This morning, even at 7am, is was closer to 4° C than the 5° C forecast. It is starting to warm up now, and another day of non stop sunshine should see the temperature reach 14° C for most of the afternoon. It will be dry all day, and today may feel warmer thanks to less wind. It will be another cold night, and tomorrow morning may start only a couple of degrees more then needed for a frosty start. Once again, non stop sunshine all day long, and maybe a very slightly lighter breeze, could see the temperature rise to 16° C (but just for a single hour).

  I think I liked yesterday. I had thought about going shopping because I did need a few bits, but instead I went for a walk in the sunshine. The best bit was that I think I detected some improvement in my walking. It tends to be quite variable, and maybe it meant nothing.


  I think I felt sort of good yesterday morning. My health indicators, blood glucose, temperature, blood pressure, weight, and even my blood oxygen saturation were all looking positive even if only just in some cases. Once I had recovered from writing 2,052 words yesterday, I headed for the bathroom where I washed and conditioned my hair, plus had a shower. I was nearly silly and saying that I felt raring to go, but I did feel mildly ready for some exercise.

  There was one particular reason why I wanted to go out, and the same reason dictated that I walk to Ladywell again. It was a reason above the fact that the approx 1.4 miles to and from Ladywell is still about my limit these days (although I suspect I could push myself to do more provided I took a lot of rest breaks along the way).

  That special reason was that there were no trains from Catford Bridge station because of engineering works. A check of http://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/nkl1 showed it likely that something was happening between Ladywell and Catford Bridge station, as well as elsewhere. I armed myself with my Canon EOS 600D camera, plus two lenses - a Canon 70 to 300mm zoom lens, and a Canon 18 to 55mm lens. I also took my new 2 to 2000 neutral density filter, and a star filter with me. I felt like a bit of experimenting,

  This picture needs some explaining because it just looks like a white dot on a black background. It is, in fact, the sun as photographed through my new neutral density filter. It may still be a bit over exposed because I can't see any detail in the sun. I was hoping I might see a sun spot, but I have never seen one before, and I am not sure what it would actually look like. The filter was so dense that the bright blue sky is shown as black. I think that I am probably ready for the next eclipse, and I think I remember there may be either one hard to see (right on the horizon) this coming September, but it may be September next year, plus another maybe easier to see also next year.
  I walked almost non stop to the "curly whirly" footbridge over the railway, halfway through the park. Going to the top of the bridge took me to my limit, but at least I got a good view of some "engineering works" taking place.
  As far as I could see, the job was to replace some broken sleepers. I also noticed that more work was taking place actually in Ladywell station. The zoom lens makes it look like the two lots of engineering works were taking place very close to each other, but that is just the effect of a zoom lens - it makes the distance seem closer than it really is.
  I used to call these "white bells" but I now believe they are actually wild garlic. They are by the river bank, and not where Jodie can get to them. There used to be some nearer the fence, and she would grab handfuls and after washing them, add them to a meal - which seems quite weird to someone who hates garlic !
  Ladywell Fields is not known for it's bluebells, but there are some in isolated places. Some deep in the foliage by the river, and some over the fence on the railway. These were by the river where the railway crosses it.
  About halfway between the bridge and Ladywell I noticed the moon. It was very pale against a blue sky, and lacks any great detail, but a took a picture of the sun with no detail at all, and so it only seemed right to take a picture of the moon at almost midday.
  I didn't wish to get any lectures about going on a closed station (even though the gates were wide open), and so I took this picture of engineering work taking place using almost full zoom from near the gate at the other end of the platform. The big bags of stuff on the trolley suggests that some ballast renewal was taking place as well as sleeper replacement.
  I took this picture while still waiting to let my chest settle down at Ladywell (I had been getting some chest pains by the time I got there). The picture shows nothing of great interest, but I thought it looked sort of "pretty" for certain values of "pretty". I took a big chance of damaging my camera by getting the sun in view, but right at the top of the screen. I had the star filter on (I think it was just a 4 star filter), and the extreme bright light of the sun certainly gave a star like flare, and with some sort of rainbow effect.
 This was the only picture I took using the wider angle of the 18 to 55mm lens. I needed that wide angle to get in the whole of that great white crown of this tree in flower. This was just after I had turned around to head home again on the other side of the park. It was definitely not non stop from here to home. I stopped several time to take photos, but I think I have enough photos of ducks,

