I am not sure the temperature fell as low as 15° C by 6am. My thermometers said around 18° C. There was definitely a cool breeze that started in the early hours of this morning, and was blowing through the open window in my bedroom. It was definitely cold enough to get right under my duvet. There have been a few weak sunny spells, but since 8am it has turned dull, and we may only see a few rays of sunshine during some sunny spells after 8pm. It will keep the afternoon temperature down to just 22° C. It should be a completely dry day. 6am tomorrow morning could see just 14° C, but there may be a few sunny spells. Most of the day will be dull, and tomorrow afternoon may only see 21° C. By 5pm it may start to rain. It may only be light rain, but it could continue into Tuesday morning when the BBC has thrown their favourites into the mix - thunderstorms. What a way to be woken up on Tuesday morning !
 
  Yesterday got off to a terrible start - weight gain, high blood glucose, It set the agenda for the rest of the day, and the agenda worked - a bit. I ended up doing two things of note yesterday. One was quite sensible, and the other possibly mad, but maybe it was actually a good thing if all goes well.

  I had meant to skip breakfast yesterday, but my stomach was in revolt, and I gave in and had a single, small, packet of instant noodles. After I finished writing I had my usual lie down, and I read a bit before closing my eyes. I think I had a short snooze, but I find I am unsure about that now. Eventually I had a quick, and fairly cool shower before getting dressed, ready to go out.

  I must admit it was a case of needing to go out, rather than wanting to. I did have wild hallucinations about trying for a long walk, but in the end I essentially just walked to The Jolly Farmers, and then went home, but I did some exploration around St Mary's church, and that did increase the distance I ended up walking until it was close to a slightly more respectable 2 miles.
  I suppose I shouldn't joke about asbestos - it is a serious health risk - but I really wanted to caption this photo "fresh asbestos, delivered hot to your home" as if it was pizza delivery or something. I have not seen inside this trailer, but I believe it was where workman working with asbestos (usually doing clearance these days) can change out of their contaminated overalls, and also possibly have a shower. It was parked almost next to the entrance of the park.
  This is the nest I showed the last time I was in the park. That last time it was full of moorhen eggs. Now the nest is empty. I hope the eggs hatched OK, and there are half a dozen or more moorhenlets (?) swimming around, and being instructed by mother moorhen.
  This picture shows a blackberry flower, and so only a bit more than an inch across. In the middle, presumably feeding on nectar, is a rally tiny moth or butterfly. I must admit I still don't know the technical difference between a moth and butterfly - it is probably something to do with the shape of their penises. If QI (on TV) has taught us anything, it is that inn the insect world many species are defined by their penises !
  I had intended to do some research so I could say this is definitely a "??????????". For some reason I want to call it a Yellow Jacket, but that still doesn't say anything about it. All I know is that it is quite a small flying insect. It has some yellow bits, and is probably harmless to humans (but I didn't try and test that).
  Some small birds can be infuriating. This grey wagtail would only pose with it's tail feathers facing me - not what I wanted at all. Oh well, at least it did stay still enough to get a clean snap of it.

  One bird that didn't stay still was a kingfisher. All I saw was a blur of blue/turquoise flying low over the river at about warp factor 3. I couldn't even focus my eyes before it had gone out of sight, and I was only just starting to fumble for my camera by the time it reached north London...maybe.
  I think I must have inherited my liking for roses from my dad. He liked them so much that he married one (my mum's name was Rose). This colourful bush is in the St Mary's Therapeutic Garden.
  At first, and from a distance, I thought the Martians had landed. This globe, on it's pedestal is in the preserved cemetery of St Mary's church (I think it has been too full for new burials for 10s or even hundreds of years). To save you eyes the next picture is a close up that explains it all - probably.
  

   I was out walking, albeit no non stop (I even sat on a park bench for a few minutes, plus I had one pint of Guinness in The Jolly Farmers. In that time I walked 1.876 miles, and managed a rather poor looking average speed of 1.488 mph. That is almost half a mile more than the most direct route I could have taken. I guess I can claim I did walk a bit further than last time. My speed is appallingly low, but I kept stopping to take pictures (more than I have shown here - only the best are shown here), and I kept forgetting to pause the tracking, although I think it was actually the case that I couldn't be bothered to get the phone out of my pocket to press the pause button every time I stopped.



