SPRING’S RENEWALS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3833, 30 August 1927, Page 65

SPRING’S RENEWALS.

August is really a spring month, whatever cur calendars may say. After the first week of the month the rapidlylengthening daylight and strengthening sunshine give assurance of departing winter. XX T e have not, indeed, in Dunedin at any rate, seen much of the sun this August up to the fourth week, but whatever the vicissitudes of the weather, his risings and settings follow an unvaried cycle throughout the year, and rain and mist cannot deprive us of the extra hour’s daylight morning and evening that we now enjoy over June’s allowance. How pleasant it is to have daylight to get up by, and daylight for the return of workers from shops and offices! Fires may still be needed nearly as constantly as six weeks ago, but at least the household bill for gas or electric lighting is progressively decreasing. And the stir of spring is in the air. The birds, never silent through the worst Tf winter, are adding new notes to their

long and twittering more constantly and cheerfully as nesting time approaches. As I write, the sun is shining out fitfully from an overcast sky, the ground is drying rapidly, and the air, though still sufficiently chilly, has the feeling of spring. Crocuses and snowdrops are blooming fully in many gardens, and primroses, that bravely put forth blossoms all through winter, are now taking on a more vigorous growth of leaf and flower. As soon as there have been a few fine days to bring on the early flowers, I must go to the Botanic Gardens to see the lovely blue scillas starring the damp brown earth of the plots where they bloom beneath standard roses, whose winter-bare stems are now showing swelling leafbuds, and the early-flowering pink plum trees and other blossoms of August? The return of spring is a perpetually renewed delight, and few indeed of those whose lot does not shut them out from enjoyment of its boons can fail to catch something of its gladness and exultant life.

Spring gives plenty of work to garden lovers, for weeds never fail to grow, whatever be the gardener’s luck with flowers. I see near me plots that were cleanly weeded but a few weeks ago now covered with a luxuriant growth of chickweed and other weeds. But in spring one has a fresh field before one, and a succession of new flowers following on one another, while in late summer and autumn one has to be constantly clearing away tangled and gone-to-seed growth, and it is difficult to keep garden plots looking fresh and gay. For the housewife, too. spring brings seasonable work. The drastic spring cleaning of Victorian days, in the couise of which the whole house used to be turned upside down in a brief period of frenzied activity, is not much in favour, and, indeed, one finds people maintaining ' that a properly planned and well-managed modern house never gets dirtv and therefore can need no spring cleaning. Still, I think most housewives do have a periodic spring cleaning! I constantly hear allusions to such a proceeding as an accepted thing. And. for my part. I think that however well a house mar be kept, something more than the regular cleaning and polishing will occasionallv.be called for. There seems a good deal to be said for setting aside a few days for doing most of the business. And the bright spring days seem to call on one to give one’s rooms a freshness and brightness in keeping with the season. The short, early darkening winter days give little time for anything beyond routine work. Spring days with their sunshine and drying winds allow of carpet heating (though I hear it said that with vacuum cleaners carpets never need taking up), of washing and drying window curtains, turning out cupboards, doing needed painting, staining, ac ; . enamelling, cleaning pictures, etc. The sunshine •shows up soil and shabbiness that has gone unnoticed in winter, and the longer davs make the. labour of cleansing and renovating easier.

