Minus 20 below

The temperatures on the car dashboard varied considerably between Malham and Haworth - we spent most of Christmas week travelling between the two. I think Haworth had it colder - we clocked -20 on a regular basis. Most of the houses near us in Haworth had no water for 10 days but we managed to stave off a disaster. My husband and three sons worked round the clock for 3 days to stop it freezing. The pipes in the house were slowly freezing, creeping closer and closer towards the kitchen. Heating, Rayburn ovens, log fires etc did nothing to stop it. We had one toilet still working and one bath. A tap would work and we left it running only to find 10 minutes later that it had frozen up. We had heat lamps, electric heaters, hair dryers, duvets - you name it. In the end we had to put pipes overland lagged with 'muck' and hay and left the water running on full. Pipes we mended and lagged in the morning were burst by lunch.

Tragedy occurred in the hen house. They have lived in the same hut for about 4 years but this year we went in and they were all sat on the perch frozen ... Very sad. Only 4 survived.

The roads near us were beautiful - totally white. The trees coated with frost. My daughter has a huge choice of photos to use as Christmas cards next year but I think the best was the pheasants and moorhens in the garden taken through the frosted window.