It is a sunny morning, and the sky is currently blue in most directions, although in some directions it looks a slightly diluted blue. If the forecast holds true the sunshine will give way to just sunny intervals until towards the end of the morning. From midday it looks like it may be lightly overcast until sunny intervals resume at around 6pm. There could be full sunshine for the last hour of daylight. The highest temperature may not be until late afternoon, and it may be no more than 20° C. Tomorrow is currently predicted to start with sunny intervals, but from midday it will be back to overcast. By 6pm the clouds could be getting very thick, and it may rain by 9pm.

   I have already described the most exciting part of yesterday. It was my two walks to Tesco - one when I found it closed, and the other when it was open. A bit later in the morning I hand washed a couple of t-shirts, and a pair of lounge pants. It seemed like it might be good drying weather outside, and with just three items there was plenty of room on the little washing like I have strung up outside the back door. It is almost always in shade, but it all dried by about 6pm.

  Although I didn't feel like walking because of my "twisted rib" flare up (although the aches seem a bit different to when I started calling it a twisted rib problem). It didn't stop me doing anything in the garden because I could easily stop and have a rest. That would be difficult if I was a couple of miles from home on a walk. Typically enough, the work I did in the garden didn't seem to effect my chest at all.

  It did make me feel fatigued before I had done all I would have liked to do. Fatigue I could cope with, but because most of what I was doing was bending over pulling up weeds, and then bending over to use shears to trim the grass (and cut the tops off the weeds in the grass). It can feel like I am doing something bad to my back, and I do end up with a dull ache after a while, but the thing I fear most, bad back ache the next day doesn't seem to happen.

  There was one other problem that shortened my work in the garden, and it is hard to explain. It is a breathing problem that isn't a breathing problem. I guess it is Covid-19 trying to attack my windpipe, but mostly failing. It feels a bit like being breathless, but isn't. I am not actually short of breath, and my Pulse Oximeter says my blood oxygen saturation is still in the 98% region, and yet it feels like there is a slight constriction in my windpipe even though there doesn't actually appear to be one. Well I guess there is really because a couple of squirts of blue inhaler (Salbutamol) does seem to change things for the better.

  As I guess I have already said, garden work was mostly weeding and trimming the lawn. The once bald area at the rear of the lawn is now filling in nicely, but there are still areas that need patching. One problem, which will be the subject of some potential hard work, will be to finally define the edges of the lawn. There is a very vague area on the right, at the back of the lawn, and both left and right edges are very tatty. Then there is the problem of the rubble, and red gritty cat litter infested area of what should be lawn in the future, but is currently just a weed patch. I guess if weeds can grow so freely on it there is no reason that grass cannot, but preparing it will be back breaking. I might do it a 1ft strip at a time or something.

  My transplanted flowers, which seemed to perk up overnight, were looking very droopy again after sitting in the sun all afternoon. I guess it is going to take some time for their roots to start penetrating into the soil where they can grab deeper moisture. I gave the garden a good watering once I had given up on trimming the lawn. Some of the flowers perked up again, and I hoped that everything would be looking good this morning.

  I haven't been outside to check yet, but I do know that one of my plant pots has been overturned again, and this time I know who did it. It was not a cat, at least not this time, but a fox. I saw it trying to dig up my flower bed in broad daylight (just after 6am). All I could do was to tap on the window to draw it's attention. Once it saw me through the window it quickly jumped the fence, and ran away.

Once again there has been an intermission while I have been out getting some shopping

09:27 BST

  One thing yesterday was notable for is what I ate. My lunch was a tub of Strawberry Shortcake ice cream. It was one of the slightly low calorie/sugar ice creams, and so not quite as reckless as it seems. My dinner was another ham salad, and this one was dressed in balsamic vinaigrette rather than a gallon of mayonnaise. I think I followed that up with two Coxes apples, and a Conference pear accompanied by a lump of cheese. If I didn't have it before, then it must have been earlier in the afternoon. All I do remember is that the apples were delicious, and the pear was not that nice.

  For the second day running I did not have any beer, but I did have a couple of very large whiskies before bedtime. Maybe they helped me get quite a reasonable sleep. Dreaming I had gone back to work was an unnecessary nightmare, and my body thinking I wanted to get up at 4am was a bit stupid, but on the whole it was probably a good night.

  For some obscure reason I had the impression that I didn't feel too bad when I got up, and there was some later evidence to support that idea. The bad is that my weight seemed to have gone up another notch. Now this is a bit weird for two reasons. Apart from the dubious qualities of the ice cream I had, I think most of what I ate shouldn't have been too bad. The more significant reason is that my blood glucose was a very good 6.1mmol/l. That is the sort of figure I really want to aim for. What is strange is that low blood glucose and weight usually go down together, but there could be a lag involved. Maybe my weight will be less tomorrow.

   As I noted above, I broke off writing to go shopping. My first port of call was the pharmacy where they still have not got my repeat prescription together. Fortunately I allowed extra time when requesting it this time, and so I am not running short of any drugs. I probably still have a weeks  worth of everything, and more in the case of one or two drugs. I shall try again tomorrow. The pharmacist promised he would sort it all out personally, and he is pretty good. It is possible the idiot assistant had made it up, but forgot to tell anyone it was ready because he is an idiot (and wasn't there this morning - he looks like a late riser).

  The walk to the pharmacy, and then around the corner to Aldi seemed to feel OK. Maybe my early morning idea that I felt fairly good was not the fantasy it seemed to be. It is North America week in Aldi, and so there is lots of old crap, mostly laden with sugar, on the shelves. We'll see how popular America is by how long all the specials last. One thing did intrigue me. It was sugar free "American style" cream soda. I bought a 1 litre bottle of that to see how good or bad it is. It would be nice if it is good - I used to love cream soda before I had to worry about sugar content.

  Most of what I bought from Aldi was fairly healthy. The box of tissues, and 9 pack of toilet roll are probably zero calorie!! Rather more dubious were some half price steak, and steak & kidney individual pies. They say "NEW" on the boxes. I suspect they didn't sell, and so they are half price to clear stocks. My lunch will be one of each pie - possibly cold. I am cooking them at this minute so they can be eaten cold, or quickly re-heated at the appropriate time.

  What I ought to do next is to tidy up the mess made in my garden. I might do this, or maybe I will leave it until later. The plant pot that has been overturned for the second time is probably no longer salvageable, but I could probably replant the shoots directly in the garden. The fox has left a couple of convenient holes in which I could plant them. I think it was possibly digging for worms rather than for having a crap.

  The main thing for today is to go for a walk. It may not be sunny, but it should be dry and bright, and with luck I will find Angela in the park. Whether I walk there the long way round, or choose a shorter walk will be decided on the spur of the moment.