Today, as predicted in the forecast, has started off very grey and gloomy. The latest revision says the cloud should thin a bit soon (although it doesn't look it), and the first sunny spells may now be at 10am (yeah, sure !). The sun may finally break through completely by 11am. If it does then the rest of the day should be sunny. Once again it should reach 23° C. Most of tomorrow should be sunny, and the temperature might hot 24° C, but it will get cloudy in the evening. The day after tomorrow may be much cooler, and I probably won't have to water the garden because rain is expected for a lot of the day.

  Yesterday was almost a day of rest - which is the tradition for a Sunday.  I don't think I had intended to rest as much as I did. On the other hand I must have been a bit busy for a fair time because the day seemed to slip past without any boredom creeping in. The most important thing is that I was very careful not to put too much stress on the big, and now blood filled, blister on the ball of my right foot.
  The hardest job I did all day was some laundry. It was only the four items seen hanging on the line, and so was not terribly hard work. The two pairs of shorts were not that easy to wring out, but I was hanging them outside so an occasional drip didn't matter (although I think I managed to wring them out just enough that they didn't drip). All items had almost dried before I brought them in around 6pm (or was it 5pm ?). I hung them on the clothes horse inside, and they should be perfectly dry this morning. I think I will be putting the shorts away for next year because we are fast running out of warm sunny days as Autumn comes roaring towards us.

  I had considered spending some time in the garden, and indeed I did, but it was more like 10 minutes instead of 90 minutes. One of the things I did was to harvest the ripe tomatoes I saw - all four of them ! I think/hope that my tomatoes are ripening faster and faster now, and I have a certain amount of faith that I will get a good crop in before autumn stops them ripening. Once again, it is a shame I only used baby tomatoes as seed tomatoes. All of these tomatoes are very small.

  Across the other side of the garden I have some baby plum tomatoes growing, but there seems no sign of any of those starting to ripen, but I live in hope. The only other significant thing I did in the garden was to water the plants, and give the lawn a quick sprinkle. The lawn is now more than ready to be cut again. While using the hose on the tomato plants I noticed one more tomato that was just about ripe. That made a harvest of 5 small tomatoes yesterday !
  It seems like my Companulas are coming to an end now, but they have surprised me before by perking up again. This purple flower was a surprise. I have seen several a sort of mauve colour, and of course several white flowers, but I think this is the first purple flower (although I will confess to probably describing some of the mauve flowers as purple). It looked as if it would be red at first, but this is it's final colour. These flowers don't last more than a few days, and it may start to drop it's petals later today.
  This picture is a classic example of the camera lying. The picture shows the California Poppys in the foreground as being a golden orange colour, and those above them as being yellow. The yellow ones are in strong sunshine, and the camera has not been able to catch the colour properly. To the eye, all the flowers are the same colour.
   A picture from my garden, but not of my garden, shows a lovely bunches of purple grapes growing in the garden at the back of mine (or maybe spilling over the fence of the garden beyond that). I wonder if they make their own wine ?

  Yesterday, being a Sunday, seemed like a good day to have some breakfast. I enjoyed grilled bacon with low sugar/salt baked beans. That triggered a desire for some lunch, and I had to be careful what I had. I initially settled for a carton of Heinz soup - green vegetable flavour. I don't know why I bought it because it was, as expected, rather unpleasant. It's only positive thing was that it was low in sugar and calories. The trouble was that I needed something to take the taste away !

  Lunch part 2 was also soup. This second help was a double dose of Batchelors Cup-A-Soup - minestrone flavour. That was much more pleasant - double so with a bit of hot chilli sauce in it. It too had less sugar in it than some of the other flavours. One of them, maybe the tomato soup flavour, has an almost obscene amount of sugar in it for some unknown reason. I was going to have a few beers to wash it down. I got as far as putting some beers in the fridge to chill, but ended up drinking chilled water.

