The forecast has already been revised to show this morning as featuring more sunny spells than shown in the screenshot above. Maybe a further revision will show the sunny spells popping up in the afternoon too...or maybe not. 6pm is still shown as being sunny, and sunny spells for 7pm. The temperature may only reach 11° C for a couple of hours this afternoon, but that is going to be similar enough to yesterday, and that didn't seem to bad. Of course it will depend on how the wind feels. Tomorrow may only reach 9° C, and the afternoon is likely to be very grey, and from mid afternoon it could get very wet !

  Several things happened yesterday morning, and I guess both were very significant, albeit for different reasons. The first thing was that my new computer was delivered. It didn't take long before I had it out of the box it came in, and then took off the lid. It turns out my original plans have had to be modified. I was expecting it to have 3 or 4 SATA ports to attach hard drives or optical drives, but it has just 2 ports. One has to be used for the CD/DVD drive. My plan was to use a small solid state drive for the operating system, and a large, 2TB drive for my home partition with all my personal data on it. That is how my current PC is set up.

  I can't attach two hard disks to this new PC. I was unsure if it would take a full sized (3.5 inch) hard drive, but it can, and it just so happens that I have a couple of 3TB hard drives. One of them would do the job, but the disk access speed won't be as fast as when using a solid state hard drive. At least that is the conventional wisdom, but I can't say that I have noticed any great speed improvement on my current PC that uses a solid state drive. I fitted the 3TB hard drive, but didn't go any further yesterday because of other distractions.

  The other excitement yesterday morning was the arrival of the men who would be fitting the new back fence. This was arranged, and paid for by the lady who lives in the house behind me. The workmen were quite cheerful, and I spent a bit of time out there chatting to them. I felt some need to demonstrate that I did care for my garden before they took any liberties such as dumping rubble on my side of the fence. It seemed mild out, and so I did some weeding in my potato patch. There are three potato plants sprouting at the moment.

  I also made use of those men to help remove the rotten remains of the two trees that once grew right next to the fence. They help to smash through a couple of roots, and gave an extra tug to help me pull out the bigger stump, The smaller snapped off near ground level, and I'll probably have to dig the rest out. One useful thing I confirmed was that one of the new concrete fence posts is set at least 4ft deep, and once I have finished clearing what will be a vegetable bed, and the there has been some rain to settle the earth, I'll be using that fence post to support my washing line.
  This is the new fence. I would have preferred it to be a bit more symmetrical, but it is OK. I did have some concerns about how it would affect the foxes. I don't think it would any worse than the old fence, and those two parallel bars across the middle of each panel may actually make it easier to scale - except for the cubs. Hopefully they will grow big and strong and able to get out to explore the wider world. Last night I observed the Vixen viewing the new fence for the first time (I think). She did a few circles around the garden sizing up all the fences, but eventually went straight up the new fence in the same place as the old fence. It didn't seem to cause her any trouble at all.


   The 30 to 60 minutes I spent in the garden convinced me that the day was nice enough to go for a walk. I went out somewhat later than usual, and in doing so I missed the best of the sunny spells. In fact as I approached home the sky had turned nasty and dark, and it seemed like it would rain. It didn't, and as I mentioned above, I was not aware of any rain later in the evening.

  I managed a 3.5 mile walk yesterday. I had been hoping I could attempt a bit more than that, but I was getting that annoying pain around the back of my right knee again. It was nowhere bad enough to stop me walking, but it was enough to spoil the pleasure of walking. It didn't seem to hinder me going up and down a few steep places on the river bank, and I possibly noticed it less then compared to walking on flat and level ground.

  As my walk approached the footbridge over the railway, about half way through the park, I had an idea for an interesting diversion. In a way it was a bit more exploration of the Bellingham estate, but principally it was to explore how the path that starts at the bottom of Winsford Road,  crosses the park, and then the railway, and links up with Bellingham station. It was a straight forward walk, but I am fairly sure it was all based on an ancient footpath from Perry Hill to Bromley Road that was in existence long before the railways were built.


