Whilst you're up there

One evening, a number of years ago now, I arrived home after working away. It was quite late and I knew I would be arriving to an empty house, as Gordon was also working away – we often passed each other like this! However, the house should not have been quite empty, as I expected the dog we had at the time to greet me. He didn’t. Eventually he appeared at the top of the stairs and refused to come down. Then I heard a noise coming from the living room. The door was closed, but I could hear this tap, tap, tap and then a break and another tap, tap, tap. This had obviously been going on for a while and had frightened the dog considerably.

It was a bit late to be calling on neighbours and I was pretty sure it wasn’t an intruder of any kind, so I gingerly started to open the door. And there it was – a Jackdaw. It was tapping at one window and then moving onto the other window and tapping again – however, you can imagine this was more than a tap – they have quite fearsome beaks and this bird was desperately trying to find a way through the glass. It had obviously fallen down the chimney (we had a fireplace and a grate for a fire at the time) and was covered in soot. So you can imagine the mess it was making.

Eventually I managed to open one of the windows very wide and it flew out.

So, we got a cap, or cowl, put on the top of the chimney – not before time. And it was still needed obviously when we had the fireplace taken out and a stove put in.

The original one was blown off and damaged in the wind and today the local builder sent one of his guys to put a new one on. How he could just stand up there and work is beyond me. It was also amazing to watch him climb one ladder to the roof whilst carrying another ladder to get him across the roof.

He shouted down – your gutters need clearing, Gordon replied – whilst you’re up there? He did!