Yesterday was almost perfect. There was
blue sky from dawn to dusk, and of course that
meant warm sunshine all day too. The
afternoon temperature was forecast to be 24° C,
and that is about what it was.
Today could
be even warmer than yesterday, but
there could be periods with no
sunshine, and there is a 30% chance of
light rain later this
afternoon.....well that was the case
in the first forecast, but it has been
revised now to show it will be dry,
but there will still be a few hours
when there is no sun at all, and a few
hours with just sunny spells. The
temperature should reach 25° C (the
BBC forecast says 26° C !). Much of
tomorrow will only see sunny spells,
and the temperature will be a few
degrees lower.
Yesterday morning I said I
would be happy if I managed to walk 3
miles. I actually walked 3.274 miles.
I did my most familiar walk - from
here, through the Linear Park as far
as the Bow String bridge, and back
again. That might have been boring,
but after not walking that way since
9th May there was loads more
vegetation to see, and even a fallen
tree...
That fallen tree blocked a
little path I use, and I had to go
around it. The path itself had not
been little used for maybe a week or
two, and the vegetation was starting
to fill it in. I was wearing shorts,
and I managed to come into contact
with a stinging nettle once as I
approached the fallen tree. The
sensible thing would have been to turn
around, but I decided to go around the
fallen tree, and ended up getting
multiple nettle stings on my bare
legs.
It has taken me many years to
realise it, but nettle stings don't
last for ever. The initial sting was
quite painful, but 10 or so minutes
later they were almost, but not quite,
ignorable. That short, sharp lesson,
gave me the courage to walk along the
little path by the river. As expected,
the vegetation was doing it's best to
take over the path, but it was still
being used, and the vegetation was
kept almost at bay. Even so, I think I
brushed past another nettle or two
with my bare legs. They were starting
to feel like I had mild sunburn.
It has been a long time since
the river was low enough to paddle out
in an inch or so of water to get this
picture of "The Bridge Of Doom" from
such a low angle.
My favourite bit of the river:
My favourite rocks in the river. The
river wasn't quite shallow enough to
get to the rocks properly, but if you
are able to see, and play the video a
bit further down the page, you'll see
that I did go for a paddle in the
river, and walk past the rocks. A few
minutes standing in the water cooled
my feet off nicely.
I've called this flying
creature, sitting on a leaf with it's
wings folded, a dragonfly, but I think
it is more likely to be a damsel fly.
I must have passed this bush
many times before, but until yesterday
I never knew it was a wild or dog rose
(and I am not 100% certain it is
either), but yesterday it was
blooming, and the bees were having a
feast.
Maybe this white flower is a
dog rose. To be honest "dog rose" is
just a name I have heard, but I have
no idea what one looks like. These are
not the dense rose blooms so favoured
by lovers, and so I have, for the
moment, dubbed them dog roses.
Another
one of my badly produced,
off the cuff commentary,
videos. It starts with a
look at my favourite rocks
from where I can step down
onto the exposed shingle bed
of the river. I then stop
the recorder while carefully
paddling through the shallow
bits of river to view the
rocks from downstream. I
then cut to where Thames
Water "water abstraction
plant" is leaking water, and
it is now flowing onto the
main path, as well as
turning the river bank on
the far side of the
enclosure into a quagmire.
After my
walk on Sunday had been so painful
in my normal boots, I gave my old
Regatta brand boots a go. They
never seemed quite as comfortable
as the boots I was wearing on
Sunday. On this occasion they
didn't seem so bad, and when I
arrived home I found my feet were
sore, but nothing like as bad as
they were on Sunday. The rest of
my felt a lot better too. Maybe
the painkillers I took before I
set out were working better than
they did on Sunday. It is obvious
that I still need a lot of
practice to get back in condition,
but maybe I am starting to get
there now.
On my way back home I
popped into the Sainsbury's Local
shop by Catford station. I bought
three ready made up salad bowls,
and one of them was one of my
favourites - an Italian salad
(with shaved hard cheese and
balsamic vinaigrette). It is a
shame I haven't seen their
wonderful Greek salad in there for
ages. When I got home it wasn't
long before I tucked into the
Italian salad (with some added
sliced jalapeños). After that I
laid on my bed to read a copy of
New Scientist that I had also
bought from Sainsbury's. It wasn't
long before I dozed off.
I have no idea what the
time was when I dozed off, or when
I woke up again, but I knew it was
still a long wait until dinner
time, and I had a small snack of
mixed nuts. Just before dinner I
checked my blood glucose. It was a
perfect 6.3mmol/. I didn't expect
it to be that low, but I guess I
started the day with it being only
a little bit high, 8.2mmol/l. I
was still surprised that it was so
low after eating my salad and
snack. It is almost as if
something keeping it high is now
wearing off. Could it have been my
Covid jabs ?
I had a two part dinner.
The first part was cold lamb shish
kebab. It was the final bit of my
takeaway from Sunday night. I must
admit I was concerned that it
might have started to grow bugs,
of the salmonella variety, or
something, after 2 days, but I did
keep it chilled, and any unusual
activity from my bowels this
morning is probably more to do
with my sudden big influx of raw
salad matter. The kebab was nice,
and I followed it by a Sainsbury's
"Classic Salad" fortified with
extra pickles and diced cheddar
cheese.
I think it was more habit
than need, but once again, after
some time reading in bed, I turned
the light off, turned over, and
fell asleep before it was
completely dark outside (maybe 15
or 20 minutes after 9pm). Like the
previous night, I seemed to sleep
quite well. My sleep was once
again punctuated with lots of
brief dreams. They seemed pleasant
as far as I can remember, but
either they were, or my memory of
them is too fragmented to attempt
to describe any of them. In fact I
can almost only remember their
existence, rather than their
content since waking up.
The news continues to be
good. I was hoping it might have
been a tad less, but my blood
glucose was down to 8.0mmol/l this
morning. It might have been lower
of I had not drunk three bottles
of beer last night. One of them
did taste a bit sweet. I seem to
feel moderately OK this morning. I
don't really have any after
effects from my walk, and that is
how it should be. Today may not be
quite as nice as yesterday,
although it will be warmer. There
is a fair chance I will attempt
another three mile walk today.
With luck, because it is by
no means certain, I shall be
meeting Angela for a lunchtime
drink today. It all depends on her
workload after a bank holiday
weekend. My plan is to try to walk
to the top of Hilly Fields before
walking back down towards the pub.
It really all depends on how the
time goes. The last time I met
Angela I was thinking of doing
this, but I left home too late,
and only walked as far as Ladywell
Cemetery before heading to the
pub, but that still added up to
2.4 miles.
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