The forecast above has been revised,
and the main change is that the rain that was
forecast to fall between 2pm and 5pm is now
shown as heavy rain between 2 and 3pm. There
is still a 10% chance of rain at other times.
I suspect the amount of cloud cover and
rainfall will be changing through the day, and
later revisions to the forecast could be a
fair bit different. The one constant will
probably be the weather. This morning it is a
mild 17° C, and soon after midday it should
reach a warm 21° C. Tomorrow may only reach
19° C. The morning is predicted to have sunny
spells. Late afternoon could see heavy rain.
I have cheese ! My cheese delivery
arrived about halfway through the one hour
slot I had been notified of - it was around
11.30am. I immediately tried a little chunk of
the "Natural blue" cheddar - probably about
the size of two Oxo cubes - and it was nice,
although there are other blue cheeses that are
nicer.
After my brief cheese tasting I
had a shower, and prepared to go out for a
walk. The only fuel inside me was that nibble
of cheese, but it was quite enough to fuel a
long walk. The walk was a bit longer than
intended....or maybe it would be more accurate
to say I don't think I intended to end up
where I did. I am trying to make a 5 mile walk
sort of my normal length now, and such a walk
is starting to feel normal (whatever that is).
When I started out I felt stiff and
creaky, and my chest felt a bit wheezy. It was
not a good start, but as usual, after about
1.5 miles I began to get into my stride. My
starting plan was to walk as far as Lower
Sydenham station, and then go along a footpath
I had discovered that cuts through a very
industrial area.
At the end of that footpath I had a
choice of turning left or right. Right would
take me back down to Bell Green - a route I
had followed the last walk I did in this area.
Turning left would allow me to loop around and
come out much further up Sydenham Road than
Bell Green, and there was an option to go even
further west had I desired it.
I turned right, and although I missed a
sort of cut through on a small estate, I was
still able to access the back of Hope Park - a
big area of greenery not shown on Google maps
for some reason. Upon exiting the park on
Sydenham Road I could have gone right, and
gone home via Perry Hill, as I usually do, but
left offered another possibility.
I had taken my Canon EOS 300D,
aka Canon Rebel, with me, and fortunately I
had a 300mm telephoto lens with me. Even that
was not enough to get a close snap of this
Heron seen on the river. I have seen it there
several times before, but it always seemed to
be well screened by thick vegetation of the
river banks at this spot, and the only view is
down the river from a fair way away.
I thought this all white dog looked
very handsome.
I took a nice close up of a teasel when
I took my Nikon camera with me to try and get
some good shots of the replacement railway
bridge last weekend. My little pocket Canon
camera can't seem to take these close up
snaps, but once again a proper DSLR camera
came up trumps again. If anything I think this
is even sharper than the Nikon managed.
The previous time I inspected my
favourite rocks in the river, the river was
running very deep after the recent rain. I
thought the rocks had moved, but they must
have been underwater, and not easily visible.
I think that maybe they did move a little bit,
and one is now partly covered with shingle,
but they are still there. The shingle seems to
extend a bit further now, and the river seemed
so shallow that I walked a fair way downstream
from these rocks, and kept my feet dry.
The last time I tried to picture these
apples was in a video, and because I couldn't
see the viewfinder screen very well, I aimed
the camera up above them, and they were only
visible as the camera tilted past them. Even
this picture is not great. It was very
underexposed because the light filtering
through the leaves was very bright. This apple
tree is growing by the railway line, and my
guess is that it grew from pips in an apple
core thrown out a train window in the days
when trains had opening windows.
A rose hip - the source of rose hip
syrup. I have never tried it, but I believe
the red pulp around an inner core is very
sweet and edible. The inner core is coarse
fibre that when dried, and powered becomes
itching powder.
I don't have the confidence to say
these are Elder Berries, but they may be.
Without the guidance of a more knowledgeable
person, I would be
very reluctant to
taste one.
It seems a bit weird walking 1.5 miles
to take a picture of a flower of a plant that
grows freely in my own front garden. It is a
Michaelmas daisy. Apart from the non symmetry
of the petals the colouring is very subtly
different to the flowers in my front garden.
Some flowers with blue in them seem sensitive
to soil acidity and mineral content - probably
!
There are poppies like this, including
some that are more orange, growing all along
the side of the footpath that I was exploring
that goes through the middle of a very
industrial estate.
Another park to add to my collection of
Lewisham run parks that I have visited. It is
quite a small park, but well equipped with
park like stuff.
This view almost encompasses all there
is to see at Home park. In the distance, on
the left of the picture is some exercise
equipment, and to the left behind me is a kids
adventure playground. The small building in
the distance on the right of the picture may
have been a refreshment room, and a toilet
block. I didn't get close enough to
investigate, but none of it seemed to be in
use, beyond storage for "park keepers" stuff.
This wooden chair is for a
very
big person, but is sadly starting to rot away.
It is to be found on the Home Park Library
Plaza.
This rather elegant looking old library
is now the Sydenham
Community Library.
I think "community" means Government cuts
backs mean the local council can no longer
afford to run it, and have allowed a community
group to run the place. It looks like this was
once the main entrance opening out onto the
main road, but the current entrance is on the
side of the building, and may have been so for
many, many years.
These roses would look very good for
Valentines day. It is a long way from
Valentines day, but if I was still seeing
Angela I might have stolen a bunch of them,
and gone home via Angela's house.
