Spring Means Hard Work For Many

Northern Advocate, 5 September 1939, Page 10

Spring Means Hard Work For Many

Brighter day after winter’s gloom, spring has come to Northland, and with it a harvest of hard work.

Rang a farmer this morning. His wife answered the phone. Spring for the farmer meant hay cutting and top dressing; he was out in the paddocks far too busy to come to the phone until lunch time, she said.

with cleaning, sandpapering and paintfashioned these days?” a housewife was asked.

“Most certainly not,” she said. “Mind you, spring cleaning these days isn’t what it used to be. With vacuum cleaners things don’t get so dusty as they used to do. Spring cleaning doesn’t mean an orgy of carpet beating with women looking perfect sights in mop caps and dusty overalls.” Women Do Their Own Paper Hanging

But most women do their own paper hanging these days.

Spring was the time to freshen up the rooms —to apply paper and paint; to rearrange the furniture and change ornaments for dainty vases for fresh flowers that spring always brings.

Gardeners? For the amateur or professional, spring means work. Pleasant work maybe, with spring plantings and loosening up the soil ready for summer. ,

Spring, too, brings its rewards, said a member of the Ladies’ Gardening Club—dainty blooms if winter draining and garden management have been faithfully performed. Busy Days on the Water Front

A boatman groaned at the thought of spring. For him it meant oiling masts, overhauling sails, checking blocks and tackle, riggings and ropes. There were hours of work ahead with cleaning, sandpapering and painting.

Repayment would come later with the “tub” behaving like a charm on summer cruises.

“Unless,” he said, “this .. war messes everything up.”

And his language did not smack of the dealt salt breezes; his opinion of Hitler was sulphurous. , Carbon ingrained in the hands of a launchman told its own story. Engines must be overhauled in the spring, in addition to paintings and . general checking up. •

Spring for the painter means busy days. Seems the time for houses and buildings to be brightened up. Spring for the Minister

After the strain of winter, spring seems to find the weak links in man’s armour of good health. “I have more funeral services to conduct in spring than in other seasons of the year,” a Whangarei minister of religion said. Though poets are reputed to sing and “young men turn their thoughts to love” spring is not Northland’s season for most marriages.

The parson has more weddings to perform when the cows are out .than at any other time. Christmas is also a favoured time for marriages.

When Ladies Look Their Best

“Ladies look their best in spring,”

is a young man’s opinion

“They do,” agreed the assistant of a drapery firm. “Largely because of light summery frocks after the sombre costuming of winter months. I know, because I sell dress lengths.”