Why I don't have chilblains this year

We didn't light the kitchen woodburner until January last year*, so I thought I'd compare the temperature recorded in the study for December last year to the December in 2007. (The study opens off the kitchen and is very close to the woodburning stove.) The difference is quite striking (the upper line is December 2008, the lower one December 2007):


We did turn on the old electric baseboard heater as December 2007 got colder, but even then the study was a couple of degrees colder than it was in 2008. There are clear peaks both year on Christmas Day - evidence of someone toiling over hot pans, perhaps!

*Not for reasons of masochism, I should point out, but because we had concerns over the safety of the stove. The January cold rather over-rode those fears...