Nipplewort and Lucerne Bug

Don't you just love the name Nipplewort! You can see that the unopened flowers of these little flowers do indeed look like nipples!

I've mentioned before that the ancient herbalists used a theory called the 'Doctrine of Signatures', which simply teaches that any plant or part of a plant that looks, even loosely, like part of the human anatomy, that part of the plant will cure an ailment of the same. In this case Nipplewort, Lapsana communis was used to cure nipple ulcers. 'Wort' is the old English word for 'plant'.

The young leaves are nice in salads or cooked like spinach. The flowers close each afternoon. Seen by most as a weed, the plant is so graceful that I let seed itself freely in the garden.

The little bug on top is a common little fellow called a Lucerne Bug, Adelphocoris lineolatus,which loves grassy places, rich in clovers, vetches and other legumes. it was probably heading for my sweet peas nearby but, like so many other insects, couldn't resist a morning stop off to feed on the Nippleworts pollen.

The police have been very active along the road in front of me for the past couple of days, with a number of cars with Olympic 2012 official colours also milling around.
The road is closed from 4am tomorrow morning for the first of the cycle races. I believe the bikes pass around 11am. I'll see how manic the situation is before I walk along and attempt to find a place for a photograph. I honestly couldn't bear waiting a couple of hours to see a whoosh of colour for a few seconds.
The road won't reopen for about 4 hours after they pass...and again on Sunday, a 4am closure for bikes to pass at 1.30pm.

I think there are going to be a lot of very blocked side roads so I'm not moving, if not by foot!