Yesterday felt like summer again. It was
bright and sunny most of the time, and even when
only sunny spells were forecast it was long
periods of sunshine and short periods without. The
sun felt very warm even when the air temperature
was under 20° C. By late afternoon the temperature
had risen to 22° C.
The sky is perfectly clear at the
moment, and the sun is shining. It should
continue to stay sunny until 1pm, and after
that ther should be sunny intervals. The most
recent revision to the forecast has added a
few more hours of sunny periods in the
afternoon compared to the screenshot above. It
may not be as warm as yesterday, but with 21°
C forecast it is going to be very close to it.
Most of tomorrow may see sunny spells, and at
a few times they may be very long sunny
spells. It should be a several degrees warmer
tomorrow with a prediction of 24° C by late
afternoon.
The first thing I did yesterday, after
showering, and washing my hair, was to go
shopping in Aldi. Once again I spent a lot of
money, and lugged home some very heavy
shopping. Not all that much of what I bought
was long life food. Some of it was stuff that
will be need to be used within the next week,
but with my embargo on shopping starting on
Friday, I will soon use up most of those
things before I start on the long life stuff.
I had a bit of a rest after getting
home with my shopping. My plan was to get out
for a walk mid morning, but a typical long
meandering incoming phone call from Lee
delayed me until midday. I wrote yesterday
morning that I was only expecting to do a
short walk after my extra long walk last
Saturday.
Unlike last Saturday's walk I had no
particular route in mind. I thought I might
walk halfway through the linear park, and come
home again. What actually happened is that I
was feeling better than I thought, and as I
walked I started inventing a route. Once upon
a time, while Angela was waiting for her
previous partner to die of cancer she would
tell me she used to take a break from it all
by sitting in Mayow Park in solitude. She said
it was just a short walk from her home, and
described the route. That is the route I
started following.
I would say it was not such a short
walk as Angela described it, and much of it
seemed uphill - particularly when starting
from the Linear park ! I guess all the
practice I have been doing is paying off
because yesterday I took those hills in my
stride. I couldn't say I did them at full
speed, but I found I didn't have to stop for
breath at all. The only annoyance was that I
was more often going over the top of a hill,
and then down again. It meant that while some
of my journey home was a bit downhill, it
certainly wasn't all downhill.
In total I covered five and a third
miles. That is a mile less than my six and a
third mile walk last Saturday, but still ranks
as one of my longest walks for quite some
time. The last few miles were marred by very
painful feet, or should I say foot. I
think my right foot was suffering from the
sticking plaster I put on to cushion the usual
places my foot got sore, but I may have
overdone the sticking plaster this time.
Hopefully I will find a happy medium some day.
My legs were starting to get tired towards the
end, but if my feet had been comfortable I
feel sure I could have extended the walk
another mile or two.
Any walk through the Linear park has
to include a walk in the river. It
has become a tradition now - and
besides, as pointless as it may
seem, I really enjoy it ! This is an
extended version of a visit to my
favourite rocks that shows the
secret path to them, and then
walking back to the main path. I
used my steadycam device to keep the
video less wobbly than usual !
I noted The Environment Agency were out in
force yesterday. Just out of shot to the
left is a little hut that has a water
measurement station in it. It seemed to be a
lot of vehicles for one little hut, but
maybe they were doing other stuff too. Had I
got there a bit earlier I may have had a
chance to see inside the hut if I had dared
to ask boldly.
This is one of a pair of pussy cats guarding
a rear entrance to a posh looking house in
Winsford Road (by one of the entrances to
the Linear Park. The big satellite dish
strongly hints the owners of the house may
have been Arabs, or other immigrants rather
than locals.
Up and down some hills and I arrived at
Mayow Park.
Although I had paid at least one visit, and
possibly two, in 2017 when Angela used to
visit the park, I never came across this
fountain. I remember it from when I was a
kid, maybe in the early 1960s, and I think
it may have been working then. It is not
working now. There is a very bland,
modern-ish, drinking fountain 20 ft away,
and I think that was turned off during this
pandemic.
