This morning has started off very dull and gloomy, but according to the latest revision there is still hope that it should brighten up sooner or later. In fact the latest revision has moved the start of the non stop sunshine to 10am. As I look out the window I find it hard to believe, but even the BBC weather forecast is predicting sunny spells by 9am (half an hours time as I write this). Unfortunately they also predict there will only be sunny spells instead of non stop sunshine today. The afternoon temperature should reach 22° C (or 23° C if you believe the BBC). Tomorrow may still reach 21° C, but it is forecast to be dull, but dry all day. After that the next few days may well feature rain, and by the end of the month the daytime temperature may be down to just 16 or 17° C.

  I felt semi-good yesterday morning - in so much as nothing ached beyond a mild background level. That made it easy to imagine doing all sorts of stuff. The reality was more having to force myself into the right frame of mind to make some sort of start in making imagination reality.

  Yesterday morning's glorious sunshine really called out for a nice walk - and that is what I did, and on the whole it was nice. More than a modicum of madness was involved to consider walking to the top of Blythe Hill for my first semi-long walk since late June ! I guess it was interesting to see what fitness I had retained, and what I had lost. I must admit it was hard work walking to the top of Blythe Hill, and I had to stop for 10 to 30 seconds a few times to get my breath back.

  I use "get my breath back" more as a figure of speech than accuracy. I wasn't short of breath at any point, but I think my muscles needed those short breaks to soak up extra oxygen from my blood stream. Having said that, I do wonder if practice, which I did a lot of last year, was more about learning perseverance than strengthening muscles.

  Yesterday morning I did speculate that if I felt OK I might even tackle Hilly Fields after Blythe Hill. I did do that once (or twice ?) last year, but after reaching the top of Blythe Hill it was obvious that another hill would be a complete folly. There was also the fact that part of the reason for my walk was to test my new Nikon D80 camera and zoom lens.  There are (usually) some good views from the top of Blythe Hill, but Hilly Fields is ringed with trees, and the clearest views are rather boring.
  Of course a big telephoto lens is not just good for very long distance shots of big things, but to make snapping small things easier. If I was ultra patient I may have been able to snap a few birds in the trees, but squirrels are much easier.
  I didn't realise that squirrels ate conkers, and I have no idea why, but yesterday I had definite proof that they do. The conkers are ripe and ready to fall, and I saw quite a few fall when there was a breath of wind. On the other hand, when I consider what I actually saw it was possibly mainly empty shells I saw falling from one tree. I couldn't see them, but I strongly suspect there were squirrels up in the tree discarding the shells as the gorged themselves on the nuts.
  In this picture you can see the red conker before the squirrel strips off the red shell to get to the white nutmeat inside.
  By the time I reached the top of Blythe Hill the sky, or at least most of it, was looking very dull, very heavy, but there was still some very localised sunshine. In this picture the foreground is in sunshine, but Canary Wharf looks very dull and gloomy in the distance.
  This cat with it's very distinctive black and white pattern was sitting on a fence post on the border between Blythe Hill Fields and someone's back garden. All the black and white cats in my neighbourhood look almost like clones of each other, but evidently in the wilds of Blythe Hill they do it differently !
  This was a very good test of my Nikon D80 camera. It was very dull under the shade of the trees, and the sky above was very dull. This shot was well under exposed as a result, but the picture was clean enough to be brightened up considerably. I still don't think it is perfect, but it's probably my best picture of a squirrel ever !
  I have no idea why I feel sure this is a moth and not a butterfly. Apart from it's nice colour scheme, evidently designed as camouflage for alighting in woodland, it's main feature is that it is no bigger than a fingernail. Quite why it had chosen to rest on my white front door is a mystery.  I used my mobile phone for this picture because it takes extreme close-ups in it's stride.

  I was happy to get home again after this walk, but then that is true of all of them. It was probably a good sign that I didn't feel completely exhausted when I got in - probably only 80% exhausted ! I made a point of not eating breakfast before going out, and that meant I was a was hungry when I got home, although I can't help but feeling the idea of hunger was more from my mind than from my stomach. I sort of compromised by just having some soup.

  I didn't feel I had the energy to do all the photo editing at first, but I did take a quick look at all the pictures I took so I could assess how well my new Nikon D80 performed. I took a fair few experimental pictures with no real content, but just to assess how the camera performed under various conditions. One thing I did notice is that there appears to be a small blemish on the sensor that is only visible on very dark scenes. My guess is that it was pointed at the sun by it's previous owner. The blemish appears as a tiny red dot, and it is simple to paint it out in a photo editor if needed. Overall, I am very happy with my new camera, but it has a weakness. I don't think it will perform well at dark gigs.

  After a quick skim through of the pictures I took I laid on my bed, and started reading. It wasn't long before I fancied a snooze. I probably slept for almost an hour. I do remember it was just after 4pm when I woke up. I think it was then that I felt very peckish again. I ended up eating rather more cheese and rice crackers than was probably good for me - particularly so when I consider what I had for dinner (and dinner was only about 90 minutes away at that point).

  My dinner was almost certainly a foolish combination, and I don't think it even worked that well. It was some pork belly strips in BBQ sauce that I found on the reduced price shelf the last time I went to Tesco. I didn't check, but I think that BBQ sauce/marinade probably had a fair bit of sugar in it. Sugar is often used to give a nice brown glaze to the meat. I made matters worse by having a can of baked beans with the pork. That definitely had a fair bit of sugar in it.
  Just before the evening light started to get too dim I took this snap of my one giant sunflower now almost in full bloom. In fact it may now be as big as it is going to get, and that makes it just very big, and not giant !  It is now looking like sunshine is going to be very rare after today. That is pity for obvious reasons, but particularly so because I suspect the other three plants with buds may not do anything now. On the other hand, this os the first time I have grown a sunflower, and I have no experience to draw on. Maybe they will still bloom in duller weather.

  I seemed to have a bit of difficulty getting to sleep last night, but in reality I may have fallen asleep faster than it seemed. Once I was asleep I seemed to sleep OK. I woke up several time in the night, and went for a pee on each occasion, but there seemed no urgency about it. It was only around 1am when I seemed to have difficulty getting back to sleep, but even then I was probably only awake for 10 to 15 minutes. It feels like it should have been a good sleep, but the reality is that I don't think it was that good. I do feel a bit sleepy this morning.

  I was hoping that yesterday's exercise might have counteracted some of the bad, as in excess sugar, stuff I ate, but evidently not. I was far too careless because this morning my blood glucose was up to 9.1mmol/l, and it seems almost impossible to get this months average lower than the previous 3 or 4 months. It seems my average is just stuck between 8.5 and 8.6mmol/l.

  I had some fanciful ideas that I might go for another walk today. It was to be just a simple walk through the linear park, but as I sit here writing this I am finding it hard to gather any enthusiasm for it. On the other hand, the sun has finally come out, and a bit more sunshine my enthuse me. If I don't go out I have no idea what I might do.