At St Ethelwold’s House over the last week there has been an exhibition called ‘House and Home – A celebration of community’.
From what I can gather, talking to somebody there, the houses have been made by students and staff from seven different local schools. 
Radley College is behind the project and will be showing the houses in their state of the art gallery.
Thankyou to Anne and Peter for letting me know and for some of the pictures.
The Christmas Fayre at the Baptist Church was on, today, Saturday 20th November 2021. On entering, a man with a top hat and face mask gives you a card, with the times of the services this Christmas time, and a token for a free drink at the 35 Ock Street Cafe.
Through the door, and up to the balcony and this is the view: a cross, five Christmas trees, a red carpet, and stalls.
Then you go downstairs to look round the stalls and buy some books and a jigsaw. You are tempted by a knitted octopus but then think, ‘what would I do with it?’.
On the way out you pick up Contact, the monthly magazine of Abingdon Baptist Church. There is a message from the minister, Steve Millard. It says, ‘As I’m sure most of you are aware, Heather and I will be moving at the end of November; we are moving to Coventry, and I take up my role as Minister of Laurence Saunders Road Baptist Church on 1 December…’.
You go into the 35 Ock Street Cafe and have a quick look at the exhibition and see Steve Millard.
Finally, you get your coffee and find a place to read the rest of the Contact magazine.
The Traveling Wilburys played the Abbey Cinema in Abingdon this evening. The group is made up of Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, George Harrison (look-alike sound-alikes) and drummer . They not only played Wilbury songs but also individual songs by the individual artists. There was a near capacity audience.
Merchandise included Traveling WilBearys, CDs, pens and T Shirts. A signed guitar was raffled and won by the man with pink ticket 491.
The audience left the concert after one encore. The band did not play a second encore.
Oswald Couldrey was an Abingdon artist and writer. Jackie lent me a book of his poems called Triolets and Epigrams , published in 1948. A triolet is a verse form with eight short lines. The first line is repeated three times (hence the name), and the second line is repeated twice.
Here are two which mention Abingdon or an Abingdon place. I have put back the date for selection of the Abingdon poems collection to the end of January 2022 in the hope of finding more. The picture shows five trees, in Rye Farm, felled in the last fortnight, after storm damage.
Rye Farm Elms
(felled 1940)
The summer we shall find again,
But not the elms of Andersea,
That could so proudly entertain
The summer. We shall find again
Elsewhere the turtle’s crooned refrain.
Bowers, that drench with melody
The summer, we shall find again –
But not the elms of Andersea.
The Burden of Abingdon
In fifteen years, or less,
You’ll find us in the maw
Of Oxford. What a mess
In fifteen years or less !
Already our skirts caress
That foul and ravening jaw;
In fifteen years or less,
You’ll find us in the maw !