The Art of the Steeplejack

It's been another long day at the office, with rain on the walk in and rain on the walk back. Just a little annoying that it stayed dry for all the time in between! While getting my sandwich at lunchtime I noticed that something was going on over at the chimney at Salt's Mill. I took a few minutes to wander across and take a gander. It was all rather impressive. Two steeplejacks were erecting scaffolding above a gantry they'd erected far overhead. I'm still trying to work out how they got that ladder up there.

I have no real fear of heights but this route up did look quite intimidating. Its verticality was very imposing from below! I think the prospect of climbing that would raise my adrenaline levels a notch or two. Looking at all those rungs has reminded me of my potholing days when I probably did climb vertical ladders of this kind of length, ladders of the coiled aluminium type carried far underground and hooked together to allow descents of deep chambers. The fact that you couldn't see beyond the beam of your miner's lamp seemed to negate any sense of exposure. You tend not to be afraid of what you can't see ... nor of what you are blissfully unaware.

Which leads neatly back to yesterday's blip and I'd like to thank those who left some rather clever and witty comments. I've been reminded of the dangers of looking for long lost keys. Some of those gates in our psyche are best left closed. I'm sure we all have a few that we'd rather not have reopened! Could unleash all kinds of angry demons!! What was I thinking?