I don't think any revisions to the weather
forecast for yesterday showed that there would be
over an hour of quite long sunny spells - so long
in some cases that it could be said to be sunny at
times. It started around midday, and soon after
1pm it was back to the forecast dull and cloudy
weather. I don't think that sunny interlude did
anything for the predicted 11° C. Something else
that was unexpected, although it did appear in
much later revisions to the forecast, and that was
rain. I'm not sure what time it started, but it
was possibly before 9pm.
The latest revision
to today's forecast shows the last of the
sunny periods finishing an hour earlier, but
the earlier forecast may turn out to be closer
to reality (with regard to the end) because as
far as I am aware, the sunny spells started a
bit later than 8am, and so might finish later
too. It seems the idea of thick heavy cloud
from 1pm hasn't changed when the forecast was
revised, and from midday onwards the earlier
and later revisions are identical. It seems
there is a 10% chance of rain at any time, but
no specific time is expected to see rain. This
morning started mild, 12° C, and this
afternoon's 14° C is not too bad, but without
any sunshine it will still seem to be cold and
damp. Tomorrow may start bright again, but
from the afternoon onwards it is likely to
rain - sometimes light rain, and sometime
heavy rain. The temperature will probably be
the same as today.
I can't say I did nothing
yesterday morning because I went shopping in
Aldi, but after that I did nothing but read,
and eat. I had a very naughty breakfast of a
few sandwiches, and then a sort of late
elevenses of a very unhealthy combination of
salami and mozzarella cheese slices. I should
have resisted that, although I knew when buy
that pack of meat and cheese it would end up
as a snack.
I read some stuff on the internet, and
read some of the book I was reading. While I
was reading the book the sun came out, and was
shining through the window onto my bed. It
made me feel very relaxed. It wasn't long
before that first flicker of sunshine turned
into a long sunny spell. It felt deliciously
warm, and I was going to just lay there
luxuriating in it. Just as I started to fall
asleep I made a split second decision that I
ought to go for a walk in the sunshine.
It took a while for me to get ready to
go out, but eventually I had gone to the
toilet, and got dressed. I grabbed my Nikon
P500 camera, my pink sunglasses, put a coat
on, and went out. It was almost inevitable
that 10 minutes later the sun was occulted by
more and more clouds until all sunshine was
lost. Having started, I decided to press on,
and continue my walk. It didn't feel to be
easy going. I later realised that some of the
struggle was because of what I had eaten
during the morning.
Another reason for discomfort was the
temperature outside. It was hovering at an
annoying level. It was too cold and yet not
cold enough. The cold, and damp, was making my
chest hurt in a sort of rheumatic way. My
chest was exposed to the cold because I was
feeling too hot under my coat. Feeling too hot
only happened after briskly walking about half
a mile, or to the entrance to the linear park.
I could feel my arms getting damp in the coat
sleeves. I now know why soldiers are usually
bare armed. It seems the arms are a part of
the body that are good at dissipating body
heat - provided they are in free air.
For want of an extra 0.005 miles
this would have been a 3 mile walk !
For some
reason I decided to make a video
record of some of my walk.
Initially I just videoed the water
rushing down the two slopes where
the two rivers join by the "bridge
of doom". I then decided to do
some commentary at places that
were of particular interest to me.
I've wanted to get a good shot of this
very classic looking tree ever since it
gained it's autumn colours, and started
losing it's leaves. The usual problem is
that the sun would be behind it from this
view, and it is only this view that is
clear enough to show the whole tree with
nothing in the way. This tree is just
inside the Catford Hill entrance to the
park, roughly half a mile from home, and
by the time I reached it the sun was
hidden behind thick cloud.
I noticed that many, if not all, the dry
and dead looking teasel heads had small
green leaves on them. I don't really know
what is happening here. Maybe these are
small teasel plants starting to grow, or
maybe the teasel has caught some other
drifting seeds. Maybe if they are very
young teasel plants they eventually fall
to the ground. It would give them a head
start after winter is over - assuming they
survive the winter.
I don't know if it was this heron, but I
saw a heron flying while walking along. It
was very recognisable with it's very wide
wing span, and the quite slow, almost
lazy, flapping of it's wings. I think this
is the first time I have seen one roosting
very high up in a tree. It's legs look
really thin when seen like this.
