Unexpected Battle with a Step-Ladder.

In which I come off worse...

After over fifty years of going up and down dozens of different types of ladders, several thousands of times, in theatres across Cymru, in Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor Dolgellau teaching the technical side of the performing arts, in house building and roofing and in pollarding and topping trees, without suffering a single injury, on Saturday I had a fight with one of the smallest stepladders I've ever used, in my own home and came off worse.

above: cutting overhanging branches on our big oak from an extending ladder on a scaffolding tower. Scary but not as dangerous as it might look (or I wouldn’t have done it). Note supporting friend at foot of ladder.

Having just completed what I was doing and descending for the final time, somehow the ladder contrived to both throw me off and get underneath me to provide an uncongenial surface on which to land. My good wife Lyn came to my rescue, beat the proverbial out of the ladder and threw it out of our front door, onto the yard where it has lain, defeated, ever since.

I did that older person thing of remaining completely prone initially and only gradually introducing movement via first wriggling fingers and toes before going on to limbs etc. wondering when the pain was going to kick in. I thought for a fleeting moment I might have got away with it until the blood began to trickle out of the leg of my jeans. Somehow the ladder had managed to inflict a wide, deep (to the bone), long (about 9 inches or 225mm) gash on my right shin, without damaging my clothes. I resisted the Facebook-type temptation to take a picture of the nasty wound to post so you'll have to use your imagination- sorry if this makes it worse! Lyn mopped up the blood, applied a temporary dressing and some vet-wrap (stretchy horse bandage) and suggesting professional help would be a good idea, phoned a friend, a good friend.

Indeed, a very good friend who appeared shortly after and drove me up to our relatively new Minor Injuries Unit at Tremadog, some twenty miles from us. This is considerably better than the over forty mile trip needed to get to the nearest Accident and Emergency Unit. Here I was seen within about fifteen minutes by Nurse Bethan who examined me thoroughly, working from the head down to before getting to the more obvious damage. Deciding the wound was too wide to stitch, she pulled it back together with numerous bands of steri-strip and squeezed glue into the gaps before applying a dressing and a bandage. She gave me a tetanus shot and sent me home with instructions to keep the foot elevated and not to do anything energetic. I was also instructed to return two days later which I duly did when the equally competent and friendly Nurse Emma checked the wound, told me it was doing fine and put a new dressing and bandage on and gave me further instructions to return in five days for a repeat of the examination and re-dressing.

above: another go at a ladder on a scaffolding tower job. This time pollarding ash, bringing them down from the top, a bit at a time, from about fifty foot (15m) to twenty (6m).

Times like this make me really appreciate our National Health Service which, despite its many challenges, can still function in a highly effective, friendly and professional manner. Many thanks Bethan and Emma! It also made me think that this is the sort of service that an existing local community or a new eco-village could also provide, given that we already have First Responders, defibrillators and the like, thus reducing the journey even further.

My enforced immobility follows the confluence of Lyn and me celebrating our forty seventh wedding anniversary, my 68th birthday and Samain and is reflected in some weird weather that's been with us for over a week now. Late autumn and winter periods of high pressure are not uncommon here but they're usually accompanied by clear blue skies, cold nights and frost. This one however has light south or west winds of a couple of mph, constant cloud cover and temperature variations between day and night of only a degree or two; the night before last, for example, saw a low of 8.8°C with daytime temperatures climbing to just 9.9°C. It still feels odd to have a cloud filled sky all day in Cymru and no rain.

We find the resulting weather to be enervating in that it seems to suck any available energy out of everything, leaving a stasis in which very little movement occurs. The constant cloud has also meant, for us, low power and we've had to prioritise what to use the little electricity we have.

All I can really say is that barring further unforeseen accidents, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible, whatever normal now means...

That's all for now. Take care all and watch our for those darned, dangerous step ladders...Hwyl! Chris.