At 7am it was just 14° C, but for a few hours full sunshine, and then sunny spells should warm today up to a maximum of 22° C. That seems poor for mid July, but it is a very comfortable temperature, and I am not complaining ! Once again it will be a very chilly night with the temperature even lower - just 13° C at 4am tomorrow morning. Tomorrow will start with full sunshine, but by midday gathering clouds will reduce that to sunny spells, and from 3pm we may lose the sun completely ! Tomorrow afternoon, even without sunshine, should reach 23° C - a degree higher than today.

  Yesterday was quite a good day. Some hours were dull, but probably not boring, and other hours were rather good. I guess the rest of the day was just "average".

  After I finished writing yesterday's electronic diary (what you are reading) I had my usual lie down, and I probably had a snooze, but I didn't want to relax for too long because I wanted a shower. Having had a shower I felt ready to go out.....well sort of. It was more a case that I knew I ought to go out for a bit of exercise rather than actually wanting to. I went anyway. I didn't go for anything ambitious - just to Ladywell and back, but I did walk right around St Mary's church, and that took the walk up to 1.5 miles.
  It was rather nice when I went out. Much of the sky was blue apart from some thin clouds here and there. It was just cool enough to be called warm without being hot and sticky. It felt like it might be a nice walk.
  One of the first pictures I took was just inside the park boundary. I asked the owner if I could take a picture of his fluffy looking dogs. He agreed, and with asking, he tried to get them facing the same direction.....well, he tried !
  I know this butterfly is a speckled wood. It was well behaved, and posed nicely for me !
  I know what the work going on behind this barrier is for - it is for testing the groundwater to see if it is suitable for a giant heat pump to heat the hospital. What I don't know is what the banner refers to. The café in the park is called The Good Hope Café. The next nearest café is across the footbridge over the river, and inside the from of the Riverside House part of Lewisham Hospital.
  There are no real formal flower gardens in Ladywell Fields, but by the tennis courts, at the Ladywell end of the park, there are a few rose bushes, and some flowering shrubs. I probably missed the best of the roses, but this was a nice mature bloom, in good condition, and the sort of brilliant red that film (or digital) seemingly cannot fully capture.
  One of the flowering shrubs by the tennis courts has slightly waxy looking leaves, and bright yellow flowers. That is all I cans say about it.
  I noticed this odd looking pigeon cooling its feet in a shallow bit of the river near the weir, and the bridge between the park and the hospital. As well as the odd coloured feathers, it's eye looks a bit like a hawk or eagle, but it's little beak shows it does not hunt prey, and rip it to shreds.
  I am not very good at identifying plants and butterflies. I have no idea what sort of butterfly this is, but it looks pretty as it basks in a small spot of sunshine.
  Every time I have seen this, and the other site where they are doing the ground water investigations, there is no one on sight to ask any questions - not that they would like say anything, and probably ignore me anyway. My own interpretation is that one borehole has been drilled, and maybe they are ready to start pumping water out of it. I know one test is to see how quickly the borehole re-fills after they have pumped it dry.
  I know exactly what these flowers are, but I am unsure of the spelling. I am going for Nasturtiums - and I now know that is right because I have just copied it off a web page. I can remember my dad growing them in the back garden before he died, but I don't remember them being bright orange. One thing I do remember is hearing that the leaves have a nice peppery taste, and used to be used in salad. I remember eating quite a few, raw, picked straight from the plant. I didn't try and eat any of these because they were growing in the St Mary's church Therapeutic Gardens.
  As I was taking this picture the first name that came into my head was Dahlia, but then I thought that it might be an Anemone. I checked the internet, and it was neither. If I had spent a lot longer I might have discovered what it is called, but for now I shall call it a pretty flower.
  The last time I took a picture of this "installation" among the posh graves at the front of St Mary's church I took it from the other side, and did not see the important message on it.
 Whether this was projectile vomiting of a curry, brown paint, or something else, it just seems like pointless vandalism. I'm an atheist, but I still like old churches - most are like a work of art, and the stained glass windows particularly so. One day, if I ever see the vicar about, I will ask if I can go in the church and take some pictures of the interior. I think I am right in saying that St Mary's is one of the oldest churches in the area.
  I thought this moth, sitting on a moss covered boundary wall of St Mary's church was a wolfs head moth, but a 20 second search suggests it is a Jersey Tiger Moth. I've seen quite a few in my own garden over the years, and the best view is when they alight on a window, and you can see them from the underside.
  I am sure I can remember seeing this pipe when I was a kid. It is on the Lewisham side of the railway bridge by Ladywell station on Ladywell Road. I speculate that it might have been a wartime feature - a fixing for a fire hose to pull water up out of the river for fire fighting purposes. I really must remember to try and spot the other end the next time I am passing.
  When I got to Ladywell station I was surprised to see the destinations of the London bound trains. Normally they would go to Charing Cross station, but that was closed for engineering works. It seems that alternate trains were going to Blackfriars and London Bridge - both only had enough capacity to take one train per hour. Had I know I might have taken a pointless, but interesting joy ride on maybe both routes to London.
  Of course, while at Ladywell station I had to do some train photography.  I only had one picture of this train in white livery until I got this snap of it in the new smart blue livery. I have pictures of every class 376 trains, but I do have a few gaps for pictures on them in old and new livery.