One place I
didn't think I would be visiting was Mayow
Park. It wasn't far away, but getting
there from Hope Park did involve going up
a few steep hills. It didn't seem to be
too much problem going up those hills. A
couple of miles back I was feeling
slightly wheezy, but going up those hills
didn't stress my breathing at all. It did
make my legs ache a fair bit though. I
don't think I had to stop at any time
except to cross the road to the entrance
of Mayow Park. This picture shows a very
heavy crop of acorns on one of the trees
within the park.
I only spent a short time in Mayow
Park, and from then onward took a fairly
direct route back home. It did feel a bit
of a plod as I headed back to Catford, but
evidently I was not that tired because I
found it easy to walk up the bridge over
the railway in Catford. I can remember
times when after a long walk my legs would
feel like lead going up that bridge.
Yesterday my main frustration was people
walking a bit slower than me.
When I arrived home I was slightly
disappointed that my walk was not a bit
more than 5.1 miles considering where I
had been, but it seems to be a constant
source of surprise that some places I
considered to be far away are now seeming
to be closer than I had imagined. Later on
it would be apparent that I was a lot more
tired than I thought I was because I think
I snoozed for an hour a little later in
the afternoon.
The first thing I did when I got
home was to go in the kitchen, and get a
cold drink, and prepare some cheese and
biscuits (the biscuits actually being rice
crackers). I didn't eat or drink until I
had stripped off my outdoor clothes, and
got on the scales. I was pleasantly
surprise to see a large drop of weight.
Some of it would have been the two extra
visits to the toilet I made before going
out, but mostly it was dehydration. It all
added up to over a kilogram !
My cheese and biscuits should have
been a luxury, but rice crackers are not
as good as something like Ritz Crackers,
or even Digestive biscuits, with cheese,
and I think their own taste spoiled the
more delicate tastes of the cheese. After
eating and drinking, I transferred the
pictures I had taken to my PC for editing,
and made a start on the first few
pictures, but by then I was thinking about
laying down for a rest. As I said earlier,
I think I ended up snoozing for about an
hour.
When I woke up it was not all that
long until dinner time. That meant I had
to work fast to try and finish selecting
and editing pictures. I found it hard
work, and would have preferred to have had
time to take my time, and spent some time
away from the screen now and then. It felt
like hard work, but I managed to do it
before dinner time. My dinner was chicken
shish kebab with a side dish of barbecued
chicken wings - very small chicken wings
without much meat on them ! Before eating
the shish kebab I scraped all the salad
off it, and heated the meat in the
microwave for a couple of minutes before
putting the salad back.
I am thinking that I have had too
many kebabs, and while they are good for
me in terms of weight loss and sugar
content, they are becoming too "ordinary".
I didn't enjoy last night's kebab on the
same level I expected to. Maybe it was
just me because I didn't really enjoy the
chicken wings either. I did enjoy a chunk
of Oak smoked Cheddar I had after my main
courses. The only trouble with the cheese
is that I am very conscious that I have to
make it last because it is not cheap
supermarket cheese, and somehow that takes
something from the experience.
I thought I would be looking
forward to my bed last night, but when it
came to it I found it difficult to get to
sleep, and to stay asleep. One problem is
that now we have moved back to slightly
warmer weather it was too hot under the
duvet, and just very slightly too cool
without it. I thrashed around a lot, and
cuddled the duvet to keep my front warm
while my back was almost cold. The colder
my back felt the more pressure I put on my
chest. That was not good.
This morning I have a selection of
aches. Many are fading by themselves, but
it has taken a couple of Ibuprofen to calm
my chest down. It was feeling tight, and
certain movements, including some I
couldn't predict, caused some medium, but
very annoying pains. It probably doesn't
help that we are now back in damp and
gloomy weather. I am wondering if a medium
length walk would get a few kinks out of
some of my limbs, I will consider that
later.
The good news is that this morning,
even before "opening my bowels" (as the
nurses in the hospital would say it), my
weight has stayed down after my long
walk. It seems to be an incredible 800
grams less than yesterday morning ! I wish
I could lose 800gm everyday !! The bad
news is that my blood glucose is slightly
up again, and yesterday it was a bit
higher than I would have liked. I wonder
if I was a bit dehydrated this morning. I
may check it again now I have had a couple
of small glasses of chilled water.
One thing I forgot to mention at
the top of the page was that I phoned the
pharmacy yesterday morning. It was to
order my next repeat prescription. I
didn't speak to the main pharmacist, but I
spoke to one of his better assistants. She
quickly looked up my details on their
great all knowing computer (sometimes),
and quickly confirmed everything was OK,
and my prescription would be ready for
collection on Friday (tomorrow) morning.
My bet is that it will be incomplete
because she will have forgotten that one
of my drugs is not a stock item, and has
to be ordered. No mention was made about
face masks. Maybe it is supposed to be a
given fact now, but I shall turn up
without a mask, and if they won't let me
in they will have to pass my prescription
out to me through the window !
There are only two definite things
about today, and one of those is not a
definite definite. The absolute definite
is that I really need to wash my hair. I
did get quite sweaty on my walk, and my
hair feels disgusting. The very likely
definite is that Michael is doing some
shopping for me today (while he does his
own using his car). I have kept my wants
simple because I don't want him thinking I
am taking the piss....well not too much. I
have asked for no more than some Diet
Coke, Bacon, and ready made salad.
I am still unsure if I will be
going on a walk today. I feel it would be
good for me, but I feel creaky, and the
weather is not good....although having
said that, it seems that the sun is trying
to come out, and only light cloud is (was)
forecast until early afternoon. It might
be OK for a walk. I'll see how I feel
after washing my hair, and having a
shower.
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