Just 50 days until the election and the UKIP Common Sense Tour bus visited Abingdon town centre early on Sunday morning.
Their local candidate Alan Harris was on board.
UKIP, the UK Independence Party, want the UK to leave the EU. They did very well in the European Elections last year, and it will be interesting to see how well they do in the national elections.
Walking up West St Helen Street I met a friend carrying two white packages tied with a pink ribbon.
Many people had the same idea, this Mothers Day, of visiting Patisserie Pascal. They sold over a thousand croissants, not to mention all the flans and gateaus and breads.
After a busy Saturday there were still a fabulous selection of flowers on sale at Fabulous Flowers on Sunday.
At Trinity Church we had a Blessing for the Flowers, followed by the distribution of flowers, where baskets of pink carnations were given out by the children to the ladies of the church. (The poster is from the Radley Village Notice board, near the station. The Radley Church probably has their own way of celebrating Mothering Sunday which as a church event has a long history.)
I got an email 3 days ago from M … “On going on my regular Abingdon to Oxford Thames path walk last Sunday I was shocked and upset to see that all the old riverside trees from opposite Nuneham Park boathouse for some miles upriver have been cut down to stumps. Parts of the lovely river walk resembled a war zone or nightmare landscape. Cut branches and trunks had been left lying beside the path, some with buds that will now not develop and underfoot the mud has been churned up by the heavy vehicles that must have been used to do this. I have searched local papers and looked online to find out why this has happened but have been unable to find anything. I do not know if you know anything about this but feel that I cannot be the only person who has noticed or think it deserves a comment.”
I spoke with a dog walker, today. He said walking through these trees used to be so magical, but now they have been destroyed it looks quite bland. He says the trees overhanging the river need chopping back from time to time but not like this. People were shocked.
A lot of the trees are now stacked ready for collection.
It is mentioned in the planning application about opening a restaurant at 1-3 Bury Street that Unit 3 is potentially soon to become vacant. A Closing Down notice has now appeared in the window.
From 4 dedicated card shops, a few years ago, there will soon be just the one in Abingdon. Although increasingly, other retailers offer greeting cards.