I'll begin by saying that I don't like heights. I don't mind them if I'm safely enclosed by some super-sturdy barriers but the thought of going up onto a roof fills me with anxiety. I don't like doing it.
But when you're told that it'll cost a large sum of money to get your gutters cleared and you've got a 6m ladder in the garage, personal safety becomes less important so on Monday morning, I ventured onto the roof to do a spot of "spring" cleaning.
Even this picture makes me feel a little giddy!
"Fortunately", we have 2 flat rooves at the rear of our house and I'm able to position the super-long ladder almost perfectly between them. It's a little bit scary straddling across from the ladder to the roof (carrying gutter cleaning bits) but I was very brave and managed to do it.
Getting onto the new(ish) flat roof at the back is much easier and from here, I can elegantly roll myself over the eaves and onto the flat roof at the front.
Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great and on a sunny day, you can see for miles. It was very overcast though and luckily, not too windy but the views are still very impressive.
Living by the sea, we get a lot of bastard seagulls. They'll often nest on a house fairly close to us and if it weren't for our own little army of crows that live in the trees around our house, they'd certainly fancy a home on our roof too.
That didn't stop the bastards trying to intimidate me which I wasn't very happy about (due to the aforementioned dislike of heights). To show how big and brave I was though, I took a photo of the bastard circling above me.
I was recently told that seagulls are protected but I think I'll buy an air rifle or powerful BB gun anyway so that the next time I decide to go up there, I can shoot the bastards.
Other than clearing the gutters (which didn't really need clearing), I could check on our solar panels to be sure that birds hadn't managed to get in behind and nest there. They hadn't. And I'm reminded of how beautiful they are 🙂
So that's my gutter checks complete for another year and I shall dread this job again next year.