MODES OF THE MOMENT

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 182, 29 April 1933, Page 7

MODES OF THE MOMENT

Passing Notes by Jane Wellington, April 28. Dear Mavis, — ~ . . . I’m waiting patiently for a date to he put to the promised weekend. The moment I know when to expect you I shall begin to arrange ihe details of your entertainment. For you must See Wellington and—Why Because it’s an utterly lovely city, though like “The violet in its mossy dell, half-hidden from the eye,” it lurks coyly behind capricious weather, so'that, you must search for its be.aut.ies. You country people don't know half of them. You dash down for a spasm of shopping, for a race meeting or a tennis tournament; you stay at hotels, and garage your cars as close as possible so that when you 'go places, do things,” you reach your destination with all possible speed. The people you know here meet you in town for tea or cocktails, to save time; they lunch or dine at the hotel with you. Yon rush busily from shop to shop, out to a golf links, a tennis court, or Trentham; and you grumble about the wind. You never even hear of the Kelburn tram, which lifts you out of darkness into light in a sort of magic way. Hardly any of you know' of the walk through The Glen to the Botanical Gardens, beginning with the view and ending with the Howers. And most of you miss the excitement of a walk along the wharves. I’eople are beginning to drive over Mount Victoria, both by day and by night, just to get a glimpse of that exquisite panorama; but few get as far as the cutting over the hill to Wainui-o-matti, from the top of which you look down on the waters of the Harbour, up the Hutt Valley, across to the city slopes, and away through the Heads to Kapiti. Don't bother about your clothes being old. What does it mutter? Let's leave the crowds and see the country. I’ll give you breakfast in bed if the wind blows and the cold rain lashes the window-panes. But when the sun shines I insist ou your getting up and having your tea, toast aud marmalade in a sun-porch which being n recent effort is still a pleasant source of pride. I’ll tell you about it; 1 can’t wait for you to see it. We've got the paint aud varnish craze rather badly at present, and after having made an astonishing success with the kitchenette, we naturally looked round for fresh walls to lacquer. Tim enclosed veranda presented possibilities, but the results, my dear, surpass our wildest dreams. We covered the dull, interesting walls, and window-frames—all the woodwork — with a warm tan colour; the ceiling lighter, to give light. We thought of green, but I have a complex with regard to competition with nature, which was allowed to rule it out. It’s a stupid fad, for 1 know how lovely a background green makes. The other day. through a tram window, a picture (lashed past my eyes which, caught as I saw it, would have made a painter's fortune. A girl stood in the doorway of a vegetable shop, looking at cabbages piled high in a basket. The doorway made a frame in a sort of diagonal pattern, with silverbeet, celery, lettuces and rhubarb: silver and green, with a touch of pink. There was lhe yellow of bananas, a pvramid of oranges, somewhere near, but the effect was entirely green. The girl wore a lettuce-green gown, with a little green cap mi honey-coloured hair: she was slim and graceful. I hope some day she will stand there again when lam passing. But. this suu-porcli. now. Its floor is gay with striped fibre matting: marvellously cheap, and most, cheery. Two padded chair-coverings are iu ladeless canvas in stripes that match it —orange, black and vellow with a touch of blue. Delightful against the tan walls. Wooden chairs and the table are painted blue, with the new shiny lacquer that, dries while von work, almost; and the curtains are of blue casement doth. Flower-riots with very smart-looking red geraniums are painted blue and yellow, with the same shiny paint, and they look delightful. As if they'd come from one of E. V. Lucas's “Cottages of Holland that are so neat and clean ” And we’ve got a deck-chair of the most ordinary varietv. fitted' with one ol those campers mattresses instead of the usual canvas sent and it s a great success. ’ wifh’love - ' 0 ’ 1 C0 "" ! “" n " s00,l! Wl,:n sort - of nnirnmlade do you like? | Yours, JANE. J