Cold

The water has turned hard and, on our return late last night, we found that it had stopped coming into the house.  We were too tired to panic and there was no sign that it wasn't coming into the house because it had decided to go elsewhere.  We slept soundly.
 
In the morning, it became apparent how important water is.  A trickle from the tap gave us a cup of tea but there was none for a shower and the toilets lost their flushes.  Over our cup of tea, we started to list all the things we wouldn’t be able to do.  It was a lengthy list.
 
The absence of water needed to be investigated.  We concluded the pipe taking our water from the mains was frozen. 
 
It was not difficult to come to this conclusion.  The pipe was exposed to the elements and someone who knows more about these things than we do told us that because of the wonder of sophisticated materials used to manufacture modern pipes, it would never, ever freeze.
 
We set up an electric fire next to the pipe and left it on.  The pipe unfroze and the water flowed.
 
It has now been lagged.