The heavy rain shown at 8am in the screenshot of the forecast above was actually just intermittent light drizzle. I know this because I was out in it. It does look as if more rain has fallen since, but I don't think I would say I have seen any heavy rain yet. The latest revision to the forecast says there will be heavy rain until midday. Then 1pm will see light rain. After that it will remain very grey, but it could be dry for the rest of the day (and if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you, etc etc.) The temperature is still expected to reach 14° C today, but I have doubts we will notice it being any different to the last couple of days. Tomorrow is currently forecast to be overcast from before dawn to well after dusk. Until about 5pm there is a 10% chance of rain. At 5pm the chance of rain goes up to 50%, and light rain is predicted to fall well into the night. The temperature may reach 16° C tomorrow, but I doubt I'll feel like throwing all the windows open, and airing the house...although maybe I might risk one window.

   I wanted to get out for a walk yesterday, but I wasn't sure if I really would, and if I did I predicted it might have just been a couple of miles. There had been some sunshine earlier, and I hoped there might be more when I finally got myself out the front door. There was more sunshine - about 30 seconds of it it total !

  I can't say I had any enthusiasm when I finally went out, and I did it purely because I knew I needed to get some exercise before I totally seized up. I found walking to be hard work most of the time, and even harder as I approached home, and yet I was determined to get some mileage out of this walk by pushing myself to try a new route I hadn't tried before. Seeing new sights make a walk more interesting, although it would have been much nicer to see them under a bright blue sky.

  I started out towards the River Pool Linear Park, and took it stage by stage. Getting as far as the (not so now) "Bridge Of Doom" seemed like a good first objective. The next objective was to visit my favourite rocks in the river. That felt fairly OK, and so I next went as far as the Bow String Bridge. Turning back there would have made for a 3 mile walk, but I guess I was feeling masochistic by then, and I continued to the far end of the park.

  It must have been some sort of madness at that point because that is where I decided I would struggle up the hill to the top of Southend Lane, and go home via the Bellingham Estate. It is hard to describe going up the hill. It wasn't easy, and yet it wasn't hard. It was harder than walking on the level, but not a lot more than that.
  Just before entering the park I noticed there was new graffiti on the sign above the entrance of Wickes. I had seen graffiti there before, but some looked new yesterday. In some ways it is a shame that some talented artists have to resort to graffiti, and some of their "paintings" can look good. Of course those who just tag walls, and the like, need putting up against the wall and shot.
  As I walked along the little muddy path by the river I noted some men cutting trees, and other stuff. The way the area in my photo seems to be cleared makes me wonder if the intention is to make it into a picnic area, or something similar for next year.
  This picture is supposed to show three things. First of all, these are my favourite rocks. Secondly the recent rain has raised the level of the river, and they are partly submerged, but there is still some exposed shingle. I could probably have walked close to them, but I didn't fancy trying it in the cold and grey light. The third thing is not well shown, but what I was trying to show was how all the vegetation is dying back now that autumn is here, and the river banks are not such a tangled mass of vegetation. I took three more pictures to try and show this effect, and none really show how it looks to the naked eye.
  I am unsure about what we are seeing here. It looks like the bark of this tree has been cut away at this spot. It is possible it was a rotten branch that was cut away for safety reasons. Anyway, some "artist" has drawn a happy face on the exposed wood.
  I was really hoping to take some pictures of the autumn colours, but with no sunshine to make those colours glow, it was a bit pointless. This picture is about the best I took.
  It may say Lidl now, but once upon a time this was the site of famous SE London music venue, The Saxon Tavern (also known later as Bonnie's Night Club). I don't know how long ago it closed down, and how long it may have stood derelict, before Lidl built a supermarket here.
  Almost opposite Lidl there is a side turning off Southend Lane, and that side turning immediately splits three ways. One of those three roads is the amusingly named Overdown Road. Looking along it shows how far I have gone uphill. In the distance the white building is the old Catford Girls School (now renamed to something immediately forgettable as most schools have for some reason). Far beyond that is the top of Shooters Hill.
  In the centre of the Bellingham Estate is Bellingham Green, and in the centre of Bellingham Green is an area that is not green at all. Bellingham Green is a six sided (Septagonal ?) mini park with small areas for different purposes - kids play area, seating area, physical exercise area, etc. It is sort of nice, but like all my walk, it would have looked a lot better in sunshine....except warm sunshine would probably mean it would be infested with noisy kids.
  One thing about parts of The Bellingham Estate is that there are lots of Plane trees on the roads, and they are probably best for generating big drifts of golden leaves in autumn.
  I don't know when it happened, but the site is now clear of construction stuff, and the new railway bridge that carries the Catford Loop Line over The Mid Kent line can now be easily seen (albeit at some distance). It is a shame there is no high point to take a better picture that would show the two railway tracks going over and under the bridge. At this point in time it looks all neat and clean. I wonder how long it will be before it gets it's first tagging by morons.