  My dinner was the least healthy of all my meals....at least I think it was. It was one small, and one medium sized Fray Bentos steak & kidney puddings. Unlike the pies, these can be microwaved. In fact it is the recommended way of cooking them. The small one was a sort of sample that Michael had bought me to show me what they looked like. He then bought the medium size (I assume there may be a bigger size, but I have no proof of it) after I expressed my approval about the small one - despite not actually having tried it at that point.

  Having now tried the microwavable steak & kidney puddings I am two minds about the. I thought they were good enough that I asked Michael to buy two more medium puds, with one possibly being a different flavour if they do more than just steak & kidney in the range. However I do have some doubts about them. I ate mine "neat", and they were a bit stodgy. I think they need diluting with, perhaps, some peas and potatoes. They could be nice like that.

  Be bedtime I was not feeling as tired as I expected. I am not sure if I had a snooze during the day. I don't really recall having one, but my lack of tiredness was like I had slept in the day. I probably managed to get to sleep around 10pm, and I almost slept OK until about 2am. I think I probably woke up once before 2am for a pee, but it is a very vague, dreamlike memory. I definitely woke at 2am, and I had a lot of trouble getting back to sleep again. I had a very mild stomach ache. It was at the sort of level that it would be totally ignorable during the date, but annoying in the dead of night.

  After an hour or so I took a couple of antacid tablets. I was not convinced they would do anything because the discomfort was lower down, but I think I did manage to fall asleep for maybe 20 to 30 minutes. In some ways the stomach ache was a bit like a pulled muscle...it had that sort of feel to it sometimes, but it was probably trapped wind. Later on in the morning I did pass a couple of large guffs of wind, and that sort of helped, but it wasn't a cure. I think it was about 5am when I managed to fall asleep for about 90 minutes, or maybe a little more.

  The funny thing was that if it hadn't been for a dream I might not have realised I had been asleep.  The dream I remember in part was a bit of an odd dream. I somewhere like at work, but there were also hints it could have been a college, or even hospital. I wanted to have a shower, but the cubicles were missing in the room where the showers were, although the shower heads were still there. Two of the spaces where the cubicles should have been had had a kitchen range fitted in it, and an assortment of people were using it as I walked around naked.

  Such a situation could be cause for great embarrassment, but nobody paid attention to my nakedness, and I didn't seem to care about it. I eventually found that an old toilet cubicle had been turned into a shower, but the door frame was rotten, and the door kept opening, allowing water to get all over the floor outside. I tried to slam the door but it then fell off it's hinges ! I think I woke up soon after that because I can't recall any more of the dream.

  This morning bits of me feel as good as can be expected. I still occasional;y have a strange sensation from my gut. It is not exactly pain, but something indescribable. Fortunately it is fading after a couple of visits to the toilets. The second visit came a bit too late to get a good reading on my scales. It appears I have put on a 100gm. That is not bad after all i ate yesterday. I suspect that if I could have gone without eating or drinking anything at all until I make a probably third visit to the toilet, I might have found my weight was at least the same, or possibly hovering towards the next 100gm down.

  Although I seemed to eat more than usual yesterday, paying attention to sugar content paid off. My blood glucose has gone up to 8.5mmol/l, but that is probably less than expected, and with a bit of care should be lower tomorrow morning...although having said that, I have beers chilling in the fridge that I was going to drink yesterday. I might end up drinking them today !

  I have one simple plan for today. Despite the blister on my right foot still being a bit sore, I intend to go out for a short walk that may not be as short as intended. Today marks the start of the work to repair the bridge over the river in the River Pool Linear park. I want to take some snaps of the works in progress, and I intend to visit it today. Thanks to another long rambling phone call from Lee it is now 11.20am, and as I type this the sun has still not put in an appearance. 

  The latest revision to the forecast now says that it should be dark could at the moment - and it is correct. It also says that the sun should break through soon after midday, and 1pm should see blue sky and bright sunshine. It seems unlikely, but I'll keep my fingers crossed that I can take my photos in sunshine if I don't rush out too soon. By the time I have finished this, and had a shower it might be possible for the first ray of sunshine to break through the gloom....maybe !