The one constant in the weather forecasts for today is that it is going to be cold, but otherwise things get complicated. The BBC forecast was full of doom and gloom - dark clouds and sleet showers. The Met Office forecast was not so gloomy. A few hours later and the BBC were forecasting sunny spells and sunshine all afternoon. The Met Office were less optimistic. The sunny spells at 8am in the screenshot above have been moved to 10am but seemed to actually happen at 9am ! From 3pm until sunset there should be sunny spells at first, and then maybe full sunshine for the last few hours of daylight. Nothing has changed to show the temperature at midday as being as low as 4° C (or maybe 5° C in BBC land). Tomorrow could see the temperature hit 0° C at 7am, and only 6° C in the afternoon.

    It would be easy to dismiss the morning as just waiting around until t was time to go out, but there was some....err....excitement (?). I noticed that a mousetrap in the dining room had been tripped, but there was no body caught in it. Since getting lots of junk out of the dining room, and into the wheelie bin, and cleaning it all up, I had seen no sign of any mice in there. While it was so cluttered it was a favourite place for mice - almost certainly the descendants of mice brought in alive by my cat, and then managed to escape.

  When I went into the kitchen I found a mouse trap with a mouse in it. Now I had seen evidence of a mouse in there, but I had never seen the mouse itself. All I ever saw was a few droppings here and there. I felt sure that there could have been no more than one surviving mouse in there who managed to survive on dropped crumbs because I had been taking great care not to leave anything else accessible. Having said that, I know that there are drips of fat behind the mini over and grill, and it was by there that I had placed the trap that had the corpse in it.

  The only thing that worries me is how the mouse managed to squeeze past the tightly closed kitchen door from the dining room to the kitchen. That is assuming that it was the same mouse that tripped the trap in the dining room. As always I hope that I have now caught and the final mouse, but I realise that is rather optimistic. This morning there was no evidence of any mice in the kitchen, or elsewhere.
As I wrote yesterday, my plan for yesterday was to go to a street gig in Hither Green in the afternoon. I also planned on going out a bit early so I could also take a wander in Manor House Gardens. I left home a little earlier than intended because there had been a cock-up. My friend Jodie had expressed a desire to come along, and the best place to meet her was at Hither Green station.

  She had checked the times of the trains, and was going to get a train that arrived there at 2.39pm. I am sure I said that is a bit early, and the 9 minutes past train would be better. For some reason she thought I meant the 2:09pm train - for a gig that was not due to start until at least 3pm, and typically 10 to 15 minutes after that. Jodie phone me to say she was just getting on the train at London Bridge, and would be there soon.

  I had rush to Hither Green station as fast as possible to meet her. I thought going up the hill towards Hither Green Lane (along the top of the hill) was going to be testing, but trying to do it fast was really knackering me. I had to stop a few times for a few tens of seconds to get my breath back. I do wonder if it would have been very slightly faster to walk slower without pauses.

  I felt really stressed by the time I met Jodie, but there was worse to come, but worse in a different way. We had well over half an hour to kill, and as planned, we went to Manor House Gardens. I had actually planned to go alone so I could do it most efficiently, but with Jodie it was like dragging a boat anchor. We had to keep stopping so she could photograph assorted flowers in peoples front garden, and then after she kept stopping for more photos in the park she announced she needed to sit down to transfer some stuff from her clogged up phone to a memory stick. As usual she couldn't remember how to do it, and I couldn't help because I couldn't see her phone screen in the bright sunshine !
  I can understand wanting to stop to take snaps of squirrels. I did too, but I didn't want to attempt a half hour conversation with them !
  The funny thing is that I had never noticed squirrels in the park before, but on this occasion we spotted a lot. I also spotted lots of peanut husks. They were obviously being well fed !
  I was more interested in the birdlife on the lake, and this goose was interested in me !
  One thing I didn't expect was to see a domestic cat basking in the sunshine in the middle of the park. It was on a sort of broad wooden jetty that serves as an observation point for the lake.
  I also didn't expect to find a water bird (moorhen) up a tree - and standing on one leg !
  This was a good find. This peacock butterfly (I think) was sunning itself on a gatepost outside a house quite close to where the gig was.
  Just one picture of the gig itself today, but there should be more tomorrow - although in reality this picture almost completely represents the gig. Abby Harte on vocals, Steve Cox on bass, and Richard "Dik" Tokarski on guitar was the whole band apart from a friend of theirs who did guest vocals on one or two songs. The big problem for me was that the house was on the shaded side of the road. It made my pictures look a bit flat. You'll notice that the reflection in the windows, or the other side of the road, looks much more vibrant.

  After about 70 minutes of standing around watching the gig I was finding that my right knee was starting to complain a bit. It was very mild pain, but I think it possibly made me alter my stance enough to start getting sciatica down the outside of my right thigh. It seemed like a good time to start walking again. Fortunately there was a train due for Jodie, and so we did a slow walk to the station where I said goodbye to Jodie, and then picked up my pace towards home.

  Going up to Hither Green Lane from the station seemed quite taxing, but once I reached the brow of the hill, actually a little further than Hither Green Lane, it was all down hill towards home. Even going downhill my feet and legs felt tired, and I was also developing a mild need to have a wee. Quite why I felt the need to wee is a mystery, but it certainly vindicated my refusal of some kindly offers of beer at the gig.

  I felt tired when I got home, and I didn't feel like doing much apart from eating. I had to wait nearly an hour before it was dinner time, but eventually I had the dinner I had prepared and cooked before going out. It was well cooked pork belly slices, and a mix of green beans and runner beans. I was going to have a beer with them, but I settled on a large whisky after I had eaten dinner. I then spent some time preparing the photos I have used today.

  The only entertainment I had all evening was watching about half of a "Carry On" film. Unfortunately it was one of the poorer films - Carry On Matron. It was like they were milking any final laugh possible from comedies about hospitals. It must have been before 10pm, and closer to 9pm when I went to bed, but it seemed to take ages to fall asleep. It was quite warm in my bedroom after the afternoon sun, but I knew by morning it would be getting quite chilly. I had decided I would leave the heater on low, but that made it initially too hot, but was not enough by morning.

  I didn't get to sleep until after I had turned the heater off, but then woke up feeling cold a few hours later. Then it seemed to take ages to get back to sleep again after turning the heater back on. It was one of those nights where I seemed to be awake a lot, but then many hours would pass by without them being noticed. I guess I got a fair amount of sleep last night. Maybe it could have been more, but I had to get up to go to Aldi this morning.

  This morning was one of those odd times when my blood glucose had gone up a bit despite eating carefully, and burning quite a few calories going up and down the hill twice on my 3.4 mile walk. I am hoping it is a sort of delayed action sort of thing, and it will have dropped a lot by tomorrow morning. Unfortunately I have been shopping in Aldi, and not everything I bought was as wholesome as can be (although I was a lot more selective than usual). Today is also delayed boozing day. Jodie and I will drink a fair bit of beer, and it was more with that in mind that I was a bit more choosy about what I was buying in Aldi this morning. Maybe these beers, bought there this morning, will be nice.