HINTS FOR THE HOT WEATHER.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume X, Issue 5, 4 February 1893, Page 118

HINTS FOR THE HOT WEATHER.

In an excellent paper a lady writes :—• How do you like the present hot weather ? As for me lam revelling in it, my only fear being that it will not last. All the same, I have rather a guilty feeling every time I say I like hot weather, because most English people don t like it at all, and begin to feel languid and used up, and, as a natural consequence, cross directly the thermometer reaches anything like 60 in the shade 1 I don’t know whether I have told you or not a fact which was told me a little while ago, and that is, that Florida water just sprinkled or sprayed about a room in hot weather entirely removes all heat, odour of cooking or food, etc., and makes the room delightfully fresh and fragrant at once. A bottle of lavender salts left uncorked will have the same effect, but these, to be effectual, are expensive and soon lose the strength if left open much, whereas Floiida water costs only 8d or 9d for a good-sized bottle, and is, I think, the nice fragrance of the two for the purpose. If a room faces the sun always keep the blinds down all the time the sun is on it, and you will not only save your carpets and curtains but have a much cooler room besides. During the hottest time of the day, if the sun falls directly on the window, it is far better to keep the window shut as well as the blind down, and let air in by opening wide all the windows and doors on the other side of the house. A great comfort in hot weather is to buy from time to time a few pence w>orth of ice, and put some round the butter before using it at table, and a small lump or so in a jug of lemonade or beer is a great improvement. Cold tea iced, if not too strong and poured off the leaves a few minutes after it is made, is an excellent drink for hot weather. And now I am going to impress upon you once more, at the risk of being thought ’ fidgety,’ how very necessary it is to the health of a house, and especially in hot weather, that all drains and sinks should be flushed frequently, never less at any rate than once a day, with hot water and soda, or hot water and a dash of Scrubb’s cloudy ammonia will do quite as well, and is less trouble to make. Indeed, a bottle of ammonia should be kept in every scullery, and the sink always rinsed out with it after washing greasy dishes, pots, pans, etc. All the bedroom-ware should also be rinsed with water in which about a tablespoonful of the ammonia has been put, and once a week, at least, all enamel paint should be washed with a piece of clean flannel wrung out of hot water and ammonia ; if done regularly, it washes like china, and keeps beautifully clean and glossy. Stained floors should be rubbed every two or three days with paraffin, which keeps up the polish and the dark gloss wonderfully, and prevents them from going white. The smell of the paraffin too goes off completely in a few minutes. And once again let me ask you to see that the dustman clears out regularly the dustbin, and that meantime your servant never puts anything there that is likely to decay or to smell. Vegetable and meat refuse should always be burnt, and all dust and dirt should be got rid of as quickly as possible. Nothing so quickly causes cases of diptheria, typhoid fever, and other equally bad illnesses, as the smell of decaying refuse, particularly of vegetable refuse. Food cupboards, if the shelves are covered with blue or pink glazed linen (you can get this for 3d or 4d a yard anywhere), cut to the size, aud just tacked lightly down so as not to rumple up, are easily kept clean and fresh looking, for this stuff is so easily dusted and so little apt to soil quickly that it makes quite ideal shelves. I have tried this plan after a long and wearied succession of newspapers which would tear and curl up and soil so quickly, or toilet covers which never looked quite right, somehow, and which also got dirty very soon, and lam delighted with the result. A damp cloth passed over the surface makes it equal to new ; but, as a rule, dry dusting will be found quite sufficient.