God it was hard thi s morning ...

... to get out of bed. Not surprising really, as in my little room up here the temperature had fallen to 7.8°C and it was taters.

But that was nothing. My hunch about the temperature last night was correct - and correct in spades as the temperature had dropped right through the floor to an incredible -10.5°C outside through the night. That's not just the lowest temperature this winter so far, it's also the lowest temperature of the year. And it's also the second-lowest temperature that I have ever recorded.

The heat exchanger recorded a temperature of -14.8°C, and that is pretty good going too.

Tonight the temperature outside was even lower at teatime than it was yesterday so I don't know if that is significant, but I'll tell you tomorrow.

Mind you, up here this evening after I knocked off work it was a mere 4.8°C in my room. But a huge blaze in the little fire sorted that out (although not as much as I would have liked). And as a side effect the little coffee maker thing that I bought - it managed to conjure up a cup of coffee, so intense was the heat in the fire.

Work carried on apace in the bedroom - there was no way that I was going to work outside in the ridiculous daytime temperature of -5.4°C. I fitted all of the battens to the long wall in the bedroom, fitted the space-blanket insulation and then put on the counter-battens. The first part of the wiring has been done as you know, and I've started to fit the polystyrene tiles over the top. If I put my back into it tomorrow I could have that wall finished.

What helped with the work was the set of overalls that I was wearing. They were on sale in LIDL last winter - a pair of XL-size quilted winter overalls rather like a huge ski-suit. They were expensive but today they were worth every penny and I would recommend a pair of them to anyone who intends to work around here in this weather. I could feel the heat as soon as I put them on and I was comfortable for all of the day. What I call an impressive piece of kit.

And I'm not going to hang around tonight either. it's still cold and so I'm going to retreat underneath the covers and have an early night. I reckon that tomorrow is going to be even colder.