I was halfway between the bridge
of doom, and the exit to the park when I
bumped into a birdwatcher and his wife
(both equipped with binoculars). We
spoke for a bit about wild life in the
park. He seemed very knowledgeable, and
had seen far more birds than I had, but
then again that was his reason to be
there. I was 90% out for just exercise,
and only stopped to photograph the
obvious. He mentioned the heron being
deep in the trees, and probably not easy
to see, but even without my long
distance glasses on it was easy to spot
- although I have to admit that I was
lucky that it was in a place where there
was a convenient window in the tree
cover. Maybe it was a case of being
there at the right time.
Stopping to chat to the
birdwatcher was interesting, but all the
time I was stopped my legs felt like
they were seizing up. The last bit of my
walk felt like really hard work, and I
was very happy to get home. It felt as
bad as after one of my very long walks
up to Blackheath in the summer months.
They involved big hills, and were almost
7 miles long. I should not have felt so
bad for just a 3 mile walk. I must be
really out of condition now - too much
rest, and a bad diet since Autumn threw
it's worst at us !
With the knowledge that some of
my fatigue was caused by eating before
exercising, I declined to eat anything
when I got home. However I did allow
myself one large whiskey....and then
another. That seemed to be all I needed
to have a long snooze in the afternoon.
I am not sure how long "long" was, and
it may not have been as much as it felt
like, but when I woke up it had started
to get dark. With sunset being at 4.07pm
today, and probably 2 minutes later
yesterday, that didn't make it very late
in the day.
Once I had gathered my senses
together again I made a start of editing
the video together, and then selecting
and editing a few still photos. It
wasn't long before I started to feel
hungry, and I did end up bringing my
dinner forward by 10 minutes. I had two
Aldi ready meals, and they were both
nice. I had decided that I didn't think
much of their curries, and went for a
"gastro meal" of pulled beef with mashed
potato, and a beef hash when I went
shopping in the morning. I am not sure
if I intended to eat them both for one
meal, but they did seem very small
portions.
I think I watched some Star Trek
and some QI on TV last night. I did miss
some of both when I went down to the
dining room to try out something on my
laptop. Once upon a time there was a
desktop/graphical user interface for
Linus called KDE. I liked it because it
was quite slick, and it looked and
worked in a very similar way to Windows
98. In fact a few tweaks could make it
look close to identical. Then one day it
was "improved". It became a sloppy,
resource consuming monster, and was
really crappy. I gave up using it, and
went for a different desktop - either
XFCE or Gnome. Yesterday I read some
news that said KDE had cleaned up their
act, and KDE was now sleek and efficient
again. I tested this using two live DVD
Linux distributions. They both seemed to
feel OK, and a future task will be to
install Linux Mint 18.3 KDE edition on
my old PC. That version is still just
about supported, although I think
supports ends next year.
I read in bed to relax myself
before trying for sleep last night. It
was around 11pm, a lot later than was
usual, before I turned out the light. I
don't think it was as long as it felt
before I was fast asleep. Last night's
sleep was an enigma. It was one of those
nights where I felt I was awake too
often, and for too long, and yet many
hours would slip by unnoticed. That
suggests I got some fairly long sleep,
and yet whenever I think about it I
start yawning. I even ended up sleep a
lot later than usual, and so I shouldn't
need yet more sleep.
This morning I probably feel
better for my walk yesterday. I expected
to ache more, and yet I seem to ache
less. The only bad thing is that the
sandwiches, and the ready meals must
take the blame for my blood glucose
going up to 8.7mmol/l. I am never going
to get my average down to 7.5mmol/l at
the end of the month at this rate.
Fortunately I have probably eaten the
worst things already, and tomorrow could
see a drop in my blood glucose again.
It is fairly bright still, and I
can see patches of blue sky. I should
rush out and go for another walk, but by
the time I am ready I expect it will
look pretty grim outside. Nevertheless,
I think there is about a 50% chance that
I will go for a walk again today. If not
then I think I could waste many hours
playing with computers today. I might
even edit some more very old camcorder
video...or I might not.
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