Dry Grass

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Dormant Grass
The grass here in Abingdon is turning pale. The circle pictured above is at Penlon Place, with Our Lady and St Edmund church behind. Part of grass’s natural life cycle involves becoming dormant when the roots can no longer get moisture or nutrients . The grass will turn green again when there is rain but there is no telling when that will be.
Dormant Grass
There is also a lot of yellow dust on the pavements around the civic car park, and council offices in Abingdon. The trees above have fronds of paired leaves – probably some sort of ash, and blossoms that fall as yellow dust.

Yeah Baby 10

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Yeah Baby 10
As part of Yeah Baby 10 on 7th July, author Tom Moorhouse will be talking about his books at 2.30pm at Mostly Books. Tom’s books ‘The River Singers’, ‘The Rising’ and ‘Trickster’ are for 10+ readers whilst his books about The Adventures of Mr Toad are for younger readers. A selection of Tom’s books will be available to purchase on the day. Suggested donation for the talk – £3 in support of ‘Yeah Baby’
Yeah Baby 10
Yeah Baby runs from 11am – 6pm on the Market Place then from 7pm til late at the Brewery Tap. This is the 10th Yeah Baby Free Pop Festival on the Market Place in Abingdon. All the money goes to Helen & Douglas House, Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC), and the Amber Phillpott Trust – a trust set up to research a cure for leukemia with the help of Birmingham University. Amber Phillpott was the daughter of musician James who organises the event with friend Leon.
Yeah Baby 10
It should be a sunny day if the last three weeks are anything to go. At 3.00pm the world cup quarter final game between England and Sweden kicks off. I don’t know whether anybody will arranging a big screen on the Market Place. But there are plenty of pubs roundabout with large screens. Sweden needed a big deflection to beat Switzerland, and England needed a penalty shoot out to beat Columbia. What will separate them on the day?

Barton Fields (Cornfield Annuals)

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Thankyou to David for this report …
Flowers Coming Home
Abingdon Naturalists Society’s Green Team have looked after Barton Fields Wildlife Site for the last 15 years.  During that time they have worked to enhanced the grassland by sowing and planting native flowering plants.  Last year as a trial, they sowed a small patch of ‘cornfield annuals’.  These are annual flowering plants which used to be found in cereal fields before the widespread use of herbicides.  The trial was successful and this year, helped greatly by a team from Sophos, they have sown four more patches of these annuals.  The Sophos staff can be seen working hard one day in March (C Graham Bateman)
Flowers Coming Home
and the resulting display this month (C David Guyoncourt).  The flowers benefit bees and other insects and the public seem to like them too. These plants self-seed, so we hope the display will be repeated each year, provided that encroaching grasses are removed by our team during the winter.