attic creeper

a slow climber of attics, advancing the underside of a roof at roughly the speed of an unhurried child learning a tune. it enters through the gap between the slate and the eave, and once inside will not leave. small grey-green leaves; no flower worth the name.

useful, in former households, as a tally of the years a house had stood. the older the attic the further along the central rafter the vine had reached. see also tower, the slow business of the stairs, and any memory you have of looking up. one variety has been recorded climbing as far as the attic window and there pausing, as if to look out.