This is the modern, and very bland drinking
fountain that is used whenever there is no
Coronavirus pandemic....or maybe it is in
use. The wet patch by the plastic container,
suggests it was filled for a thirsty dog. I
didn't actually try pressing the tap to see
if anything happened. I have inset the
rather bland plaque that can be seen almost
behind the fountain.
After Mayow Park there didn't seem
to be much to take pictures of, but
I did shoot a bit more video. Once
upon a time, maybe when my age was
still in single figures, I used to
look on the area around my dad's
shop as being Forest Hill. In
reality it was just a small subset
of Forest Hill, but it was actually
like a little village with a
selection of shops, a church, a post
office, and a firestation. It was
nice to have the time to walk around
and remember what I could of it as a
child. Unfortunately wind noise
drowns out my voice, and at the end
I actually say BUN, and not BUM - it
was a cake shop !
When I got
home again I stripped off my outdoor
clothes, and boots. Before I did anything
else I got on the scales. I found I was
still 300gm heavier than the lowest
reading in living memory - or at least
since I started weighing myself with the
scales set to kilograms. That lowest
figure was about a month ago after a walk
in really fierce heat - almost 30° C, and
I was very dehydrated ! Yesterday I was
dehydrated too, but possibly not quite as
dehydrated as I would conform later.
Once I had weighed myself I tucked
into a tub of low calorie/sugar ice cream.
It slid down my throat with the greatest
of pleasure. A bit later I had a bit of
fruit as a snack. finally at gone 6pm I
had grilled salmon with peas for my
dinner. I don't think I ate anything much
after that, and one reason was because I
seemed to be developing a bit of a stomach
ache. It was mild, but noisy.
I think it was gone 7pm when I
suddenly found I had the previously
unknown "Two hour dysentry". I can't
believe it was anything I had eaten since
the afternoon, and must have been what I
ate the day before that emerged at speed
several times in ever decreasing amounts
until 2 hours later I seemed to have
recovered from this annoying thing. In an
ideal world I would have disposed of it in
the morning, and my weight would probably
have matched that very low weight of a
month or so ago, or maybe even been lower
still !
I seemed to feel perfectly
comfortable when I went to bed - except
for the normal discomforts. Things like
lumps in the pillows that weren't there
the previous night - the same with brand
new lumps in the mattress - real or
imagined. There was also the annoyance of
my right hand going to sleep. That is now
happening every night now, and is surely a
sign of something terrible, but who knows
what it may be ? I don't think there was
any discomfort I can ascribe to my walk,
and that was good.
On the whole I slept quite well. I
still long for the days when I could close
my eyes, and open them again eight hours
later with no disturbances between. There
is one thing I must mention before leaving
the subject of sleep because it happened
before I went to sleep. I was laying on my
bed and sort of stretching, and lifting my
legs. It wasn't so long ago that I
mentioned how I was able to feel the
muscles and tendons working in my thighs
with my fingers because it seems that much
of the fat around them has disappeared
since doing so much walking. Last night
(and just now) I can now see the muscles
and tendons, and stuff moving under the
skin when I move my legs. They are still
quite broad, but my legs must be the
thinnest, aka far free, part of my body
now. If only my gut would follow suit.
Back to this morning, and I sort of
feel OK, although maybe not very dynamic.
My weight has come down a bit more, and
over the last fortnight I have lost about
2kgm and I am now back in the race again.
In fact this morning my weight was
possibly the lowest it has been, except on
special, occasions when I am very
dehydrated after a long hot walk. Today
even my blood glucose level has dropped to
near my average.
I can't decide whether I should go
for another walk today, or whether I ought
to devote some time to my garden, and
possibly some housework. A demon is
whispering in one ear that I would quickly
tire if I went for a walk, and doing my
garden is important. Another demon is
whispering in the other ear than maybe I
might enjoy another walk in the sun, and
that I would probably find it easy to do
at least 4 miles. Perhaps I will try and
reach a decision while having a shower.
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