Frosty morning

When I was a small child, in a time and place that when/where winters were colder than here and now, our house was in a frost pocket that the sun did not reach from November to February. The ground was often rimed with ice when we awoke. 

My father, although not otherwise well-versed in Shakespeare, used to quote* on such mornings:

When icicles hang by the wall
   And Dick the shepherd blows his nail
And Tom bears logs into the hall
   And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipp'd and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
                        Tu-whit;
Tu-who, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.


I always wondered what 'keel the pot' meant and now I've looked it up and discovered that it refers to stirring the contents to prevent their boiling over. So one servant at least had a warm job to do.

*from Love's Labours Lost