  It was pure luck that I was out for almost exactly one hour, but that is not accurate. Somehow I was distracted, and forgot to turn the tracker on until I had been walking for 5 or so minutes. The lost tracking may have increased my total distance from 1.52 miles to 1.6 miles, and possibly more. My walking speed looks quite slow, just 1.5 mph, but I nearly always forgot/couldn't be bothered to pause the tracker while taking photos. I think I probably paused the tracker for one of my longest stops when I stopped to talk to a woman (who initially approached me) for at least 10 minutes, and maybe 15 minutes. My walking speed if I had always paused the tracker whenever I paused walking, may have been at least 2 mph - still pretty slow, but it was not a race.


  I didn't feel too bad when I got home. Maybe the long stop while I chatted to the woman helped a lot. Before that I was aware that my knees, legs and ankles were starting to complain, but I arrived home feeling like I could have walked a bit more with little trouble. Of course I felt hungry, but I managed to fight the urge to make some huge lunch to eat. I actually ate some paté on rice crackers. That should have been quite healthy (although I am mainly thinking of lack of sugar here), but then I ruined it all by slopping on some mango chutney. Some, but not all chutneys can be full of sugar, and I think that mango chutney must be one of the worst. I must have been insane to buy even the small jar of it that I bought. Ironically it was not a great accompaniment to the paté and rice crackers.

  After eating I was torn between having a snooze and preparing all the photos. I could have come back to them later after copying them to my PC, and also putting the camera battery on charge, but I started some of the selecting and editing before having a snooze.

  As usual, at 6pm everything stopped to watch the 6 O'clock news. I am not sure why I bothered because it all seemed rather dull, and doubly so when they spent so much time reporting stuff I didn't even understand about football. While I watched I had part one of my dinner which I had left cooking in my mini oven. It was just three sausages. I had intended  to eat them with some roast potatoes, but I had the roast potatoes later as supper. The roast potatoes were actually a bit disappointing. They were too healthy - i.e. they were not glossy and dripping with beef (or goose) fat as good roast potatoes should be. They were rather dry.

  I spent the rest of my evening mainly watching TV, but as I mentioned, I did stop for the roast potatoes, and I did check a few things on the internet. I was in bed by about 11pm, and I felt I had the energy to read for a bit, but I think it was only a couple of pages. It was almost another uneventful night, but there was one event. I was almost asleep when I heard a thump from the other bedroom. I knew the cause, although it was not exactly as expected.

  Cous Cous, the fluffy cat, had presumably leapt from next doors kitchen extension onto the bedroom windowsill. I originally thought that he might have tried to get through the small gap at the top of the slightly open top window, but maybe not. Anyway, once he saw me he started meowing at me. I dodged back to my bedroom to put on a pair of shorts before opening the bottom of the back bedroom window, and letting Cous Cous in. We had the usual 20 seconds of affection, and then Cous Cous jumped down, and I lead him downstairs to let him out the front door.

  I then went back to bed, and this time I was probably asleep in under 2 minutes. I am sure I must have got up at least once in the night to pee, and I am sure I must have dreamed.....in fact I did dream. It has just come back to me in a very hazy, and very incomplete memory. I think the dream might have included a woman who was half falling out her very low cut top, but that is all I remember, and then only as little more than one still frame.

  When I got up there was some sort of evidence I had not got up to pee in the night, or if I did it was not enough. It felt like I peed half a gallon. I even had a very small poo, but when I weighed myself I was quite disappointed. After taking screen shots of the weather forecast, and dishing out my morning medication I visited the toilet again. When I weighed myself again I found I was one whole kilogram lighter than yesterday morning. That was rather good news.

  Even my blood glucose was very marginally better. The average of all three readings was 9.17mmol/l. That is still a lot higher than I would like, but it was more comfortable under the red line at 10.0mmol/l. It is also less than most, but not a few lower readings so far this month. I guess that is the power of a 1.5 mile walk - I really should do a lot more of those, but not today.

  The main thing on today's agenda should be a beer tasting session with Jodie. I've checked my diary and there is no note to say she is off at a gig or anything, and so hopefully she should be here around 4pm unless she misses a train or something. Prior to that I have a lot of washing up to do, and kitchen cleaning, plus washing myself, and having a snooze - and it is almost 1pm as I finish writing these words !!!