    My walk, even if not far, and none very fast, was still obviously a good thing to do. I did two other good things yesterday, and both were to do with eating, and in particular, lunch and dinner. Both meals were based around rice crackers. For lunch I had rice crackers with spicy German pepperoni slices. I had some sweet pickled small round chillies with them. For dinner I had rice crackers with Double Gloucester cheese and sliced green jalapeños peppers. Both were fairly low calories and had a low sugar content. I resisted any ice cream, but I did give in to a single small filled chocolate bar.

  They were the good things yesterday. The mad thing was to search Ebay for camera lenses, and one particular type of camera lens. As a rule I strongly distrust Ebay for many things - things like memory cards that are remade to show a much higher capacity than the really have, are good example. However, I am starting to believe that second hand goods are a slightly safe buy.

  Last night, and I think it was around 9pm when I should have been thinking about sleep, I started thinking about camera lenses. It might have been a week ago that I checked my favourite second hand camera stuff purveyor for a Sigma 24 to 70mm, f2.8, lens. I have one on my big Nikon camera, and it is a great lens for gig work, and will work in some poorly lit venues (but not when the poor band is almost forced to play in the dark).

  I was originally after a spare in case my current lens gets damaged in any way, and also maybe to put on my other big Nikon (although I usually use that for a wide angle, and possibly fisheye lens). I was also after the same lens but made to fit onto a Canon lens. My favourite second hand camera place were charging huge amounts for these lenses - which is odd because a year ago they seemed very cheap.

  Last night I decided I would take a chance and look on Ebay. I found one for my big Nikon, and one for a Cannon camera, and both were under £200 (one was under £150). I ordered one, and then tried to order the other. At that point my bank became worried and blocked the order. A bit later they messaged me to confirm that I knew these orders were taking place. I re-ordered the blocked order using my other credit card. The more expensive lens, for Nikon cameras, would appear to be coming from Japan. I wonder how long that will take to be delivered ?

  I am now all excited about these lenses, and I shouldn't be. I was all excited about the spare camera batteries, and USB charger for them, that I have ordered from China, via Aliexpress (dot com), and although they seem to be on their way, it is a long wait. Long waits is the penalty for saving sometime a fair bit of money by ordering from China, and I guess I just have to try and be patient.

  I was in bed reading by about 10pm last night, but I felt sleepy after a while. I put the book down, and turned out the light. I think I fell asleep fairly quickly. I slept well, and only woke up once or twice for a pee, but I was woken at about 4am with a very chilly wind blowing through my open bedroom window. I drew the curtains closed, and than pulled the duvet over me (it had been kicked to the side for the start of the night).

  I did not sleep well after that. In fact I got up about an hour later to go for a pee, and while I was up I updated the weather forecasts and took screen shots of them. The screenshot I used at the top of this pages shows 6am as the first hour, and that means I must have taken the screen shot before then. I didn't sleep too much after that, but I was reluctant to get up because it felt cold in my bedroom. Even as I type this, it only seems about half an hour ago, maybe 10:40am, when it stopped feeling chilly in my bedroom. Of course sine then I have closed the window, and I have had a hot breakfast of instant noodles.

  My main plan for today is the usual late Sunday afternoon beer tasting session with Jodie....although something at the back of my mind makes me think that Jodie may have said she can't make today. In the meantime I will still have a shower and wash my hair, plus do the usual clean up in the kitchen (ready for Jodie to make her own kind of mess). I also hope I have enough time for a quick shopping trip to Savers, and while I am in the vicinity, a quick wander around Poundstretcher. There is nothing essential I need for either shop, but some bleach and some laundry detergent would be handy.

P.S. I ordered the camera lenses partly as a result of seeing the balance of my current account. I am far from rich, but that current account still seems to be very slowly growing, but the growth has slowed a lot since the price of food and just about everything else has been going up. My pensions still seem to be able to keep up with the price rises - which is a good thing, or maybe is not a good thing but an essential thing for peace of mind.