Those of us in Central Scotland have recently been experiencing snowfalls that are as dramatic as anything in living memory. Two, possibly three feet of snow fell in a couple of days, leaving schools and businesses closed and people trapped in cars on our main highways for twenty hours at a time.

Yet like all Scottish weather, a change has come and come very suddenly. One day, heavy snow. The next, a rapid thaw. One day you’re worrying about frozen pipes, the next it’s about the snow coming off your roof in a mighty avalanche and taking your gutter with it!

Anyway, this is the scene at my work. There is no gutter at this stretch of the roof, but there is a corrugated iron structure making up the roof. Once the thaw starts, the snow is gradually pushed off the roof and you get to see a cross-section of the snow that is waiting to be pushed off.

What I loved was the way that there was a distinct line – some of the snow is still as it was when it fell, but its weight has crushed the snow that had previously fallen and it is now clearly compacted and turned to ice.

In any case, I try not to be under this when it crashes to the ground!