Osney power station

Osney power station perches at the edge of the Isis across from East street on Osney Island, thanks to Henry VIII. Osney Abbey, one of the great Augustinian Canon Register houses of medieval England, occupied the site half a millennium ago, until it was reduced to rubble. But it wasn't the corpulent king's wanton dissolution of …

Fairy rings

One morning each autumn, on the East Street towpath, a Christmas wreath-like fairy ring springs up next to one of the old wooden pilings. English folklore: cavorting fairies; German tradition: witches; the Danes: devils. The true provenance, though, is stranger still. Neither plant nor animal, fairy rings begin in a tight cluster, ground-level fruit of …

Winter’s a comin’

Heat shimmers off the unmoving Isis. Beneath the surface, abundant perch and trout and crayfish outdistance the hungry anglers stalking along the towpath further down the river below Osney Lock. Fruit, flowers, flies, 'n' fishes, all are ripe in today's bleach-white sun. Branches are heavy and harvest-ready. Winter must be just round the corner.

The bridges of Osney Island

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