Last Saturday (Abingdon Cuts Plastic) This Saturday (Guide Dogs in the rain)

Against Plastic
Last Saturday Abingdon Cuts Plastic were having a small clean-up. Numbers were restricted, because of Covid-19, to 6 in canoes and 6 on land.

They were doing it as part of the Surfers Against Sewage 6 week Plastic Protest, which started on 5th September and ends on 18th October. SAS are lobbying MPs to include in the Environment Bill, that all businesses set plastic reduction targets. They need as many people as possible to show they support this idea.
Against Plastic
Also they want people to photograph “evidence” of branded rubbish that’s ended up as litter, and send it to SAS. Instagram has lots of #returntooffender pictures.

Anne, who sent me the pictures, told me that they found:
* lots of Budweiser bottles in the Abbey Grounds
* 6 sackfuls of non-recyclable waste
* 4 large sackfuls of recyclable waste
The most unusual find was an ancient car horn.
Against Plastic
It rained a lot of yesterday and it has rained a lot of today and the forecast has a high probability of rain for most of next week. Cars had their lights on at midday today.
Against Plastic
Despite the rain, Guide Dogs went ahead with a stall on Abingdon Market Place. New Guide Dog training did stop for a couple of months at the start of the pandemic and restarted in June. This did mean a longer wait for some people needing a replacement Guide Dog.

Abingdon Community Fridge – reminder

Abingdon Community Fridge
Thankyou to Margaret for a reminder on the work of Abingdon Community Fridge.

Abingdon Community Fridge is alive and well and thriving.   It combats food waste by collecting surplus food from local supermarkets and redistributing to the community.   The fridge is open to all and is located at Abingdon Health & Wellbeing Centre, Audlett Drive, OX14 3GD..   Its opening times are currently Mondays 6 – 7pm, Wednesdays 10.30 – 11.30 am and Saturdays 10.30 – 1130 am.
Abingdon Community Fridge
Contents vary depending on supermarket surplus, but there is usually lots of bread, fruit and vegetables available.  It is always useful to check the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/abingdoncommunityfridge/)

Fairly Major Tree Felling

Abingdon
Ben has just sent in another tree story. He reports a fairly major tree felling going on in the Albert Park yesterday afternoon. This affected trees near the park depot.
Abingdon
Today was the 1st of October. I visited the park at about 8:30 am, and I could not see much sign of the previous day’s tree felling as the logs had been removed.
Abingdon
There was some sawdust, and the tree with the kinky horizontal branch had lost some kinks.
Abingdon
Otherwise things were as to be expected at this time of year. Leaves are turning from green to brown. If money grew on trees, we’d soon be raking it in.

Abbey Cinema, Library, and Big Issue

Abingdon
The Abbey Cinema is open and showing films. This evening was the last showing of the blockbuster Tenet. The next films to appear will be the special features: David Attenborough: A Life on our Planet and Three Tenors: Voices for Eternity.
Abingdon
Circling above Abingdon town centre at around midday, today, there was a helicopter.

I was entering the library at that time and it made it difficult to hear – especially with face coverings.

I raved, to the lady outside the door, about the book I was returning. I  dropped it in the box with the other returned books. I then used the hand sanitiser. Some landed on my hands and some spurted onto the floor.

The lady at the main desk then asked whether I wanted to read anymore by the author I had mentioned. Despite the helicopter, she had overheard. She looked on the system and found another book by that author, on the shelves, at 823.
Abingdon<
This coming Wednesday, the theme for the Abingdon Share a Poem group is Autumn. In the same shelf as 823 was 821 – Poetry. So one thing led to another and I found some good books and checked them out with the self service system. Outside I took a picture of fallen leaves.

I have not seen the Big Issue lady for some time but she was there, today, next to the mother and child statue. My wife thought the helicopter had been looking for a missing six year old who had been found.