Today is another day of a series of days that are mostly, or maybe today entirely dull, days that are otherwise quite mild. Today is unlikely to see any sign of the sun, but the temperature should reach 13° C, although it might only be for a couple of hours today. There is a 10% chance of rain through the whole day, but no actual rain is forecast. It looks like there will be less wind than yesterday, and that should mean even 12° C should feel fairly good. The forecast for tomorrow shows dark grey clouds for the whole 24 hours, and the highest temperature may only be 10° C, but it will be that from early morning to late evening.

  I felt completely different yesterday, and I can't really explain why. It couldn't have been a change in the weather making feel less depressed because the weather yesterday was not that different to the weather the day before when I was feeling rather off colour. I can really only describe how I felt yesterday as "less lethargic/listless".  It enabled me to actually do some useful things.

  I did have a half hearted plan to go for a walk yesterday, but I did say that depended on being sure I was over a period of constipation. I did "go" twice in the morning, but it didn't seem to be enough, and with the expectation that there was more to come, I decided it was not an ideal state to be in to go for a walk, and be miles away from the nearest toilet. Subsequently it was the case that I didn't need one.

  Although I didn't want to go out, I was still in the mood to do something useful, and I started by hand washing a couple of t-shirts and some underwear. After that I had an early lunch. I hadn't eaten any more than a few peanuts before that (at least I think I ate some), and I was intending to limit what I ate because my blood glucose was still a bit higher than desired. Lunch was probably my first mistake.

  My lunch was oven grilled peri-peri infused salmon. I wish I had checked the packet before I bought it, and also before I threw it away. I have a suspicion that the marinade might have included sugar. What definitely had sugar in it, despite the tin saying no added sugar, was a small tin of Tesco baked beans. The ironic thing is that the beans just didn't go with the salmon. I'm not sure what would have - probably some salad leaves or something.

  After letting my lunch go down I started on the main task of the day - gardening. I hadn't done any gardening for ages, and the flower beds were choked with weeds. In the end I mainly concentrated on just one flower bed.
  This is actually the flower bed that was really a potato plant bed last year. There are still potatoes buried in it from earlier in the year. When I harvested my crop I left some small, damaged, or green potatoes in situ. They will probably sprout in the spring, and then I will have trouble because I have planted some tulips and other stuff in the new de-weeded bed.
  I will admit I missed one or two small weeds. Other green bits in this photo are just odd leaves and shoots laying on top of the mud. I also cleared some of the grass and weeds from the path, but I was getting a bit tired while doing that, and all the bending over was getting a bit too much for me. I intend to come back to the path some time, and also try and keep the weeds under control in the flower bed, but my record of doing that is very, very poor, but there's always a first time.
  Another job was to fill another pair of hanging baskets, and put some seeds in them. The pair I did a few months back, which I planted some miniature tulips in, already have shoots showing. Fortunately for me, who can barely tell a dandelion from a cherry tree, it is very obvious they are shoots from the tulip bulbs. I am guessing that they are all going to flower at different times, and so the display is not going to be as vibrant as I would hope for.

  I did a few other little jobs in the garden - just some very light tidying up. I still have two flower beds to weed, and do something with. One flower bed will extend over the old entrance to the foxes earth.  I am pretty certain it is not in use now, and I put a couple of fairly light broken bricks in the entrance. I know a fox could easily move them, and even a cat could probably move them, but there is still an aperture that a cat could squeeze through. If there is no sign of movement after a week or so I shall fully fill in the entrance, and cover it with earth.

  The main reason I was doing the gardening yesterday, instead of any other day, was because it was so mild. It wasn't long after doing what I consider to be hard work that I was soon sweating.  With hindsight I could have worked quite comfortably topless - no shirt or anything like that. If I didn't have other plans I would quite possibly be going out today to do more work out there.

  I doubt I was working for more than 90 minutes, and possibly less, but it seemed quite enough for one day, and it was very nice to come back in and relax. It wasn't long after coming in that I probably made another bad mistake in the form of a large ham sandwich. It was made with "Polish" bread, which seemed quite safe a few weeks back, and I cut it in fairly thick slices (it was an unsliced loaf).

  I rested until dinner time, or just before, when I started cooking my dinner. Once again I realise I made a bit of a mistake. On Monday I had bought a variant on pigs in blankets. What I bought was frankfurters wrapped in bacon. I had forgotten I had bought them until I pulled out the "southern fried" flavour chicken goujons, or whatever they were called, from the bottom of the fridge. Curiosity got the better of me, and I cooked those bacon wrapped frankfurters first.

  Not only were those frankfurters not very nice, maybe even a bit unpleasant, but they seemed to have a fairly high sugar content....well maybe not high, but higher than I would have expected. I wonder if they might have been an American import. That would also explain why even the bacon tasted horrible. I followed the frankfurters with the chicken things, and I think there were safe, although maybe I even have doubts about them. I know the Tesco version to have quite a high sugar content. I think it is the "southern fried" coating that contains the sugar to make it brown and shiny when cooked.

  It came as no surprise that when I tried to go to sleep I was kept awake by an assortment of aches. What was surprising is that I couldn't really reconcile those aches as being from the result of gardening. Certainly some were, but others were of seemingly unknown origin. I had been prepared for a few aches, and took a couple of paracetamol earlier. Once they kicked in I started to sleep really well, albeit not until gone 10pm, and maybe closer to 11pm.

  I think I only woke twice in the night (not counting waking up at 6am, and deciding that another hour might be good). Twice must be some kind of record, and I can't remember so few times since years and years ago. I do remember a couple of dreams. One was rather erotic, and it is probably best not to describe that. The other I don't so much remember the dream except it's conclusion.

  I really have no idea what that dream was about, or what the circumstance were, but I do remember the totally accurate conclusion that urine is yellow because something in it absorbs blue light. I even suggested that substance is probably urea. I think that is scientifically correct, but I just can't imagine what circumstances should lead to a discussion about the colour of urine !

  Despite getting to sleep later than desired, I woke up this morning felt like I had had some great sleep, and I also felt that strange, because I can't say why, good feeling. I think it is good only because of the absence of bad, and so in reality no better than normal, but normal is the now good....or something. Actually I wasn't that good. My blood glucose was up to 9.8mmol/l, and that is rather bad.

  This afternoon I hope to be meeting Angela for a lunchtime drink, as we usually do on a Wednesday. In preparation for that I have already had a wet shave, washed my hair, and had a hot shower. By the time I had done that I think nearly two hours had passed since checking my blood glucose. I was curious what that extra time, and the hot shower would do. I thought it would make it go down, but I was shocked to see it went up to 11.1mmol/l - well into the danger zone !

  I am definitely not having any breakfast today, and if I can manage to do it, not have any lunch once I get back from the pub. I shall be drinking two pints of Guinness in the pub, and that always used to be safe, but I am not so sure of that now. If I do have anything when I get back, and there is probably a 50% chance of it, it will have to be nothing worse than a can or two of Tesco cream of chicken soup - which has very, very little sugar in it. I might even have the same for dinner.