I MENTIONED to my granddaughter the other day about how cold it had been during the night.

She said: “I know granddad, I’ve got an app on my phone and that told me that the temperature outside was -2.”

Strewth, when my wife and I first moved into an old ostler’s cottage above a foundry, sans central heating and inside loo, we knew it had been cold when our counterpane froze.

VJ Connor, Bishop Auckland