Even the latest revision to the forecast says we ought to be seeing sunny spells about now, but as yet the sun has not put in an appearance. However, the cloud over to the east looks thin and streaky, and so the sun may break through at any time. Unfortunately the hour of full sunshine, shown as at 9am in the screenshot above, has been deleted from the latest revision of the forecast. It now shows 8 and 9am, as well as midday, as the only times for some sunny spells. This may be no better than yesterday, but at least it should stay dry until very late this evening. It will probably bea couple of degrees cooler than yesterday - maybe just 19° C. Tomorrow is currently shown as sunshine for most of the morning, and an overcast afternoon, but it should stay dry. The temperature may rise no higher than 18° C.


   I was unsure if I wanted to go for a walk yesterday. I was feeling creaky, and my rib cage was feeling sore, but by late morning I felt I could tackle a short walk. Like many short walks it turned out to be a bit longer than I thought I would walk. After walking a mile my legs started to ease up, but my chest was hurting, and so were my feet.

  My chest was aching because I am having another flare up of what may be, or may not be, costochondritis - inflammation of the ligaments between the ribs. I was also suffering from what must be something to do with Covid-19. I have mentioned it before. It is like a form of wheeziness without actually having any restriction on my breathing. It feels like the inside of my wind pipe is rough, and causing turbulence to the air going down. At least that is the best explanation I can think of, and yet it doesn't describe it very well. Without something to compare it with it is very hard to explain. The odd thing is that it causes zero discomfort, and yet is sort of annoying.

  My feet, or more particularly the toes on my right foot were sore on this walk. The reason was very apparent when I got home. I had put a broad sticking plaster over my toes for the previous days walk, and left it on overnight. I thought it would be OK for a second day, but it had got wet when I had my morning shower (obviously !). I didn't allow enough time for it to dry out, and that softened the adhesive, allowing it to slip. The rucked up, misplaced, plaster probably did more harm than good yesterday.

  Despite the discomfort it was still a mostly enjoyable walk. I took my Canon Powershot SX40 camera with me for this walk. I thought it was due an airing. It is what is known as a "Bridge Camera", and indeed it was the bridge between a simple pocket camera, and my first proper DSLR camera. It has it's faults, but the built in zoom lens is pretty good, and it enabled me to get this sharp picture of a squirrel sitting on the stump of a branch maybe 15ft up a tree.
  I got the impression this duck may have been ill, but maybe it had just flown a long distance, and decided sitting on a log was better than dangling it's bottom on the cold water. It was in the same part of the river where I saw the heron the previous day. I found there were a few spots where that part of the river can be seen but carefully going down the bank a bit, and if the heron had been there yesterday I might have got a better snap of it.
  This grey wagtail was probably in a similar place to the heron from the previous day. Wagtails are very skittish birds, and I was lucky this one stayed still for long enough to get a decent pictures. I can't be 100% sure this is a "Grey Wagtail". It is not exactly the same as the picture on the RSPB website, but closer to it than any other variation.
  It is hard to make out the fine details, but this is the best shot of the new/replacement railway bridge I was able to get. The bridge is in use, and trains pass over it, and under it, but it looks like there is still a fair bit of tidying up to do around the right abutment, and the embankment. I think the bridge lacks the charm of the old steel lattice bridge.
  Now I know to look out for them, I saw plenty of hops growing among the bushes, shrubs and brambles along the river bank. These ones are on the side that faces onto the main path through the park, and not on the narrow little mud path that runs alongside the river. Many, many years ago this land was in agricultural use, and was part of Kent. I wonder if hops were grown there for the brewing industry, and some plant, or seeds survived in some little nook or cranny for a couple of hundred years before being able to spread out again along the river bank.
  These are my second favourite rocks in the river. I have always wished that they were laid out as stepping stones across the river instead of being bunched up like they are.
  These are my favourite rocks because they are easy to get to because of the large area of shingle river bed that is exposed when the river is not in flood. I am still convinced they have moved a bit since the river was almost in flood after some of the heavy rain we had a little while ago. Certainly one has become almost buried under the shingle. Yesterday most of the river was forced to flow between the big rock on the right, and the river bank. The water was very fast there, and quite deep.
  Shame about the bird poo...This is a very improved picture of one of the apples on the tree next to the railway line. I still believe it grew from a pip from an apple core tossed out of a train window many years ago.

  Despite feeling uncomfortable I walked as far as the bow string bridge near Bell Green, and then walked back home the long way around. I expected to walk less than 3 miles, maybe as little as 2 miles, but it turned out that I walked a quite reasonable 3.2 miles. It was quite a sweaty walk, and particularly so near the river. The wind seemed to pick up a lot of humidity from the river, and it felt warm and steamy sometimes.