  I felt very weary as I approached Catford again, but something made me add a little extra to my walk by going home via the main road. It is a shame that I didn't check how far I walked before I got home. I may have been almost dead in my feet, but I could have managed a few tens of feet extra to take my walk up to an exact 4 miles (actually 174 feet).  It felt good to get home, and yet once home, and with the weight off my feet, I seemed to partly recover very quickly.

  It took several hours before I felt like concentrating on photo editing, but I didn't immediately lay down for a snooze. The first thing I did was to start some cooking. I put some skinless and boneless chicken thighs in the oven to cook after giving them a generous coating of spices. Once I had done that I stripped off my boots and outdoor clothes to weigh myself. I had got hot and a bit damp during my walk, but without any hot sunshine I did not get dehydrated. That meant my weight didn't drop very low, but it was till a useful drop, and sort of proved the process worked if only I can bring myself to do it during the autumn and winter (and spring) months.

  When dinner finally came around I had rested a bit. I had a nice, and more or less very healthy dinner. There was grilled chicken thighs with green beans and tomatoes. The bit that made it less healthy was the very generous amount of mayonnaise I put on the tomatoes. It was quite tasty, but I eventually ruined everything by having a dark chocolate bar for dessert. I made the stupid assumption that all dark chocolate had a lot less sugar in it than milk chocolate. This is almost true except for Lindt chocolate. It may have been dark in colour, but it was still very sweet, and seemed to have more sugar in it than other chocolate.

  There was one more bad thing before I went to bed. After dinner I went into the kitchen twice, and saw a little grey mouse trying to get into the container by the sink that had vegetable peelings and stuff in it. I guess it was a hungry mouse because it was doing this with the kitchen light on, and on the second occasion it seemed quite slow in making it's escape. I moved the food waste container so it was not so easy to get to, and put down two traps baited with a peanut on each.

  With that done I could relax and go to bed. After reading for a while I turned the light out, and I fell asleep very quickly. I woke up for a pee 3, or maybe 4 times in the night, but fell asleep almost instantly after going back to bed. It seemed like I had my best nights sleep in ages last night. I still had a selection of dreams. I do remember the setting for one series of dreams. It was in a sort of work training college, and apparently for London Underground. Hidden under London there was a 3 mile long circular underground railway for training new recruits. I am not sure what I was doing there, but it was very interesting. I am not sure I was doing anything at all, because in some ways I remember it more like I was watching a documentary.

  This morning I had a definite agenda. I wanted to get up fairly early, Have a shower, and go out shopping before Aldi got too busy. I managed to get to Aldi not long after 8.30am. Before going out I had to get my shopping rucksack from the kitchen. Going in the kitchen meant I had to check my mouse traps. That little bastard managed to take the peanut from one trap without triggering it ! The other trap was still untouched. One thing I should have got from Aldi was some peanut butter. I hear that is the best thing to bait traps. The mice cannot just pick it up and run away like a peanut. As they try and gather a mouthful they will probably trigger the trap, and it will be goodbye mouse !

  I think I just caught the end of the little surge straight after Aldi open, and each checkout queue had several people waiting. By the time I went through the checkout there was no one behind me, and the other had very few people waiting. There was really only a few things I really wanted from Aldi, and most of them were beer. I found quite a selection of the weird and (possibly) wonderful for this afternoon's boozing session.

  Today is Angela's birthday. I had already sent her birthday wishes once, but mixed up the date when the clocks changed with her birthday. Once I realised that I sent a message to withdraw my wishes. I never got any response to those messages, and so I wondered if I would get a response to a new message send this morning to wish Angela a happy birthday on the correct day. I did ! She thanked me.

  A bit later this morning I sent her a message to say I expected she would want to be rushing home from work as fast as possible, particularly if it was still raining then (as it may well be), but if she fancied dropping in she could have a quick birthday drink with me an Michael. She replied that she wasn't at work today, but if circumstances were different she would have liked to have gad a drink with us. In a further message she asked me to send her love to Michael. Well, at least we are still in contact even if it seems we will never meet again. Oh well, at least I have a boozing session with my "support bubble" this afternoon.