Chimneys at Christmas
We had our chimney swept about a month ago - the sweep, Mr Sooty, is a tall man, of great dignity - his voice is calm and grave - he has the handsome, regular, features of a 1970's NASA astronaut -
One chimney Mr Sooty swept in West Lulworth had a jackdaw's nest inside it - there were 52 pieces of treasure in the nest - these included buttons, rings and a tiny model of Thunderbird 1 - I imagined the clever bird, sitting in the dark, looking at the red nose cone of the rocket plane -
Our chimney presented no challenges to Mr Sooty - his brushes soon swept it clean - we were issued with a certificate attesting to the chimney's new cleanliness -
Mr Sooty told us how he'd sometimes rescued small creatures from their smokey oubliettes - he cleaned chimneys all over Purbeck - some chimneys were easy to clean - others, however, were dark labyrinths, full of birds' nests and tiny bones -
Mr Sooty was concerned about his health - we spoke of our shared experiences of having a gastroscopy - I wished him well -
Later that day, I made and lit a fire - I stood outside the house, watching the filmy smoke coil into the darkening sky -
I thought of how smoke had risen into different skies through history - smoke from hunters' fires, sea coal smoke over the roof tops of Tudor London - the smoke of souls - I thought of how terrible winds had swept away whole peoples -
We had our chimney swept about a month ago - the sweep, Mr Sooty, is a tall man, of great dignity - his voice is calm and grave - he has the handsome, regular, features of a 1970's NASA astronaut -
One chimney Mr Sooty swept in West Lulworth had a jackdaw's nest inside it - there were 52 pieces of treasure in the nest - these included buttons, rings and a tiny model of Thunderbird 1 - I imagined the clever bird, sitting in the dark, looking at the red nose cone of the rocket plane -
Our chimney presented no challenges to Mr Sooty - his brushes soon swept it clean - we were issued with a certificate attesting to the chimney's new cleanliness -
Mr Sooty told us how he'd sometimes rescued small creatures from their smokey oubliettes - he cleaned chimneys all over Purbeck - some chimneys were easy to clean - others, however, were dark labyrinths, full of birds' nests and tiny bones -
Mr Sooty was concerned about his health - we spoke of our shared experiences of having a gastroscopy - I wished him well -
Later that day, I made and lit a fire - I stood outside the house, watching the filmy smoke coil into the darkening sky -
I remember the sweep in Gosport in the fifties. Then my dad invested in some sticks and a brush. Sometimes whole bricks would fall into the hearth.
ReplyDeleteThere is a pathos about those fallen bricks ...
ReplyDeleteLast time our chimney was swept Bridget took a picture of him for luck - Bert in Mary Poppins is a chimney sweep and there is a major musical set piece in the film based on the idea that sweeps are lucky....
ReplyDelete