Yesterday was a day that worked out well even though I hadn't planned it that way. I did have a desire to be very careful with what I ate, but I never expected that I would end up fasting until dinner time at 6pm. It was the forecast misleading me that inspired me to do my first job. It was to go out in the garden and do a bit of weeding. The first thing I weeded was a big plant pot with spring onions growing in it.
  For some time I thought it was grass sprouting in this pot, but recently I realised it was spring onions growing from the seeds I had planted in there quite some time ago. I probably ought to keep a notebook, or something, to record what I do - particularly in this learning phase which I hope will keep me in good stead for next year. There was other stuff growing in the pot, and I couldn't remember if I had put any other seeds in there. Even if I did, these other plants were strangling the onions, and so I carefully teased them out.

  After that I did more weeding. Most of it was along the back of the garden. I particularly wanted to pull out as much ivy as I could because it was starting to grow back again. Unless I can get the deep roots out I guess this is going to be an eternal battle. There were plenty of other weeds to pull out, and as I approached the right hand back corner of the garden they got thicker. It is an area that has loads of loose bricks partly buried, and partly stacked along the back fence. I don't know how deep these bricks go, but I am gradually digging them out. I completely cleared them from one small area, and that area is now going to be a small extension to me lawn.
  It doesn't look much, but it did take quite a lot of effort to clear that area, about a yard square, of bricks and rubble. I used some of the bricks to extend an old existing brick border at the back of the lawn. It was a tree, or three, growing through the border that scattered some of the bricks. Between the brick border, and the back fence there is some semi-raked soil that I can plant something in.

   You can see the grass seed I have put down to extend the lawn. Some of it has been raked in. I watered it, and then the rain watered it, and last night, and this morning it is getting even more rain. I hope that grass will soon sprout because once there is a covering of grass the local cats will stop using it as a toilet. In the meantime the green coloured sticks will hinder them, although probably not stop them. Of course once they can't use here they will continue to use the flower beds.

  Most of the time I was working in the garden the sun was shining, and it was quite sweaty work, but curiously enjoyable in a masochistic way....hmm, maybe "satisfying" is more apt than "enjoyable". I don't know how long I was working in the garden, but it was probably at least 90 minutes. Time flies by when you are busy ! After I had finished I thought I deserved a rest, and I lay down to read for a while. After a while I felt an urge to complete some laundry I had started.

  One item of that laundry was a thick pair of fleece lined sweat pants. I think I have only worn them once because they are more a winter item, but having worn them I thought I had better wash them ready for winter - which seems to be rushing towards us with undue haste. The only problem is that they are really difficult to wring out enough to not drip, and so I had to hang them on the line outside along with the other items. It still seemed bright, and occasionally sunny, plus there was a reasonable breeze. It would dry everything well enough to continue drying it indoors if it should start to rain.

  It did start to rain, and I didn't notice it starting. The speed that the thick black cloud appeared caught me by surprise. I did attempt to rescue my washing, but by then it was teeming down, and everything was dripping by the time I got to it. I have left it out, and I hope that this afternoon it will start to dry again. In the meantime I had other stuff to do. I decided I should do some more to my dining room, and I started to make some preparations towards that end.

  The first thing I did was to use some scissors to convert an old fitted sheet into a dust sheet to catch drips of paint. I didn't get to use it yesterday, but it will be needed sooner or later. The next bit of preparation was to change the cord on a big electric clock from dirty grey to white. To do this I swapped the leads from the clock and a desk fan. The clock has some history. I have no idea where my dad got it from, but he had it on the wall of his workshop at the back of his radio and TV (and bicycle in the 1950s) repair shop in Forest Hill. It was one of a few fittings my mum took from the shop when she sold the business after my dad died in 1968.
  I needed to be a white cord on the clock to make it match the newly painted chimney breast behind the dining room table. While I was at it I hung a few pictures around the clock. The two featuring trains came from from the wall I will be painting next.  I think I will put a couple of pictures above the clock at some later time. The pictures are held up with simple nails, but the clock needed a couple of screws put in with wall plugs. Drilling the wall inevitably caused some dust, and I had to get the hoover out. While I had it out I hoovered the whole room, the front room, and some of the hallway too. As the clock shows, I didn't finish until just before 6pm. The last thing I did was to take the picture.

