It goes without saying that I would miss the people. I would also miss living so close to the River Ock and River Thames – two very different rivers.
The swans were pictures on Christmas Day 2014 near St Helen’s Wharf.
I’m participating in the City Daily Photo Theme Day for Feb 1st.
(Please click on the link to view what other people from around the world would miss about their cities and towns.)
The old tradition of Wassailing was brought to Abingdon today in Caldecott Meadow.
The event was conceived by the South Abingdon Children’s Centre, and the Abingdon Carbon Cutters. The master of ceremonies came dressed as a Green Man.
Entertainment was provided by The Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers, and the Abingdon Music Centre.
On arriving, we were given mulled apple juice – cooked on an open fire.
Inside the Children’s Centre, and on the Abingdon Museum stall outside, there were tables and various implements to make decorations, and rattles for the ceremony.
The Green Man led us in the actual Wassail ceremony.
He said a verse…
Then we all joined in the refrain ”
Wake up! Wake up Oh Apple Tree!
Wake up! We Wassail Thee!”.
The Wassail involved a lot of noise: saucepans were struck and rattles were rattled.
As part of this new-old-tradition we were encouraged to “Cut out Toast Shapes, and dress the Trees“.
“Oooh, it snowed!” was my first thought on getting up this morning. I quickly filled up with porridge and set out, unshaven, with my camera.
On Abingdon Market Place, stall holders were setting up the quarterly Local Excellence Market. Next one is May, then August.
The big news is that the Abingdon Country Market are making their first appearance at the Local Excellence Market – as featured in last week’s Abingdon Herald.
I also spoke to the man from the watercress stall. I think he said he was from Alresford, near Winchester. Watercress beds need spectacularly clean flowing water, and they use chalk-filtered water from bore holes. I gather there used to also be watercress produced at Ewelme, near Wallingford, but I don’t believe that is harvested anymore.
After the snow came rain, and it brightened up during the morning, and the snow melted.
I hope it keeps nice for The Wassail, from 2:30 to 4:30, at South Abingdon Children Centre.
Lesley Writes about her Abingdon neighbour, Tony Broad …
This is a small incite into the background of my former neighbour Tony Broad who died on 15th January aged 93. He talked a lot about his work at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge where so much innovative research was being undertaken over the years.
Tony went through Technical college and then to EMI where he honed his technical knowledge on Cathode Ray Tubes. He worked under Otto Klemperer there.
Georgina Ferry, a Scientific blogger, writes that he was the creator of a nobel prizewinning x-ray tube.
He was the inventor and creator of many clever devices, before and after. After working at Cambridge he moved to Harwell and then set up his own company where he worked on early hole in the wall cash machines. Even in retirement he would spend his time creating fixing and rebuilding things. His work was his life.
Lesley says Tony also had narcolepsy all his life. He would fall asleep when she was visiting him and even on his mobility scooter once. But still managed to execute his work brilliantly.
Pictured is – a rotating anode tube of the type originally designed by Tony Broad – his most important invention (Picture Thanks to: Daniel W. Rickey, Wikimedia Commons).