  One stop was for long enough to get my breath back, and also to walk to near the waters edge down a bit of a semi steep slope on the river bank. I have not done anything like that for ages. A couple of years back I was always clambering up and down the river bank. I was hoping to get a picture of a grey wagtail. I saw it flittering around, possibly collecting mud for a nest, and I must have stood around for 10 or more minutes hoping it would settle for a few seconds on a patch of mud that was sunlit. Sadly it just seemed to disappear in the end.

  One thing I didn't do on this walk was to pause the tracker while I hung around for more than a few moments to take photos. Had I done so I might have managed more than the 1.277mph shown on the tracker above. That is not as fast as last time, but on that occasion I did remember to pause the tracker on my phone.

  Yesterday's walk was still good even if my speed appeared slower. I must admit it is only a feeling with no actual evidence, but it seemed like my legs are slowly getting stronger. The point where bad fatigue kicked in seemed at least a few hundred feet, and maybe yards, nearer to home. Even when I got home I did not feel I was on my last legs, and I had no need to rush to lie down or something.

  I made my lunch before I did anything else. It was a repeat of what I did a day or two ago - fish on Ciabatta roll - that is roll singular. I cut one roll into two, and made an open sandwich. On one half I put a small tin of sardines in tomato sauce. One the other it was mackerel, also in tomato sauce. The only difference to the last time I did this was that I added a sprinkle of black pepper, as well as the white pepper I tried the previous time. I'm not sure it made much difference. Apart from being very messy to eat (I doubt I would want eat one in public) it was very nice, and the fish did make it seem more filling.

  I really wanted to have a lie down after my lunch, but I didn't. I first took care of my Canon camera. I put the battery on charge, and copied the pictures taken over to my PC. I then "processed" the pictures I used here - mostly that was just cropping and scaling the pictures down to my usual size to show here. I also swapped the lens to the one I usually use on the Canon 600D - a Tamron 18 to 200mm zoom lens.

  One other thing I did was to remove the filter lenses I had used, plus a couple of filters I had on one other lens, and on a lens hood. The latter two were screwed on so hard that I could not unscrew them. The trouble was trying to get a grip on a ring just a couple of mm wide, or actually two of them that needed to be turned in opposite directions. That was until I had a brain wave, and put on a pair of Marigold gloves. Those rubber gloves gave a far better grip, and the filter unscrewed quite easily. After counting up my U.V. (ultra violet) filter lenses I concluded I probably had enough (maybe 4 or 5) to leave one one each of my most used lenses.

  I did finally get a lie down, but not for long....at least I don't think it was for long, and maybe because I expect I had a snooze too. At about 4.30pm it felt too long until dinner, and I had a snack of sugar free "fibre" biscuits with sliced Red Leicestershire cheese one them (no pickles or anything like that). That was a pleasing snack, and I think I had a tune around on TV until I found something to watch.

  What I found was a so called Horror Film - Frankenstein Created Woman - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_Created_Woman . It was slightly good in places, but it hardly seemed like a horror film, and even "mad scientist" film would be a bit of an over statement. I guess it was an amusing way of passing an hour before dinner time. Dinner was another double helping of instant noodles. This time it was "extreme firepit noodles". They were both hot from chillies and from peppers. I cooled my mouth off with just a quite restrained amount of ice cream.

