Our coldest night

Wow it was so cold last night, so much in fact we had to get up and put more coal on the fire, minus eleven was showing on the weather station..
When we surfaced we tried to take the bungs out and they were iced in.. The glass on the inside of the double glazed portholes were solid ice..

When we looked outside after managing to get the side doors open we could see there had been a bout of freezing fog which had got into everything and the canal was frozen solid..

The cratch was frosted right up inside and out.

First was to kick the central heating into action and defrost the windows and then we had dripping roof vents which also had ice on the inside. It seemed to travel through the metalwork on the frames which then freezes the glass. It was strange that things didn't seem damp. The fire was roaring and believe it or not Tooty had been out most of the night. I think when he saw the smoke from the chimney he was soon meowing at the front doors.. He came in with snow on his back..
We had breakfast and could feel things warming back up to temperature.. Del then went to run the engine and thought he would check the coolant first.  It was nice to see that the anti freeze had done its job and things had not frozen up. We had to run the engine anyway, so we kept out fingers crossed and started Derwent6 up.. We had a slight new rattle from the engine, but it seemed to be functioning ok, for now..
It was cold all day with the outside temperature staying at around minus two. We did a bit more internet shopping and also planned a bit for Christmas.. We just kept warm to be honest, it still looks very pretty outside and lots of folk were walking by with cameras in their hands..
Come the evening we needed to run the engine again to just top up the batteries. Al wanted to watch a bit of telly and Del played a game..
After about half an hour the rattle noise got a bit louder in the engine room and the revs changed from 1400rpm to about 1000rpm so Del went out into the engine room to see if things were ok. As he got there he heard a loud flapping noise and the engine was straining. The light then came on saying the domestic alternator wasn't charging, so the engine was turned off quickly.. "Sounds like a belt has shredded" Del told Al. It was so cold it was going to be a job in the morning, so we slept on it, not very well we can say.
Lets hope we get the rain tonight and we are looking at water again. watch this space..