Then after the beginning of September one hopes that one will not require to keep fires going constantly—though this hope is liable to disappointment in our fickle climate. September is favoured as the chimney cleaning month, as I have learned from having to book my chimney cleaning a long while in advance. As* time goes on, I suppose the open fire of coal or wood will be more and more superseded by gas and electric radiators, and. by central heating. Certainly the open lire entails a very great deal of trouble, but many who have been used to it will cling to it with all its drawbacks. “My ain fireside ” —firelight with its flickering lights and shadows, the glowing depths of steadily burning logs or a clear coal fire in which one’s fancy may frame pictures—all these must go with the open fire. The gas radiator, with its camouflaged asbestos embers, is a pool substitute. One could not wax enthusiastic about one’s own gas radiator . Central heating is comfortable, and is the preferable method of heating large apartments, such as schools, but for dwelling rooms there seems little doubt that it is less healthy than the open lire. A little while ago I read in a woman s journal the gist of a report by a British committee of house authorities and medical men on the respective advantages of the old-fashioned fire grate, of gas and electric radiators, and of central heating. The question was considered in regard to the following points: money economy, labour saving, comfort, and health. Central heating was found the most comfortable owing to the even distribution of heat, but against this was set greater expense, losF of the ventilation afforded by an open fire and chimney, and a tendency to an enervating effect upon people sitting much in rooms so heated. Radiators were found to be preferable, as promoting freer circulation of air with less uniformity of temperature than central heating. The open coal or wood fire was allowed to make for draughtiness and uncomfortable differences iff temperature in a room, the Americans, used to stoves and central heating, say that sitting by a British fire one is roasted on one side and frozen on the other. And, of course, the trouble of carrying coal and wood, of keeping the fire going, of cleaning out the ashes and polishing the grate, and doing the extra dusting required was allowed to be a very heavy drawback in these days of domestic service shortage. On the advantage side it was found to be the cheapest method of heating, gas coming nearest it in cost, and to be the most healthful method of beating available. Medical authority goes to show that the inequality of heating, alleged as a main fault of the open fire, is an advantage from the point of ’ view of health. With it the air is kept

constantly in slight motion, and the nervous system and circulation are stimulated. A uniform temperature and still air have an enervating effect on the body. It should be possible with other methods of heating to maintain sufficient ventilation, but perhaps that will not altogether compensate for loss of the stimulating effect of unequal air temperature.

When rooms have to be turned out and thoroughly cleaned one often finds oneself wishing that one could do with less furniture and upholstery and fewer movable objects. The tendency in these days is to simplification of furnishing as well as to labour-saving house planning. The hosts of knick-knacks, the antimacassars, and wool mats, and Victorian draperies of Victorian days have happily gone out of fashion. The craze for useless decoration was at its height, I think, in the later ’eighties and ’nineties. My older readers will be able to recall the fancy which then prevailed for draping everything that could be draped. One draped one's piano and covered it with photographs in frames and vases (I do not, but I have usually been unfashionable). One draped one’s pictures, one’s brackets, and one’s shelves. One covered and decorated horseshoes and stuck them on the walls, in company with all sorts of objects that were never designed as ornaments ; painted kitchen plates; painted wooden spoons, etc. And all these meaningless ornaments and draperies col- I lected dust, and had to be periodically taken down, cleaned, and put up again. Someone, Ruskin perhaps, gave this counsel: Have nothing in your house but what you know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. I would stretch this so far as to allow of objects which have a strong personal interest for one though they may be neither materially useful nor in the ordinary sense beautiful. Certainly, though we have simplified in many directions since last century, we might simplify our homes and our household customs a good deal further with advantage. The labour-saving house of the future will have no sharp corners nor mouldings to harbour dust. Furniture will be simple in form ; everything will be devised so as to be easily kept clean. And the house dwellers will commonly have learned to avoid crowding their rooms with furniture and ornaments. I think there is a great deal to be said for the Japanese plan of storing most of one’s pictures, curios, etc., and taking them out in turn. This gives the charm of variety, and one or two good pictures yield their full effect when seen without an assortment of competing objects. With spring cleaning is included the overhauling of one’s wardrobe and the turning out of cupboards and shelves. In this country one can never be sure that one’s winter things will not be needed once spring has come. But one will need new spring and summer things, so some discarding and some putting away must be done, to make room for new articles. In small houses and with the modern tendency to house-shifting, hoarding of things not likely to be soon useful is undesirable. Our grandmothers used to say, “ Keep a thing seven years and you will find a use for it.” But they lived in roomy houses, and did not calculate on house-flittings, and their silks and velvets had wearing qualities above those of the present day. There is no need to burn or send to the rag mill things still serviceable but not useful »to yourself.

A number of charitable agencies are always glad to get articles of clothing that may either be worn as they are, or remade for children’s garments. Warm winter clothing is especially wanted. And spare books and magazines should

not be forgotten. Literature of an attractive and wholesome kind is needed at hospitals, by the Patients and Prisoners’ Aid Society, for old people’s homes, and for mental hospitals. There is also an arrangement under the Victoria League organisation for distributing books and periodicals among backblocks settlers. So when you have an over-accumulation of magazines and books of a popular kind do not burn any, but send them where they will give interest and pleasure.