  This picture only half shows it, but it seemed that this duck had an unusually long beak when I first saw it.
  This picture was a bit of a disappointment. I thought I had managed to get a decent picture of a small bird in a tree, but it was taken from the other side of the river using a lot of zoom. It was also taken while the sun was behinds some clouds. That made it a bit dim, and the camera chose a long exposure time to magnify the camera shake ! Of course robins are the easiest small birds to photograph. They will often sit still and pose. Other small birds seem to be constantly in motion.
  The river level was low enough to expose all but one of my favourite rocks. There seemed to be a log jam there yesterday, and I guess they may well stay there until the water level rises again after some heavy rain. The river was also low enough to expose some shingle, and I was able to go a little way into the stream where it was really shallow, but I couldn't get to the rocks like I could last summer.
  I found a new little path down the river bank yesterday. It doesn't really go anywhere once it reaches the river. This was the view across the river at the end of the path. It is unclear who owns the other side of the river at this point. It is not easy to see in this photo, but there is a boundary fence at the rear of the the photo. I think it is allotments on the other side of that fence. It is obvious that some of the bank has been cleared, and I would hazard a guess that someone likes to sit there in the sun and watch the river glide by. Maybe I'll meet them one day.

  The homeward leg of my walk, walking along Bromley Road was fairly unpleasant compared to walking in the park, or even walking along the quiet side streets. In theory there was a lot of distraction from the pain around my my right knee, but it didn't work like that. I just wanted to get that bit over and done with, and tried to walk faster. I couldn't because people kept getting in the way, and the frustration of that seemed to make the pain worse. I don't think it actually made the pain worse - it just felt that way.

  I was rather happy to get home, and put my feet up. It was interesting that after a 3.5 mile walk I didn't seem to feel knackered, or even particularly tired. It sometimes seems I am less out of condition than I believe, although it really depends on other things. Going up and down hills, as I did on my last walk, did feel more taxing than it would have at the end of last summer.

  The walk served two purposes, or I suppose the same purpose twice. It burned up some excess sugar, and kept me away form the fridge. The burning up of excess sugar was quite obvious to me. For the first couple of miles my forehead was quite sweaty, but in the last mile and and half (both distances are convenient simple numbers rather than accurate) I noticed the sweating stopping as my blood glucose dropped.

  I think the walk, despite the discomfort, put me in a good frame of mind, and it was easy to continue fasting right up to dinner time. At 5pm, an hour before dinner, I checked my blood glucose level, and it had come down from a dangerous 10.3mmol/l to a very satisfactory 7.6mmol/l. I was still careful not to have anything too outrageous for dinner. I had roast pork belly strips with nice crunchy fat on the outside, and beansprouts cooked in beef Oxo and soy sauce. I will possibly have the same again tonight.

  I had another very strange night last night. It was one of those nights where I seemed to be awake a lot, and yet I kept noticing that the clock had moved on by 2 or 3 hours every time I though I had just closed my eyes for a few seconds. I am sure I had some interesting dreams, but only a fragment seems to come to mind, and that is not worth recalling. Some, or all my strange sleep may have just been that odd thing that seems to afflict me every now and then...or probably more frequently than that. It is feeling I am either too hot or too cool. It seemed I couldn't stand keeping the duvet over my body (but not head) for more than a few minutes, and I probably did all my sleeping mostly uncovered. It was probably very slightly too cool for that to be comfortable.

  This morning it seemed obvious I was going to get up at 6am. I didn't want to. I fancied another hour of sleep, but the inaccessible part of my brain said no, you are getting up now ! This morning my blood glucose was back up at 8.0mmol/l. That is not a bad figure, but leaves no room for complacency. Now and then I speculate about there being a delay between what I have been eating, and when it affects my blood glucose. If you will excuse the grossness of it...this morning I observed little black seeds on the toilet paper when I wiped my bottom. I am very sure that those seeds were te little teardrop shaped seeds that were on the Katsu fish cakes I had for breakfast on Monday. They could have been the black seeds from the Kiwi fruit I also ate on Monday. Either way, it seems the passage of food through my gut can be very slow, and if "O" level biology still applies, it is being digested almost right up to the final exit. It is no wonder there can be a delay.

  This morning I don't seem to have any leftovers from my walk beyond a slightly sore foot. That soreness is on the sole of my foot, and is actually quite mild. This means I could theoretically go out for another walk today. It all depends on the weather. It seems there is more sunshine this morning than the forecast predicts. If it could extend just a few more hours it could be worth a walk. If I do go out I have a cunning plan. I could walk north this time, maybe for a walk around Brockley and Ladywell Cometary. If I timed it right I could walk back past the Jolly Farmer at such a time that I could intercept Angela as she walks from work - if she walks that way, for shopping or pub, and if today is not one of her working from home days.