Mezzo mondo

Raffaello said the first time he came up to the house: Da qui si vede mezzo mondo. Literally: from here you can see half the world.

The weather was briefly good. I regretted painting over my chimney sweeping notes during Lockdown 1.0 when I painted the entirety of the inside of the house - 40 litres of white paint.

Eventually I worked out how to take the flame guards out of the wood stove and got the right diameter head on my swivel stick (I believe these are technical terms.).

I scrubbed the sweep head up and down the flue screwing on the sections of handle, until I could feel the brush pop out the end of the flue. I walked outside to check. The soot that came out might have filled two cereal bowls. I cleaned up and gave the stove a rub down.

I lifted the steel plated spark guard underneath The stove and out popped the wee mouse. I was fairly sure it was living there. It had managed to roll a small tomato into its nest. It’s a warm berth alright.

I blocked the holes around the plate with some terra-cotta tile offcuts in the hope the blighter might be persuaded to sling its hook.

One chimney done I wondered about the others but that required getting onto the roof. I carried two ladders upstairs and opened the skylight but neither ladder would allow me to position myself to lift the skylight up and back on itself. I thought about something being the better part of valor and made some enquiries to our Mr Fixit about a chimney sweep.

I then turned my attention to the wine I am making from the few grapes we grew. I squeezed the pulp and skins and seeds by hand. It made, as you’d expect, a right mess. But it was very satisfying and the part fermented juice using just the wild yeast on the grapes tasted surprisingly good - sweet and tannin bitter at the same time. I racked the deep ruby read liquid off into a 5 litre jar and stuck an airlock on it as I believe it has a bit more fermenting to do.

I cleaned up the kitchen and then busied myself with the bank I’d more or less finished cutting yesterday. I finished the last too-steep-to-strim bits with my viciously sharp long handled sickle and then got involved clearing a corned of bramble and field maple tangle all creeched up in the steel fencing. Another job that’s waited three years to be doing.

I eventually got is cleared out and as the sun was shining and I’d heard back from my enquiry that the chimneysweep was tied up for at least a month I had another go at getting up onto the roof through the skylight with a third ladder.

Although the roof pitch is slight and the dry tiles give good grip I clipped myself onto the steel cable life line using the strimmer harness and a carabiner. Thus ensured I swept the two other chimneys down to the elbows in their respective flues and took the photo.

Once I’d made good my descent I tackled the kitchen stove flue from the bottom to the elbow and got the ash hoover hose into it to pick up the fallen soot. It was fiddly and mucky.

I’ve left the other flue for tomorrow along with the chimney in the barn. I’ll get a professional sweep early next year to check the flues with a camera.

Rain came in later and is going to stick around all night and tomorrow. The log burner is cheerily burning away.