I am planning a longer ride later in the week so I thought I would have a gentle run around Wicken Fen - my usual route, but with Spring, springing, a chance to photograph the changes that the warmer weather is bringing about. From a cycling point of view I like cycling in the Summer wearing t-shirt, shorts and sandals. It somehow seems easier to cycle faster in the warm. It is certainly easier to get ready and out on the bike more quickly. From a photography point of view the change from Winter to Spring is very interesting. It is amazing how quickly leaves pop out and flowers spring up and crops starting appearing in the fields.
I am not a great fan of Electricity Pylons marching through the countryside - but I guess they are a necessary evil. I do not know how much it costs to bury cables versus stringing them up in the air but assume there is quite a large difference. We do seem to have a lot of them in the Flatlands though. We also get quite a few power glitches as well - they are prone to lightening strikes. The challenge for me is that as fewer people live in the countryside then they do not have as loud a voice as you might get in an Urban situation. Whilst I believe in majority rule - not to the out and out detriment of the minority.
Enough rambling - photographically the pylons and sub-stations do provide interesting images. Mind you I took this picture to show how the hedgerows are getting a green tinge to them.
Although I followed my usual route through White Fen to Upware I did bypass the road by cycling along some of the farmer's tracks around the fields. They are still pretty wet and I did find my front wheel dropping much deeper into a puddle than I had expected. I was also followed by a car which seemed to shoot along the track faster than I could cycle. Oh dear a boy racer - actually it turned out to be a "granny-racer" - I am not sure where she was heading - perhaps to take her dog for a walk. I liked this picture both because of the odd shape of the tree - but also because the HDR technique, with multiple exposures, combined with the problem of camera shake made it look as if the tree was disappearing into the sky.
The farm track, you have to be careful of the hidden depths within the puddles.
This road is part of the Lodes Way route, or will be when they build the bridges, again it was the green tinge on the tree-row that interested me.
It might have been a Bank Holiday - but with the late Spring the Farmers have to get out catch up with their jobs - here the Farmer is checking on his spraying.
Time for a quick look on the progress of the Reach Lode Bridge being built. As you can see the construction work is not under the same pressure as the work in the fields.This looks like on of the main bridge foundations. I should perhaps mention that I came a cropper near where my bike lays, bottom right in the picture. I use pedals that clip to my shoes, in fact I generally use pedals with clips on one side and normal on the other. Then if I am cycling on very dodgy ground I tend to use the normal side in case I need to dismount quickly. This time around I was cycling slowly, gawping and before I knew it had virtually stopped. I always unclip my left foot first, perhaps because I am left-handed I favour my left foot. (Mind you I kick a football with my right foot slightly better than if I use my left foot.) My left foot refused to unclip and I started falling onto my right-hand side. Oh dear - this could hurt - it was my right-hand collar bone that got broken in February last year. Fortunately my right foot managed to unclip and hit the ground first so I rolled rather than fell.
The Construction team have their own boat in order to cross the Lode - it was on the other bank - the blue sign reminds them to use a life-vest whenever they use the boat!
The precision of the seed drilling in the fields is probably driven by the need to maximise efficiency - it looks as if there was a mistake here. Interestingly it neatly demonstrates Moire patterns on a large scale - patterns created from the interference where two grids overlay, in this case the grids caused by sowing the seeds.
Back along the Upware road there appears to be a traffic jam - certainly for these parts. The undulating road makes it quite hard, not to say potentially harmful to the car, to drive quickly. The effect is really bad if you drive at a speed that hits the resonant frequency of the bouncing of the car. On a holiday people are prepared to take the slower route perhaps.
No rest for the Farmers though - the plough being used was sitting in the corner of the field a couple of days ago.
This shed seems to have been ignored and stands on its own at the bottom of a T-junction Bridleway on the Soham side of Wicken village. A bit of dilapidated colour and you can also see Ely Cathedral from here.
This windmill lies on the outskirts of Wicken village. I took this picture from Monk's Lode within the NT area - where it meets New River on the edge of Little Fen. It is shown on the OS map as disused, but I have seen it spinning. It lies on a little lane called Back Lane parallel to the main road though the village.
This picture is taken from the same spot - the bridge crosses over Monk's Lode, apparently dating back to Medieval times.
Another farmer hard at work.
On the Sustrans 51 route between Burwell and Wicken Fen some more cyclists enjoying the Bank Holiday.
I cycled up to High Bridge, which crosses Reach Lode - from there you could see a digger which I think was preparing the foundations for the Reach Lode Bridge. Given there is a bridge over Burwell lode I assume that this has the lowest priority in terms of getting the Lodes Way connected. Mind you it would be tricky getting over with a horse.
The wide open blue skies of the flat lands and the well tilled land as well.
Yet more somewhat dilapidated farm machinery on the fields (near to Lode - the place).
When I took this picture it was getting quite dark - you could not see the green in the fields at the same time as the sky. A picture showing the sky showed up black and a picture showing the green of the field showed a bleached sky.
A nice day's cycling - Norwich tomorrow and sun is forecast.
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