The forecast has been revised since I took this screenshot. The only change has been to reduce the afternoon temperature to just 23° C. It seems the brief peak to 24° C will not happen now. It seems the non stop sunshine will happen again tomorrow, but it will be warmer - a more summer feeling 27° C (possibly even 28° C).

   Yesterday I didn't have to worry about any deliveries (except one*), and I was free to indulge myself in any way that I fancied. This meant going for a walk in the sunshine...well, a lot of it was in sunshine, but it did cloud over a few times. Before going for a walk I had the little matter of an unwanted visitor to deal with - the mouse in my kitchen. It was a task I was not looking forward to.

  I found the mouse had got at a source of food it shouldn't have. Last spring I collected some assorted nuts and some sunflower seeds to bribe squirrels in the park to pose for my camera. It didn't work. I think I was too early, and they were still too full of nuts, berries and shoots from last year. My nuts and seeds were in a plastic bag, and I stuffed that into an unused coffee mug to make it hard for a potential mouse to get into. I hadn't counted in one getting in from the top after clutter built up around the mug.

  I removed one big item of clutter - an electric grill - because I no longer seem to use it. That made a bit of space, and with a bit more tidying up I could see the trail of sunflower seed husks. I cleaned all those out, and scrubbed the work surface with antibacterial cleaning cloths. I then set out a series of mousetraps along the path the mouse had been taking. From the direction of the trail I think it was coming up behind the washing machine, and probably lives under one of the kitchen cupboards. This morning none of the traps had been triggered, and all looked clean and tidy still.

* I did have one delivery from my friend Lee. It was a sack of old photos he had found in a house clearance. I have only given them a brief look, but it seems most of them have been ripped up. One had a date of 1928 on the back, and so there could be something of interest in there, but it is going to be a long job piecing them together, and I may end up throwing most of them away.



  It was almost midday before I went out for my walk. I was feeling a bit creaky after not doing any walking for 6 days (I was surprised it was so long when I checked). My right leg, and particularly around my right knee, was feeling very stiff and sore. I assumed it would ease up once I got moving - it usually does, but not yesterday.

  I chose my route so it would be easy to extend if I started to feel my leg and knee freeing up. After a mile, when I would usually be getting into my stride, my knee was really starting to feel stiff and very sore. I decided I would do my best not to let it slow me up too much, and I did extend my walk a little bit when I could have gone for the shortest route home possible. I was very glad to get home though.

  I don't know if it was because my right leg was putting more stress on my good left leg, but it was my left foot that got most uncomfortable during the walk. I could feel the top of my toes rubbing a bit. That is normally a problem for my right food, and I now put sticking plaster on them, plus on one other bit that can rub sometimes. Yesterday I just used some surgical tape rather than sticking plaster. It provided no cushioning, but it is a sort of shiny plastic, and acted like a lubricating film. It seemed to work much better than sticking plasters.


  The last time I passed this point there was one duck sitting in a couple of logs that are pinned to the river bed. Yesterday there were two ducks. The single duck last time looked ill, but these two were happily preening them selves.
  There has been a lot of exposed shingle at this point in the river for most of the year (and maybe earlier). It seems like the storms we had some weeks back, and the river running very full and fast in consequence, have converted the shingle into an island. It has weeds growing on it. If the vegetation continues to grow, with perhaps a tree added to it, the roots may bind the shingle to give a permanent now island. It is a shame that the only way down to it is down a very steep bank.
  There is a lot of brown leaf litter around, but only a few trees are starting to show their autumn colours. This tree has bunches of seeds that look like some leaves turning brown. It won't be too long now before all the trees will start to lose their leaves.
  Weather lore, not always right, but derived from ancient observations, says that a heavy crop of berries like this means a harsh winter approaching.
  I guess this may be more shrub than tree. The last time my attention was drawn to it was 3 or so years ago when I was walking in the park with Angela. On that occasion the flowers, or whatever they are, were a brilliant orange/red. The sun had gone in for a short while when I was taking this picture. Maybe f the sun was shining on it those flowers would look brighter, or maybe I am too late, or possibly too early to see them at their most vivid colouration.
  The bit of extra walk I took to extend my walk a bit took me past these unusual manhole covers. The steel oval in the centre say "Electricity supply", but the most unusual feature is the embossed F IV. A little further on I saw another set of 4 manhole covers with F II on them. Presumably somewhere there are covers with F I and F III on them. I am assuming F stands for feeder. One suggestion is that they are a 33kv feed for the electricity substation that feeds the Bellingham Estate. Their age could be right for that. I wondered if they were for even higher voltages feeding in the other direction towards to switchgear station near Sydenham station. I doubt we will ever know, but something may turn up.
  You know it must have been a good party when a traffic cone ends up in the river....or something like that.

