Flâneur Gardening

>I went to Aberdeen to visit my husband over the weekend, and as always a lovely time was had. The snow was thick on the ground, and a bit of a thaw Saturday evening made it icy enough for me to actually have a “slipping accident” on a pavement. While I was standing still, looking at a shop window…

Anyway, my flight back Sunday evening was canceled, so I ended up flying home Monday morning. Now, annoying as that was, it was actually quite nice to fly during the day for once. It was mainly cloudless, and while the landscape around Aberdeen was obviously beautiful with its coat of snow, the main joy was flying in over Denmark.

The flight route from Aberdeen to Copenhagen almost always passes over the summer house, though the plane is still too far up to actually see the house. And this picture below, courtesy of Nasa via the Danish Meterological Institute, is what Denmark looked like yesterday:

I arrived so late it hardly seemed worth going into the office (and also I was just too knackered to really do any work) so instead I went up to the house. I say “the house” and not “the garden”, since when I arrived shortly before 6pm it was already pitch-black night.

The stars were out, though, and the walk from the bus to the house was positively magic. The road was completely white, so it was impossible to see where it was, but you could feel when you strayed out of the wheel tracks, and the star light helped with a vague impression of where the trees were along the sides of the road.

I had a nice evening in front of the fire, only venturing outside to fetch some more firewood so it can be dry and ready for next weekend when I go up there again.

Then this morning I got up at 4:30am as I always do when I go up there during the week. Terribly early, but it does give me time to have an hour or so of just relaxing with a my morning coffee before heading off for the bus at 5:45am. By then it had clouded over, but the lack of stars was compensated for by the fact the down by the bus stop there is a solitary lamp post that can be seen on most of the walk from the summer house. Now, a snow-clad forest, a dark night, a solitary lamp post in the distance… I felt like I should have worn a dusty, old, oversized fur coat!

I used to love the Narnia books, so it was a nice trip down memory lane. In fact, Prince Caspian is probably one of my biggest childhood crushes… One of so many fictional crushes that were, inevitably, more handsome in the books than in the films.

Aaanyway… With all the snowing and freezing and thawing and freezing and snowing et cetera, the main plan for the weekend is to clear the snow and ice off the roof of the covered terrace/patio. The roof is hardly sloping at all, so the weight of the snow and ice is really getting to the point where I want it cleared, no matter how pretty it looks. Fortunately there is a short-lived thaw forecast for Saturday, so it should slide off fairly easily. Snow means no gardening, so taking care of the actual house seems like a good plan.

So does anybody have any great tips for removing snow and ice from a nearly-flat roof?