Walk from Somersham to Colne

Managed to do a new Somersham walk on Tuesday morning, being on holiday this week and Linda in playschool that morning. The route (walk 2) is shown here, click to enlarge, and goes from the car park in the centre of Somersham to the village of Colne. The walk is four miles of easy walking.

Good points of this walk are that in spring and autumn there’ll be fruit blossom or fruit in the orchards along the route, the footpath will go amongst golden wheat in late summer and The Green Man pub is half way. Not so good is that the route is not circular so you have to retrace some of the walk, and Colne village is a big disappointment, being mostly 20^thc housing. Another Somersham walk of 2.5 miles is shown below.

It’s been a week of walks with the weather much sunnier. Managed to fit in the walk along The Thicket to Houghton, across to Hemingford Abbots and a coffee at The Axe and Compass, and finally back across the water meadow at St Ives. Today walked across the fields from St Ives to Woodhurst. The map for this walk is also shown below, length being 4.6 miles. For more details about great walks in Cambridgeshire click the link to my other blog site 'Cambridgeshire Walks'.

Made some headway on the allotment this week. Laid my potatoes out in the greenhouse for chitting, planted the onion sets and seedlings and managed to get a whole load of seeds planted… lettuce, chard, spinach, carrots and spring onions that I can remember. Put in amongst garlic and onions to see if this will keep bugs and slugs away.

Proud owner of a single cup this week, having beaten Barry 6-4 at tennis. Reminded Becky where her loyalties lay and she loaded my opponent up with chilli con carne just before the match.

Now 2-0 down for the March squash struggle against son David, though I console myself that it couldn’t be closer having lost both 2-3 in games. And David won the pool/darts McKinnie cup competition. Here he is pointing at the fantastic 180 he scored against me.

The maximum minimum temperature recording is proving harder than I anticipated. Popped up one crisp sunny morning (rather than my typical afternoon visits) to find the maximum temperature already recorded at 60 Fahrenheit (15.5 centigrade) but the mercury now dropped some way below that level. Decided the early morning sun must be shining on the thermometer and affecting the reading so I’ve put a plastic shade nearby. Think I’ll have to find a box of some kind to protect the instrument. So the first couple of weeks maximum readings are now suspect.

	2.5 miles of easy walking across farmland and allotments. Good for spring and autumn orchards, and summer crops. Two pubs in Somersham but don't look great. Click image to enlarge.
	4.5 miles of easy walking across farmland. Walk around, as well as approach and retreat from, Woodhurst, really attractive. No pub in Woodhurst, but attractive village pond with nesting moorhens. Click image to enlarge.