There is no thunderstorm shown on this screenshot of the first version of today's forecast, but this is the warning -
  In other words, they have no idea when, or where there might be a thunderstorm. It is just a case that all the ingredients are there for summer thunder and lightning. It just depends on where the humidity and heat is highest. The BBC reckon that this coming Thursday is the day, and although so far in advance that it is bound to be wrong, they have produced a very lively looking forecast for the day !
   It should be easy to see when a thunderstorm is brewing today, if indeed one does brew up. All hours of daylight are forecast to be sunny. If the sun suddenly ducks behind thick roiling clouds we can expect the worst. Hmmm, maybe there are hints that it could happen now. The latest revision to the forecast has added some cloud at midday, 5 and 7pm, but only enough to reduce the sunshine to sunny periods. It is going to be another hot day with the temperature around 33° C this afternoon. Tomorrow could see a fair bit of cloud that will keep the temperature lower at first, but by late afternoon it was head towards 33° C again. There will probably be light rain in the morning, and some more late in the afternoon. That sounds like a more likely time for a thunderstorm !

   My prediction that I probably would not go for a walk yesterday turned out to be correct. I couldn't seem to raise the enthusiasm for it. I did have enough enthusiasm to do a few chores though. I did two lots of laundry by hand. The first was just one single white t-shirt. An overnight soak with "Vanish", and a vigorous wash with bio detergent reduced the intensity of the strange brown spots on that t-shirt a bit, but it seems like I will never get rid of them. The other bit of laundry was a big hand towel, or small bath towel, and a tea towel. I put it all on the line outside, and it was all dry by the afternoon.

  I gave some thought to an idea that I never really do - sunbathing. Now I have a lawn, albeit patchy in places, and fairly lumpy, I could lay out and burn myself in the sun. I have a 99p shop ground sheet, and a big towel. That would be all I need to lay out in the garden, but first I had to find the big towel that I knew I had somewhere. That set off a chain of events that ended up in a way I couldn't predict.

  That towel was stored away in a box where quite a bit of my rarely used stuff is stored - in the spare bedroom. In searching I came across a few things I had forgotten about. One thing was a pair of what could be described as sports trousers. I think I had hidden them away because I had little use for them, and they were probably too small. They are not too small now, and if anything very slightly loose. Another way of describing them is "long shorts". The legs finish about 6 inches below my knees. That would be no problem in cooler weather. In hot sticky weather they get tight around the knee when sitting down because they don't slide on damp skin. Otherwise they are very comfortable.
  Once upon a time, and I would guess it was something like 14 years ago, I went into Lewisham, with my friend Patricia to hold my hand when I did something scary (at the time). I went into a shop to try and buy a new coat. I can't remember what I was wearing at the time, but evidently it was in need of replacement. I wanted something plain with no logos on it, and I found the beige, zip up jacket as seen in the picture above. Finding anything big enough was a challenge, and I am sure that I could not zip this jacket up when I bought it. That hardly mattered at the time because I had forgotten what it was like to have a coat that I could zip/button up.

  Yesterday I tried the coat on, and I will admit it was very tight, but I managed to zip it up with no great difficulty. It is entirely possible that yesterday was the first time the zip had been used ! If I could just shrink my gut a bit more I could wear this coat during the milder parts of winter. It spurred me on to try a heavy winter coat I bought from Peacocks several years ago. I was able to zip that up, but it was too much of a struggle to do so for the first two winters since buying it. Yesterday it was easy to do up, although the thick padding, particularly around the arms, makes it feel a bit odd.
  I didn't end up doing any sunbathing in the garden, but I did spend a bit of time out there inspecting the latest developments. One of the few jobs I did was to dead-head the campanulas. I am not sure if you are supposed to do it, but hopefully it might spur them on to flower again. Next to the campanulas I noticed this almost fern like plant was just starting to flower. They are small pale flowers, and so will not add a lot of colour to the garden, but at least they are now doing something ages after I planted seeds there.
  Another plant has surprised me by producing this single yellow flower. I can't remember what seeds I put down here, but I am sure there were loads of them. I must have very odd soil here, and very few seeds seem to germinate in it. I hope this plant will produce more of these yellow flowers.
   I now definitely have tomatoes on the way ! These are on a self seeded tomato plant that is growing quite strongly. I think they will be miniature tomatoes. The other food crop I have that has definitely produced a crop is the self seeded potatoes. The tops are dying down now, and I assume the potatoes are ready to harvest. I was going to leave them a bit longer to get really big potatoes, but they are probably the wrong species for that. I'll dig them up in a day or three and see what there is.

  It is now 18 days since I last did any shopping, and I am starting to run low on some things. I am down to my last 4 litres of Diet Coke, and so yesterday I avoided drinking any I had the last of a bottle in the morning. Instead I drunk chilled water, or chilled squash. Both are a poor substitute because neither tastes that nice when warm. The latest news is that my soda water maker should arrive tomorrow. I hope it has a few bulbs of CO² with it to get me started because the order I made for more bulbs may not arrive until Saturday. Some nice cold soda water would be nicer than squash.

  I still have enough food for several weeks, and probably a lot more, but choices are now getting a bit thin. The worst thing is that it gives me less control to manage my blood glucose. It is already starting to show, although I have to admit that I did eat rather a lot yesterday.....or maybe it wasn't that much. My first meal, I guess it was Sunday dinner, was pilchards and marrowfat peas. I had two large tins of pilchards, and the first one was so old that it hissed as I opened the can. I disposed on that can without even fully opening the can ! The second was only 5 years after it's use by date, and seemed OK, and nothing has happened since to prove otherwise.

  At "teatime" I had 4 rice cakes with tomato purée on them, plus cheese. I wasn't going to have any supper, but I gave in and had a couple of cans of hot soup. One of the cans was a posh tomato soup. It was nice, but it's sugar content was annoyingly high. I made the mistake of taking my temperature too soon after eating that hot soup, and it was almost as if I had a fever, although 37.1° C would not be considered a fever according to the text books, but my body temperature is always lower than the text books say is normal.

  Finally it was bed time. Despite not doing a great deal during the day I hadn't spent much time just relaxing and/or snoozing, and so I fell asleep quite quickly once I turned the light out. For the first 2 or three hours I had the fan on, but eventually it started to feel a bit too cool. Without it, it soon started to feel too warm, but maybe not excessively. I seem to recall some interesting dreams during the later half of the night. One was about a train journey that ended up at the wrong place, and there was no easy way to find a train that would go to the right place (wherever that was), or even to get back to London. I bet the psychiatrists could make a big deal out of that !

  This morning my blood glucose is too high, although not dangerous yet. However my weight seems stable. I wasn't expecting to lose any after yesterday's food (amd the day before as well). If I were to go on a long walk today, and get very dehydrated, it is possible that my weight could drop to a new low - just. I think I am going for a walk today, but I don't know if it will be a long walk, or at least I won't know until after I have started it. I must admit that it is going to be difficult to take the first few steps, but I have to go out today because with a delivery expected tomorrow I will have to stay in and alert until it arrives.