Acacia – cheers to 25 years

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Acacia, the charity shop in Bath Street, recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, and banners marking the occasion are displayed in the window.

In 2017, donations left overnight outside the shop were set alight, causing extensive damage. After a rebuild, the shop was ready to reopen in 2020 when the Covid pandemic caused further delays. Acacia at 8-10 Bath Street, was incorporated on 18 February 1997. So it is older than those 25 years but has been effectively open for 25 years .

The shop offers a wide range of items, starting with greeting cards priced at 25p.

There is a basket of miniature china jugs and vases, once-popular souvenir collectables. The Horsham jug, with its decorative lattice neck, looks worth more than the ones for Bishop Auckland, Crowborough, Dorking and Durham.

Near the window in the vintage section is a copy of The Victor Book for Boys – 1967. In it the aristocratic footballer called ‘Gorgeous Gus’, arrives pitch-side in a Rolls to find his team, with ten men, are 1-0 down. The butler tells him that his help is needed, and so he gets out and helps win the game using intelligence – not dashing about.

Gus might have appreciated another book on sale at Acacia, In Praise of Slowness. I wonder what it would have to say about charity shops. Perhaps: ‘Those who take their time find unexpected treasures.’

Tulip Tree

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The tulip tree, just to the left of the main entrance to Albert Park in Abingdon, is currently in flower. It can be identified by its four-lobed leaves and greenish-yellow flowers, marked with orange at the base.

The flowers are not immediately obvious high among the branches, I found one on the ground. Close up, I could see the tulip-shaped petals and long stamens at the centre.

Native to eastern North America, the Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) flowers for a few weeks each year in late spring. Last year I visited Albert Park every month to record how the park changed through the seasons, but missed the tree in bloom. Looking at the number of fallen petals beneath it, it has been flowering for some time already, but more blooms are still appearing.

Edible Abingdon Revisited

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The raised beds and plots planted as part of Edible Abingdon, a project of the Abingdon Carbon Cutters, are looking good again this year, especially after all the rain of the last week. Alongside fruit, vegetables and herbs grown for people to enjoy and eat, the garden outside Old Station House has animals and gnomes to be discovered.

The garden near Abbey House has been recently dug over and has herbs, strawberries and rhubarb.

Down by the Open Air Pool, is the first Edible Abingdon garden I featured on this blog back in 2015. It has been left to grow and among the herbs and other edible plants are gooseberries.

Gooseberries seem to be one of those fruits more often found in gardens than shop shelves – quite tart like rhubarb and best cooked and sweetened.

There are also three large raised beds alongside Caldecott Recreation Ground that had not been tended when I last visited (a few days ago). I am not sure who looks after them, or whether they are intended for community gardeners to take in hand.

Happy Pride Month

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June is Pride Month, an annual celebration and awareness campaign that raises awareness of LGBTQ+ communities and celebrates diversity. In Abingdon, the occasion is being marked in a variety of ways. The County Hall Museum and Abingdon School are both flying the Progress Pride Flag.

In Abingdon, several organisations and businesses are also marking the month in their own way. At Mostly Books, a display of books highlights the diversity of LGBTQ+ voices and experiences.

At Helen & Douglas House, dresses arranged in rainbow colours are displayed alongside Pride flags and bunting.

The British Heart Foundation has brought together rainbow-coloured donations that staff have been saving, creating a colourful themed display.

Later this month, Abingdon Drama Club will present Things I Know to Be True, a family drama that explores how people respond when long-held assumptions about home, family and identity are challenged. Each of the siblings faces a personal crisis, including one who is transitioning from male to female.

And before all that, there was the rainbow in a stained-glass window at St Helen’s Church. It appears in the story of Noah, where God sets the rainbow in the sky as a sign of a covenant after the flood.

A rainbow contains a spectrum of colours that can be divided into seven, twenty-four, three hundred and sixty, or infinitely many shades. Whether or not diversity was what the biblical writer had in mind, the rainbow has remained a symbol for millennia, taking on new meanings for different generations.