Today will be much fresher. Only hotter 24° C is forecast for this afternoon, and while I am not sure the temperature had dropped to 17° C by 6am, it does feel cooler this morning. By midnight the temperature may drop to just 16° C. That might almost feel chilly. The hot dry weather continues tomorrow. There could be full sunshine until 3pm when there may only be sunny spells. Tomorrow afternoon's temperature may still reach 29° C. We may get out first fall of rain this coming Saturday, and next Monday could be quite wet, and fairly cool, if 21° C could be classified as cool.

  I made a very silly mistake yesterday, but it was still quite a good day. The mistake was putting a hand towel in to soak before going for a walk in the park. That towel is still soaking in bio detergent this morning.

   The first thing I did after I had finished my post writing rest (and short snooze) was to have a fairly cool shower. It did feel very refreshing, and I am unsure why I didn't wash my hair at the some time. It was after I had finished washing myself that I got my big buckets out, and started soaking the towel in bio detergent. It seems stupid in the extreme that I thought it was only one towel, and I could complete washing it in the afternoon when the temperature was at melting point for the human brain.

  While still feeling cooled by my shower I quickly got dressed, and before I could think of any of a hundred excuses not to, I went out for a walk. I briefly had fantasies about making it a longer walk than initially intended, but reality soon suggested that a walk to Ladywell and back would be sufficient on such a hot ans steaming day. By July I might have improved my stamina and tolerance of the sun to try for some longer distance walks, but yesterday I only did what I thought I could manage.
  I did not have to walk far to take my first photo. This pinkish-red rose was simmering in the sun in y next door neighbours front garden.
  It is not quite the conventional rose shape, but I am very sure this is a white rose. The leaves around it are identical to those of the red rose. It is growing side by side with the red roses.
  I have often seen the remains of nests on the river, but somehow have never managed to snap a picture of one in use. Even more amazing was the sight of a clutch of eggs. I've certainly never seen that before. I can only conclude I was not looking hard enough, although this nest was below a steep bit of river bank, and so I could look down on it.
  Some mistake them for herons, but this is an egret. I hope I am not talking rubbish when I say the way the heron and egret differ is that white feather sticking out behind it's head. This is the first I have seen this year. I am not sure I have ever seen two on the same stretch of river. Maybe the river does not support enough fish to feed two. One thing I noticed was the bird seeming to test the riverbed by putting one foot down and seeming to feel around. I quickly concluded what it was doing was trying to disturb any fish laying camouflaged amid mud and vegetation. I saw it quickly dip it's head down, and I think it caught a fish after that, but I didn't manage to get a snap of it.
  Once upon a time I found out the name of these bushes with the clusters of berries on them. I can't recall the name, but I do remember that they are edible - maybe only in so much that they are not poisonous. Maybe they still taste nasty. There are a few bushes near the kiddies playground, and I assume they would not be there if the berries were poisonous.
  The furthest part of my walk was to Ladywell station. It is a convenient point to stop, and take a breather...and grab a snap of any passing trains. For some time it seemed that there were very few class 465 "Networker" trains on the "Mid Kent Line to Hayes". I mostly saw class 376 and class 707 trains, but it seems the Networkers are back. I wondered if they had been taken out of service for refurbishment, and that might still have been a possibility, but I know that some had been sent away for scrap.
  I think it was probably on my last walk through the park that I took a snap of a dandelion seed head (or puffball as some call them). That last picture was not well focussed, and I had to use a lot of sharpening in my photo editor. This one was in almost perfect focus (although I did do a bit of light sharpening to make it look better when shrunk down to fit this page - the original was about 8 times as large).

  My entire walk was just 1.538 miles, and I only managed an average speed of 1.565 mph. Both figures are pretty poor compared to what I should be able to manage. One problem is I am not yet acclimatised to the heat of full sunshine - made worse by getting high summer weather in May !

  I have to say I felt I was doing quite well in the heat. I had stuffed a clean face flannel in one of my pockets, and I used that to mop my brow now and then, but most of my body did not seem to be dripping with sweat. On the whole I was feeling close to good. However, on the walk towards home I got as far as the back of the hospital (but on the far side of the park), and I noticed an empty seat that looked clean. I decided to sit down and rest for a while. It was too boring to spend more than 5 minutes there, but it did sort of "recharge my batteries", and the rest of the walk home didn't seem to bad. I did have some slight discomfort from my right knee, and my ankles were only just starting to ache by the time I got home. Until recently I have had to stop and rest because my ankles were killing me.

