Bus lanes

To wind up out stay in Orchard Park noticed at reference 1, we took a stroll along the part of the bus way to the north of the A14. According to gmaps the NCN51. And according to Bing 'NCN51 is a cycle route running across the South Midlands and East Anglia, from Oxford to Colchester via Cambridge and the Haven Ports. From Harwich to Colchester, the route forms part of the EuroVelo 2 Capitals Route and the EuroVelo 12 North Sea Circuit'. From which we deduce we have both a bus route and a cycle route - with the only remaining catch being that while the description of the cycle route provided does include Cambridge, it does not fit in other ways.

Approaching the A14, bottom right in the bit of map above. Quiet at the time of the snap, but the buses - looking pretty much like ordinary buses - were frequent enough and went along at a fair clip - and there were quite a few bicycles. Some of them looked to be commuters and some of them both had bells and used them, which was good.

There were a lot of these blue flowers in the verges and hedgerows to our right. Identified, rather to my surprise, by Google Images as chicory, Cichorium intybus. See reference 2. Which seems to agree well enough with what I can make of the entry in Bentham & Hooker.

And if the weather were to hold, there would be enough blackberries to pick in a few days. See reference 3 for the story at Epsom, about a week previous.

A curious bit of masonry in the middle of a field, which gmaps suggests might be a memorial stone to Elizabeth Woodcock. Given which clue, Bing reveals it to be a replica of a monument set up to commemorate a lady boozer, on the way back from Cambridge market one dark night, who fell off her horse, got snowed in and eventually died of complications. A lesson to all those who take strong drink on dark winter nights. See reference 4.

Back in the estate, a courtyard garden for one of the blocks of flats. Not clear how access is shared.

That evening, a return visit to the Fox at Bar Hill, first visited getting on for a couple of years ago and noticed at reference 5. Not changed much, but being evening, quite a few flashy young men with flashy cars, possibly from Essex, with young girls to match.

I took something close to veggie, a salad involving beans, cous-cous and stuff like that. Just a sprinkling of chicken. Slightly spoiled by a dollop of very vinegary red cabbage at the bottom of the bowl.

BH not too keen on the big roads and big junctions she had to negotiate to get back to our hotel. But to her credit, she made it. Even if she did muddle up the Premier Inn and the Travelodge just along the way.

There were lots of cars in the car park and the barmaid said that the bar had been busy. We wondered if the hotel did not function at weekends as a trysting place for the older couple, perhaps hooked up over the Internet.

While the following morning, at least two flashy motorbikes in the hotel car park. Perhaps there was a gathering of middle aged long-hairs somewhere in the vicinity.

While all the scooters came with a special holder for the hirer's mobile phone. Wouldn't want them to fall offline when on their travels, speeding along the roads and pavements of Cambridge. Plus cod village sign. No duck pond to go with it though.

PS: in the margins of checking up on the chicory, we came across Dr. Hessayon's floral version of the wheel of colour. A version which went, to my mind, rather beyond the colour printing capability of his printer. Never mind the several layers of image processing needed to get it here. A version of the yellow-magenta-blue half of the regular RGB colour wheel, for which see references 6 and 7. All a bit misleading to my mind, as you get flowers all round that colour wheel, even if there are not that many green ones. And then there is white to worry about. I wonder where he lifted his colour names from? Are the colours of flowers linked to the colour receptors in the eyes of the birds and insects which do the business for them?

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/09/orchard-park.html.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicory.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/09/blackberries-2.html.

Reference 4: https://histonandimpingtonvillagesociety.wordpress.com/history/impington/elizabeth-woodcocks-adventure/.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2021/11/through-tunnel.html.

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_wheel.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementary_colors.