07:48 BST

  It definitely was the BBC weather forecast that got it right yesterday. There were sunny spells, or hazy sunshine, or even full sunshine through most of the day, and it as feeling warm enough to wear shorts (but I didn't know that until later). The forecast was for only 16° C, but I'm sure it hit 20° C.

  

  There seems to be a general agreement between the BBC and Met Office forecasts that the garden is going to get some needed rain for several hours starting around 3pm. The rest of the day will be dull and cloudy, although the sun has almost come out once or twice this morning. The Met Office says this afternoon will be 15° C, but the BBC is a bit more pessimistic at just 14° C. Tomorrow may feature sunny spells for the morning, but the afternoon could see some full sunshine, and the temperature up to 16° C.


  It took some time before I felt ready for it, but I managed a fairly long walk yesterday. I suppose 3.79 miles doesn't seem long compared to some of the longer walks I have done, but considering it was made on an empty stomach it didn't seem too bad.

  I was determined to try and get a bit healthier yesterday, and I think I did quite well for a first day of what should be a new routine....until it slips any time from tomorrow until the end of the ext ice age. I have to admit my stomach was growling with hunger during the morning, but once I got walking I forgot about it.

  I didn't have a definite plan for this walk, but I did have a vague idea of where I would go, and that was what I did. Basically it was to walk to the far end of the Linear Park, and then walk back again. I thought it should have been close to a round 4 miles, but it was two tenths of a mile short of that. I did contemplate stretching it out a bit at the end, but I found I was more knackered than expected.

  One curious thing about this walk was the amount of people who I chatted to on the way. I think it might have been because I had taken my Nikon D80 camera, and although it is rather old, and was originally marketed as an entry level camera, it is big, and looks impressive. There was one man I had a chat with across the river who was trying to take some wildlife pictures with an iPad. He presumed that my camera and lens must have been worth at least £1000. He was surprised when I said the camera body cost £99, and the lens just £100. At that price I can't really expect to get great pictures, but it still does more than a phone camera.
  There is a little motion blur on this picture of a squirrel, but it's not bad for a picture using full zoom on my 25 - 200mm zoom lens. It is just a shame that this was one of the times when the sun was mostly behind a small cloud.
  If I have any competence at all for taking bird pictures it has to be of large birds - like this crow at the waters edge having a takeaway for lunch.
  I can't recall if it was last year, or maybe the year before that when these sins started appearing on lamposts in the park. I think they come under the category of "art installation". I thought I had photographed all of them last year, but I saw three more that I didn't seem to recognise. At least one of them may be new, and my bets would be on the strange creature on the right.
  I am not absolutely sure, but I think this is a blackbird hen. I think it is the male that has the glossy black feathers, and the female who looks a lot plainer. Taking this picture was a good example of one of the problem with my Nikon D80 camera. I find it hard to set the exposure and stuff quickly. There were several companions to this picture, but they are awful quality. I really should read the manual for the camera one day because I am sure there is a setting on the selector switch on top to set the shutter priority, and leave the rest of the settings on auto. I want a fast shutter speed to avoid things like motion blur, but the camera can take care of the exposure. The setting I thought would do that didn't seem to, although it might have been because it was out automatic range, and failed because of that.
  This picture was very disappointing. I had mere seconds until this butterfly flew of again, and in that time I couldn't reduce the exposure. Unlike my other cameras, the exposure wheel is not where my thumb is "trained" to find it. I have done my best to correct the over exposure in my photo editor, but so much detail has been lost. I was generally having trouble with butterflies. They rarely stay still for long, and I missed two great opportunities to photographs a couple of butterflies I had never seen before. They were basically brown with bright yellow spots. The problem was that they were on the ground sunning themselves until I almost trod on them. Of course as soon as they saw my boot getting close they were off before I could even find the shutter button on my camera.

  As I mentioned above, I was going to stretch this walk out to a full 4 miles by taking the long way home, but as I neared the end I was starting to feel the strain. I was getting a bit of foot ache, and my legs felt stiff. One reason for the stiff legs was the jeans I was wearing. Unlike they jeans I was wearing to the gig the night before, the jeans I wore yesterday were not tight around the waist, but were tight around the legs, and particularly the knees.

  Those jeans would be fine for shopping, or for a short walk to a local pub, but they are not for walking. Yesterday was warm enough that shorts could have been ideal. I must get my shorts out and see if any are still a comfortable fit. It was a joy to get those jeans off when I got home. It was also nice to get my boots off. Before I did that I prepared what I hoped would be a safe snack because I was feeling pretty hungry by then.

  What I ate were four rice cakes with cheese and sliced red jalapeños on them. In theory they were very low sugar, and moderately low in calories - although you can never tell with cheese ! It was about 20 to 30 minutes after eating that I thought I would check my blood glucose. I was shocked when it said 10.1mmol/l. Considering it was 8.3mmol/l in the morning, and apart from those rice cakes, I hadn't eaten a thing else, it was a bit of a surprise, although I have seen this before after long walks. I think it was probably because I was a bit dehydrated. On the other hand it could have been that I was digesting those rice cakes, and maybe the jalapeños faster than I thought I would.

  After eating I think I had a snooze. I was feeling very weary, and it didn't seem to get any better until after I had eaten dinner, and then not a lot better. At first I couldn't concentrate on doing anything to the pictures I took. I just left them in the camera until much later. Eventually it seemed time for dinner. My dinner was the roast lamb with diced chillies and mint in a sort of square burger form that I had cooked for the previous day. I had it with runner beans. It was nice for a first experiment, but I think I can do better in the future.

   Despite feeling very tired, or seeming to, I could not get straight to sleep last night, and I was probably lying awake for almost an hour before dropping off to sleep almost as late as midnight. I didn't seem to sleep all that well after that. I woke up more frequently than usual, and most time I went for a pee, although sometimes it was hardly worthwhile doing that. I think I tend to do it out of habit now instead of need. I seemed to have a lot of dreams, but I can't really manage any rational description of them.

  In theory I should have slept right through to 8am this morning, but I woke at about 6.30am as I tend to do lately. It felt far too early, but I knew I would not be able to get back to sleep again. I was quite keen to see what my blood glucose was doing this morning after that very high reading yesterday afternoon. I was relieved, and very pleased that it was just 7.6mmol/l. I only missed my ultimate target by 0.1mmol/l this morning. It's the first time that has happened for a while. Maybe I am doing something right.

  Ideally I should do some more exercise today. I haven't completely ruled it out, but the weather is not friendly for it. Maybe I might do a bit of train spotting to keep my mind off food today. Maybe today could be the day when I visit another extreme on my quest to visit the limits that my Freedom Pass will take me to. I have in mind Caterham as  possibility. There are direct, but rather slow trains to there from Peckham Rye station, and that would avoid having to go to Croydon !