The smoke on the right is coming from the woodburner in the bedroom. This luxurious addition to the amenities of the cabin, which we only got around to in our third winter, runs more or less 24/7 in January and February, our idea being that if the stove in the living room at the far end is also running 24/7, the middle part of the cabin will borrow a little heat from each and get to a temperature at which it’s tolerable to live – in particular, to cook.

It’s a good theory but over the last few days, when the wind has been in the west or northwest (ie directly onto the front of the cabin) and temperatures have been towards the bottom end of single figures, it hasn’t worked out like that. It’s been too cold to go from one end of the cabin to the other at less that a brisk walk, never mind to stand by the kitchen worktop.

An added problem just now is that we can’t fire up the bedroom stove properly because the lining in the insulated part of the flue has started to disintegrate and produce an acrid chemical smell that catches the back of your throat. So, tomorrow’s job – which gets priority even over the jetty, whose last four sections are collapsing – is to fit two new lengths of insulated flue and clean out the single-skin part inside the bedroom.

That’s if it’s not blowing a gale like today.. Most of the work has to be done from the roof.