After settling down to be very lazy during the morning I seemed to be enjoying it too much, and I didn't fancy going out in the afternoon. On the whole, yesterday was not a very productive day. There were just two physical things that I ended up doing. One was to throw a few more buckets of water onto the lawn-to-be, and some on the flower bed-to-be. The latter got an extra bucket just as darkness was falling. I also cleaned the kitchen window - the one above the sink. I have to confess I did not do a very good job of it, but I did achieve the primary purpose - to remove a collection of spider webs. Hopefully the bleach based cleaner may deter more web building for a while.

  I probably spent half my time reading a book, and half my time reading from the internet. The other half of my time (?) I spent watching a few more episodes of Star Trek : Picard. I am now halfway through the first series (a second series is currently on hold - possibly because of Coronavirus). Unlike all previous versions of Star Trek (with a few exceptions) Picard is just one story line spread over 10 episodes rather than individual stories. The first episode was a difficult watch, but as each episode is watched, and more of the storyline becomes apparent, it is getting to be quite interesting.

  Another half of my day (can there be four halves of a day without even considering going to sleep ?) was spent cooking. Well maybe not anywhere near as long as that, but both my lunch and dinner did take a bit of preparation. Lunch involved thinly slicing red onion, red cabbage, green bell pepper, salad tomatoes, and not so thinly sliced pork luncheon meat. With so mustard, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar dressing it was quite tasty. Of course eat a whole (small) tin of greasy pork luncheon meat rather reduced the potential healthiness of the meal, but my blood glucose level was down to 6.1mmol/l just before I had dinner, and that is a very nice figure.

  Dinner was even more unhealthy. It was smoked Polish bacon cooked with some red onion, and (I think) my last two tomatoes in my mini oven/grill. It was grilled enough for the skin to be a bit seared, but quite like pork scratchings. It was about 33% fat, and I ate it all ! I accompanied it with some "Spanish flavoured" Heinz "baked bean creations".  It's entire calorific value is probably reflected in my weight this morning - which has gone up a little, although that is an estimate because I seem to be a bit constipated this morning. However my blood glucose was still down at 7.7mmol/l this morning. I'm quite pleased with that.
  Yesterday I showed a picture of the first two flowers in my window boxes (that was taken the day before). By yesterday afternoon there were three small flowers, and more mature looking flower buds to the left of them. There were also a couple of individual small flowers in another window box. It seems to betaking ages, but finally the flowers are appearing.
  Maybe before I even started watering the flower bed in the back garden, but definitely more so since I have been watering that bed, there are finally signs of life out there. I could be mistaken, because I am not very good at these things, but a lot of the tiny shoots may be the flower seeds I sowed growing. Some may well be weeds. In the middle of the picture is a rather different looking plant. It could either be a tomato or potato plant - both look very similar at this stage in their growth. It is quite possible that I left a potato or two behind when I harvested them last year. The tomato plants were so densely packed that it wasn't until I started clearing them, as the started to wilt in autumn, that I found that there were some small red tomatoes that were already starting to rot among the foliage. It is possible that more tomato plants spring up if I keep watering that flower bed. If that is the case I ought to try and keep them thinned out, and tie them to canes or something.
  This rather soft focus picture, taken as the light was fading last night, and before I splashed another bucket of water around, shows just how many shoots there are that might potentially turn into flowers.

  I went to bed quite late last night - after 11pm if I recall correctly. The trouble with having a very lazy day was that I thought I was tired, but I obviously wasn't sleep. It felt like it took ages before I fell asleep. I had a few false starts before sleep took over properly. One false start was when my sleep was so light that I woke up maybe 5 minutes later with my right hand feeling numb and painful. I really don't know if I had been pinching a nerve, or if it was a circulation problem. The latter seems improbably considering the blood thinning drugs I take, and yet also probable when I consider how low my blood pressure is.

  Having finally reached deep sleep I slept for, perhaps 3 hours, before having to start it all over again. I had hoped to get to sleep a lot earlier, and to stay in deep sleep for much longer because I wanted to be up early this morning to go shopping. I didn't get up early enough to have a proper shower, and so I just used a damp flannel on the smellier bits before I got dressed ready to go out.

  It was about 8.40am when I went to the shop - a bit later than intended, but it turned out than quite early enough. When I got to the little supermarket there was no other shoppers in there, and unfortunately there was no sign of the butcher either. I bought a selection of fresh vegetables plus some "white sausages". I am not exactly sure what they are, but they are pre-cooked, and maybe steamed rather than roasted/fried. I know that in Argentina they have "mortadillas", which are black sausages similar to black pudding, and they have white sausages which are similar to the mortadillas, but without the blood that makes them black. I think the sausages I bought today are probably Polish, but I will read the label more carefully when I use them.

  Once again they didn't have any Diet Coke, and so I bought two bottles of Coke Max, or whatever the red label, sugar free version is. I have only tasted that version of Coke once, and it reminded me of cheap supermarket cola - drinkable, but maybe not enjoyable. I guess, like when I made the transition from full sugar coke to Diet Coke, it will take some time to get to appreciate the difference. As if that wasn't enough, I also bought one bottle of Pepsi Max. Now that has an even stranger taste. It is not nasty, but until I get the taste for it, it brings little pleasure. The lack of Diet Coke is probably one of the worst things about this pandemic.

  My brisk walk to and from the shop felt OK apart from one little nagging thing. I definitely seem to be constipated this morning. I thought all the raw vegetables I have been eating for the last couple of days would come roaring through me, but the opposite seems to have happened. I am not exactly in any discomfort, but until something moves I don't want to go out too far today, and that is a shame because I had a potential plan. I was going to walk into the Pool River Linear Park, and maybe only walk a mile before turning around, and then going in the Sainsbury's Local shop on the way home to buy some real Cheddar cheese, and maybe some real English sausages, as well as the latest New Scientist - all assuming there was no big queue outside.

Footnote: It is now 11.34am, and technically I am no longer constipated, but I am still not perfectly comfortable. May there is hope that I will feel OK to go on that walk, albeit a little bit later than usual.