  It was after I had finished the laundry that I treated myself to first one, and than a second bottle of Westerham Brewery's "Viceroy" IPA beer. That would normally make me feel even more hungry after the hinger from not eating anything all day before dinner time. Despite that I didn't feel a strong urge to eat. I must have somehow programmed my brain to diet without realising it. If only I could do that every day I would soon reverse the weight gain I started a week or so ago.

  Before eating I checked my blood glucose level. In the morning it had been a quite reasonable 7.2mmol/l. I expected it to be higher after drinking two bottles of beer. It was actually a lot lower - just 4.8mmol/l. That is among the lowest readings I have ever seen since I started monitoring my blood glucose 20 years ago (or something like that). That figure would give much leeway for the rest of the day if it had been in the morning, but was probably good for just before eating. It suggested that I had probably burnt quite a few calories doing all the work I did in the day.

  My dinner was a big can of German meatballs in pasta. It was actually pasta swimming in gravy with some diced carrots, plus possibly other diced vegetables in it. It was quite nice, but I am wary of eating pasta, and other stuff with a lot of carbohydrate in it. On this occasion it didn't cause any problems. I washed it down with a third bottle of beer. I did get a bit peckish again while watching TV, and opened up a packet of rice crackers to east some with cheese.

  There is something odd about the big block of cheese that I am slowly consuming. I guess it is a leftover Covid thing, still active 4 or 5 months after I probably had it, and it seems that cheddar makes me feel slightly asthmatic. It doesn't impede my breathing in any way, and in fact the harder I breathe the less I notice it, but when relaxed it makes my breathing noticeable in a way that breathing doesn't usually. That possibly doesn't make sense, but I can't think of a better way to describe it.

  The only TV I watched was two episodes of Star trek. The second finished at 8pm. I turned off the TV, and decided to read in bed. It was still light outside even with sunset coming earlier and earlier now. I read for maybe 20 minutes, and then I decided I would probably fall asleep if I turned out the light - I did, and fell asleep surprisingly quickly. I can't make up my mind as to whether I slept well or not. I did wake up quite a few times in the night. Probably each time I didn't think I would get back to sleep again, but it feels like I probably fell asleep while thinking I wouldn't.

  By 6am it was obvious I wouldn't be able to sleep any more, and started getting up. I did my usual health checks while trying to work out how I felt. I guess I didn't really feel any worse, or any better, than usual. I suppose that is good news considering i was expecting my gardening to leave a painful legacy this morning. There was good news about my weight. Even before a visit to the toilet it had dropped over half a kilogram from it's extreme peak the day before. There was also good news about my blood glucose. It seems I was able to tolerate the pasta and beer yesterday, and tolerate it rather well. This morning my blood glucose level was just 7.0mmol/l. That is below my typical monthly average, and only just above my self invented target of "just under 7".

  The only negative was my blood pressure. I had to relax carefully to get it down to "good". My first reading was much too high. Even before taking that reading I had resumed taking the Indapamide tablets I had stopped taking to see what happened. Now I know what happens. I have also learned this drug seems to take some time to "soak into" my system, and some time to disperse from it. I hope to see a small improvement tomorrow, and back to normal in another day or two after that. Once I am back to normal I can experiment with my Bisoprolol dose to see if I can reduce some of the extreme low readings I was getting in the evenings.

  I am unsure what I am doing today. Initially I thought this grim weather would continue for some time, but the rain has stopped, and it is brightening up now. The latest revision to the forecast says that the chance of rain will drop to 10% by 1pm, and from 2pm there could be several hours of sunny spells. If the garden was not muddy, as it must be by now, I might have considered doing some more out there this afternoon. At the moment I am considering the idea of a walk. I am curious as to how much the river has been affected by the rain. It must sure be running deeper now. I would like to see how my favourite rocks are doing in the Linear Park, but I am also curious to see if the man made stream that meanders through the old playing field in Ladywell Fields now has water in it again. It has been completely dry for many months now.

  There is a third possibility, and if the afternoon does get bright, it might be the one I am leaning to more, and that is to paint the wall in the dining room. I find that after the work I did in the dining room yesterday, I am sort of keen to get more done. There is a compromise. If I just went to Ladywell Fields I could just do a quick walk to Ladywell and back, checking the man made stream as I pass, and be back after little more than half an hour. I could potentially do it as a break between my preparation and painting.

  There is a fourth possibility. I could get a call from Michael, or more likely Jodie, to ask pop over and test my Mexican beers ! Maybe I'll have a boozy afternoon !