  There was something musical on Sky Arts again last night, and I seem to remember it was a bit interesting, but for the life of me I can't think what it was. I keep thinking it was about Cream (the band), but that was the night before, so who could it have been last night ? Evidently it was not that great a band and/or programme or I would surely have remembered. I have no idea when it finished, but I am sure I was in bed, reading for no more than half an hour, and fast asleep not long after 9pm.

  What I do remember most clearly was waking up and seeing 11:16 on the clock. It took me a moment to realise it was dark outside, and so was 11:16pm. It really felt like I had slept so well that I had overslept until almost halfway through today. Evidently 2 hours sleep was not enough, and I was soon asleep again after going for a small pee. It seemed that most times I woke up, usually every 2 or 3 hours, I only had a small pee. It is a dreamy sort of memory, but I think there was one time I woke up, and realised I didn't really need a pee, and went back to sleep again.

  I can remember some details of two dreams from quite a few I think I had last night. The first I remember was another dream set at work. Somehow we had acquired a big fridge for the workshop, and it was mostly filled with chilled drinks. I think most of us were re-using our drinks bottles to chill tap water. I remember it being delicious and drinking a lot (just like in real life). At one point I was passing the secretaries desk, and she made some sort of remark that she was not sure if she could do all the times sheets in time. I said put mine to the bottom of the pile because I had enough money to tide me over for a week if my wages were late.

  The other dream I had was not about work, but about being back in college at my real age, or possibly later. It was an alternative take on my situation in my last weeks of work. In those days I had saved up enough to tide me over, plus I was getting my BT pension, until my state pension was due. In such circumstances I didn't care if I was sacked, although I did very little to provoke such a thing.

  In this second dream I had gone back to college just to amuse myself. It was always interesting to learn stuff, but only interesting stuff. The college course included several subject that didn't interest me, and my exams got very poor marks for those. One of the lecturers said I ought to try harder if I wanted to get an exam certificate. I said I was now almost 70, and I was doing it for fun, and that I might even die before the entire course of several years ended. I said I was not after passing exams, but learning selectively for pleasure. I can't remember if that got any reaction, but it felt good to say it.

  I felt odd this morning, and it was only later I began to understand why.  I can't say that I had any reason to feel good, but I sort of felt just a little bit good anyway. Not seeming to pee a lot in the night suggested a very good blood glucose level, but might also mean a lot of apparent weight gain - and more so considering I seemed to be constipated again (or more likely just not ready yet). In fact, when I weighed myself I found I had lost 500gk (half a kilogram), and was just 200gm short of dropping to the next whole kilogram down.

  My blood glucose was not very low, but generally "OK". The Contour meter read 8.0mmol/l, and while that is good, it is not good enough to get the light green colour code of 7 to 7.9mmol/l on my spreadsheet. The GlucoRX meter read 8.5mmol/l, and once again that is sort of OK but nothing to boast about. Not unexpectedly, the Sinocare meter gave a slightly higher reading of 8.7mmol/l. I think I have to blame the ice cream I ate, even if it was a very restrained amount, for these less than perfect readings.

  My blood pressure is interesting this morning. On my first attempt it was in the "Optimum" range, but the systolic pressure was 111mmHg. I thought I could do better, so I took a couple of deep breaths, and tried to relax more. That reading was 91/40, and I wonder if that is not a little too low. Oh well, if I want it higher, a lot higher, I just have to think of Donald Trump.

  In an ideal world I would force myself out for another walk today. Maybe even one a little bit longer. That could still happen, but I very much doubt it. I expect the only walk I will do today will be to Aldi and back. I think I really out to top up my larder and fridge now. I think I have a particular taste for something meaty. Maybe even a steak and kidney pie, but probably something simpler.

  One thing I don't think I will get is any more beer. Except when Jodie is here, or Wednesday lunchtime in The Jolly Farmers, I don't seem to be drinking any beer lately. Maybe I might get a few small bottles or cans of other sugar free soft drinks. I expect it will be around midday when I go to Aldi. I have no idea what I will do for the rest of today - except some reading and snoozing !