  I feel I am not doing enough walking to recover my stamina, but on the other hand, how I felt yesterday did show that that things are improving, and maybe I will be able to tackle some long walks in the not too distant future. I hope that I am able to do some long seaside walks before we lose the heat of summer.

  I did seem to feel mostly OK when I got home. Of course I felt like some lunch, and I had something, but I am not sure what it was. It may have been a second bowl of instant noodles. That would explain why I felt steaming hot when I sat down to select and edit the pictures I have used here. I had the fan on full blast to help me feel cooler, and I closed the curtains all the way except for a small chink to let some light in. I should have done that much earlier in the day to keep the hot sunshine out.

  Once I had done the photos I laid down and had a snooze - at least I think I did. I was was feeling quite hot after the spicy instant noodles, and not very comfortable. The fan helped a lot, and I guess I probably had a snooze. What I would have loved was an excess of ice cream, but I am trying to wean myself off that addiction, and there is none left in the freezer. I am debating to buy more, or not, the next time I am out shopping.

  As dinner time approached I had several ideas for dinner, but I decided to keep things very simple. When I was shopping in Tesco last time (Saturday ?) I bought a bag of frozen smoky flavour jumbo sausages. They looked like they could be delicious. I cooked 6 of them in the mini oven/grill. They were described as "jumbo", but maybe Giraffe might have been a better description. They were not fatter than normal sausages, but were about half longer than some.

  The first 4 sausages I ate with nothing more than a squirt of zero sugar tomato ketchup, and some mustard ( a savagely hot Coleman's mustard in a small squeezy bottle). "Horrible" is far too strong a description of what I thought of them, but I did think they were rubbish - at least when on their own. The last two I stuffed in a deli roll. It was like a hot dog, and like that they didn't taste bad. They almost tasted good.


  It was hot last night, and particularly so after hot food. The good news was that the temperature did seem to be dropping, and maybe it would be a much cooler night once things had cooled off a bit. My evening was just the typical TV, followed by reading in bed, and by about 10.30pm, sleep.

  I seemed to sleep mostly OK. My desk fan kept me feeling too hot in the early part of the night. I suspect I sweated out some water that would have been passed as pee in the night. I know I got up to pee at least a couple of times, but I got the impression it was less frequent than many nights. I am sure I had some dreams, but I think I have left it too late to try and remember any of them.

  I think it was about 4am when I woke up feeling not exactly cold, but still chilled from the fan blowing at me all night. By then the outside temperature had dropped a lot, and the fan was near the open window and blowing at me. I actually turned the fan off, and was easily able to get back to sleep again. When I finally got up I was feeling fairly reasonable....or not too bad !

  It is definitely cooler this morning. I took this snap of one of my thermometers at 11:19am, and the outside temperature was still 23.4° C, although it is has been rising since sunrise. It is a lot more comfortable, or could be. It is still 27.5° C in my bedroom where I am typing this.

   I did seem to eat fairly freely yesterday, and I wondered if there was any chance I might have lost any weight since yesterday. The other negative thing is that I have not opened my bowels this morning. Nevertheless, I do seem to have lost 200gm since yesterday. That is not much at all, but on the other hand, it is something ! My blood glucose is very slightly improved this morning. I got readings of 8.6, 8.6 and 8.7mmol/l - all under 9.0mmol/l, and that averages to 8.63mmol/l. I would prefer lower, but it is good enough.

  My blood pressure this morning was fairly good on a first attempt, and maybe a little too good on a second attempt. It was 114/70 with a pulse rate of 71. Maybe it is a little low, but it doesn't take much to see it shooting up.

  Today I have a mix of possibilities, and one essential. The essential is to finish washing the hand towel. It is maybe just cool enough in the bathroom to make it a less sweaty job than it would have been yesterday afternoon. I ought to go out for another walk today, and I haven't ruled it out yet. If I don't it is because I have decided to do some shopping instead. There are a few useful things I could get from Tesco, including a birthday card for Jodie whose birthday is on 2nd June - a date I usually forget, but it is in my calendar now.  In theory I could do shopping and go for a walk, although I don't think it has ever happened before. Before all that I want my usual post writing lie down, and a snooze if I find my eyes closing. I could also do with a shower, and this time I think I will wash my hair as well.