  I was very happy to get home after that walk. It was still worth it despite the pain because it got my weight back on track, and kept me away from the fridge. I spent a bit of time transferring my pictures from camera to PC, and then I laid on my bed to rest my right leg. It was very difficult finding a comfortable position, but evidently I did because I fell asleep, and slept for an hour (at least I think it was an hour).

  When I woke up my leg was feeling better, and I had the energy, or enthusiasm to select and edit the photos I took. I had used my Nikon P500 "bridge camera" for what I hoped would be some better pictures, but there were few sights that seemed photogenic yesterday. It is a shame that the signs of autumn colours that stand out to the naked eye seem so muted in my photos. Oh well, it won't be long to wait now until the full colours start to show.

  With an hour to go before dinner I started to feel like doing something useful.  That turned out to be hanging my new projection screen on the wall. It is actually so wide that I can't use the full width. For simplicity I just drove a few nails into the dining room wall to hang it from. I will probably use my photo studio backdrop gizmo if I use the projector in the living room.

  Dinner was the last part of the Indian takeaway from two days previously. It seemed a slightly affluent order at the time, but it has provided three meals, and that makes it seem far more economical. In fact it was just £8 per meal. I could spend more per meal in Tesco without going too far upmarket. The only trouble is that Indian (curry house) food is not particularly healthy. The main part of my dinner last night was a large keema rice. It was rather more substantial than I expected.

  The last Keema rice I had, many, many years ago, was little more than pilau rice with a bit of minced lamb thrown in. What I had last night was more like a biriyani. In fact I ought to check the order to see if that was what I actually ordered. This one had nice chunks of lamb in it plus a boiled egg. It was very nice, but too much rice is not good for my blood glucose level. The second part of my dinner was two side dishes. A mixed vegetable curry (or the wet rather than dry variety) plus a bombay aloo (potato and spinach). Both had very low amounts of oil in them. I must make a not that the restaurant I used has one of the healthier cooks.

  I find I can't really describe last night's sleep in any subjective way. I definitely didn't sleep right through the night. I know I woke up a few times, and it seemed like it might have taken a short while to get back to sleep again, but it all seems to dreamlike now. I can't trust that I am describing memory or dream. I guess I didn't feel so bad this morning, and so it must have been a good night.

  Although I didn't drink any beer yesterday, and I only had a couple of quite small snacks, the large amount of rice in my dinner has pushed my blood glucose up to 9.8mmol/l. That is a lot higher than I like. It is shame that dinner was so nice, but I dare not repeat it for some while now. On the other hand, with help from my 4 mile walk (actually 42 yards short of 4 miles), my weight is back where it should be...well almost where it should be. It would be more true to say I have corrected the little upward peak.

  Today I will definitely take some painkillers before I go for another walk. Today's walk should be about 3 miles. I will be walking to another street gig this afternoon. This one is a bit further down the road to the last one a couple of weeks back. I am not sure if all of it will be as enjoyable as the last, but it is virtually essential I get to it because it could be the last of it's kind for a very long time.

  Tomorrow sees measure that are more common in wartime, on when a dictatorship feels threatened. The latter seems most likely. Gatherings of more than 6 people are prohibited, and fines can be issued for those disobeying the order. On top of that there will be a 10pm curfew. It feels like we are now living in a science fiction story. The only difference between real life and Blake's Seven is that like Boris Johnstone, Servalan was power mad sociopath and absolutely ruthless, but she did have a certain sex appeal.