.

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Church under Covid-19
At Trinity the building was reopened for church services six weeks ago, after ensuring a Covid-19 risk assessment was in place.

People are socially distanced, and sanitise their hands on the way in, and mostly pre-book. Everybody registers. People wear face covering, and do not sing the hymns but listen and watch videos of hymns, or listen to the piano.

The service is only 45 minutes rather than an hour. The sermon, prayers, and readings are not very different.  But because people are wearing face coverings the preacher does not get the same feedback.

Before the lockdown people would stay around chatting for up to another hour after the service, but now leave within minutes.
Church under Covid-19
This week was harvest. There were displays of flowers, and a few fruit and vegetables. Normally there is a procession during the first hymn as people bring up tins and packets of rice and pasta to be given to a homeless shelter or Asylum Welcome. This year people donated money so that produce could be brought on their behalf for Asylum Welcome.

At Trinity, service sheets with sermons are sent out beforehand to people who are not able to attend. Other churches stream their services.