  Once I got home I stripped off my outdoor clothes, and weighed myself. Success ! It was of course only temporary, but I was back in the region I was in after some long walks when it was hot and sunny. Once the weather changed from hot and sunny to cold and wet, my eating and exercise went awol, and my weight was creeping up. It now seems to be back under control again.

  I would have liked to have had a good long rest, and probably a siesta in the afternoon, but circumstances prevented it. The first thing was a delivery from Michael who had once again generously offered to get a few items of shopping for me. I now have bacon, and also salad. Later on I was expecting a visit from Jodie who had invited herself around to taste the cheese I had delivered the day before. I suggested that Michael might want to pop around and join us later in the afternoon. He thought he might be busy, but thanked me for the offer.

  As usual, Jodie turned up quite late in the afternoon, and as usual she infringed into my "dinner hour" again. This time she did manage to leave before 7pm, and I was able to watch the last bit of one episode of Star Trek, and all of another. On this occasion I didn't wait for Jodie to go before I started cooking my dinner. I think the final cooking smells probably hurried her departure.

  I cooked up another pasta with peas and sardines. This time I put a few slices of mature cheddar on it for extra flavour. Once it had finished cooking I took it out of the microwave, and took the lid off so it could cool off a bit. It was then that Jodie remarked that it smelled like cat food ! It was indeed quite fishy. I was left in peace to enjoy it, and I did enjoy it. I will be making more of this dinner in the future. The best thing is that it would seem to be less bad for my health than I imagined it could be.

  I went to bed feeling full, and not just from pasta. During the afternoon I had eaten quite a few rice crackers with cheese, and I had drunk 3 or 4 bottles of beer - mostly sweet Mexican beer. Once again I had the same struggle to sleep at a reasonable temperature. It was too warm with the duvet, and too cool without it. Like the previous night I slept partly covered, and partly uncovered.

  It seemed like I was sleeping terribly, but at the same time huge amounts of time would pass without effort. It did seem that I was getting long periods of sleep without realising it. I woke up as if to get up at about 5.30am, but thought I would try for a bit more sleep. I pulled the duvet around me and was surprised that the next thing I knew was that a whole hour had passed. I didn't think I could do it again, and besides, I had to be up and dressed early this morning.

  This morning I was outside the pharmacy 10 minutes before they opened so I could collect my latest repeat prescription while it was till quiet. Of course I knew in the back of my mind that it would not be ready because they would have forgotten that one drug is not stocked, and has to be ordered. That was the case, although apparently it had been ordered, and should be arriving there soon after 10am (now, as I write this). I said I would be back later.

  Since getting back I have had a better chance to evaluate how I feel. One thing was abundantly apparent. In the cool morning air my eyes watered enough to make my nose drip. If I had been wearing a face mask it would have ended up very soggy, and very unpleasant just during the 15 minutes that I was out. Aside from a drippy nose, now much drier now I am out of the wind, various bits of me ache. My chest still feels sore, and it is right along the bottom of my lowest ribs (easy for me to feel now my gut has shrunken a bit). I also seem to have a soreness lower down my belly. It feels like muscle strain, but I don't think I have done anything to strain muscles there unless I had another nocturnal fight with the duvet.

  I think a combination of sweet Mexican beer, and the pasta, have conspired to raise my blood glucose level even more. It is now 8.2mmol/l, and today I ought to take steps to reduce it, but it will be difficult. There is better news about my weight. It seems I have lost another 100gm this morning. I didn't really expect that, although the 3.2 mile walk must have helped. My blood pressure has dropped a little bit, and my temperature is still staying fairly constantly lower than a "normal" 37.3° C (even if most doctors say the new normal is a lower figure than that - mine certainly is).
  Freshly delivered this morning - more chilli sauce. This chilli sauce is probably one of my favourites. It has a fair bite, and contains little, or no sugar. It is far, far better than the other chilli sauce I ordered. I nearly didn't order this chilli sauce because I thought it was rather expensive. That was until I double checked. These bottles are twice the size of the small bottles Tesco sell for about 90p each. I haven't got the calculator out, but I think this pack of 12 bottles actually works out cheaper than if I had bought them from Tesco.

  I don't feel inclined to go for a walk today, although I suppose it could still happen. I think I prefer to be lazy - but not all the time. I will do that short walk to the pharmacy again a bit later this morning, and hopefully pick up the full complement of my prescribed drugs. Later on, probably sometime this afternoon, I may go into the garden and do some more weeding....or I may not. My back feels a bit stiff for bending over pulling up weeds. Maybe I'll soften the pain with some booze. In the meantime I have started reading another book, and it won't read itself....