Mary's at Home

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 67, Issue 5, 15 November 1943, Page 391

Mary's at Home

T THINK it is lovely to read of the A everyday things that interest other people. A book I am very fond of picking up is “If I Open My Window,” by Rita Snowden. She has a happy knack of finding a spiritual meaning in just common, everyday happenings, and that is what we farmers’ wives need; in fact, not only farmers’ wives, but every woman. The verse you quoted in “Let’s Greet Spring” is one my mother keeps in the front of her Bible. For the sake of our boys we must be up and doing, carrying on for them until they return, or, if they are called to higher service, try and complete their tasks. Effie, Murchison. I WAS very interested and comforted to read Tiggety Boo’s paragraph in the Journal about concentration, or rather the lack of it. For some time -I have found myself forgetting most important things, until something unexpectedly jolts my memory, and then alas it is often too late. I had thought it must, be because I am so much alone in the backblocks, but evidently I have not this trouble on my own, and can blame it on to the strenuous aud overcrowded times through which we are passing. So many things to do and to think about: our boys overseas giving their all for our sakes; our kinsfolk in the Motherland facing up to all kinds of dangers and carrying on amidst them all, and ourselves here at home doing our bit, and planning to welcome our boys home to something better than they left. Our armies, air force and navy are doing great deeds, our factories are working all out to produce munitions, but all their efforts will be in vain without God’s guidance. Let us have faith and trust -in God’s promise, “All things are possible to him that believeth.” And so a sure victory will be ours. What then: “We are not here to play, to dream, to drift; We have hard work to do, and loads to lift; . Shun not the struggle, face it, ’tis God’s gift; Be strong.” .—Effie, Murchison. • TODAY, for the first time since ■we came here I have been in the garden. It was really too wet to , work, but the sun wds shining, arid ? the

weeds growing, so out we went, the boys and I. Trevor just loves helping, while Peter sits in his pram and smiles. He is the happiest babe I have ever seen, blue eyes, a laughing mouth, and red hair, which alas is not going to curl. Such a contrast to Trevor’s black hair and huge, brown, solemn eyes. He smiles now and again, and laughs sometimes, yet he always seems happy. Today I started

to move some starved primroses from a bank' which never sees the sun, and I am making a border round the garden with them. Pale < cream, deep cream, yellow, and a reddy pink one. I hope to have a good show next year. I found the first piece of forget-me-not out today, and how I longed for a spray of lily of the valley, for to my mind they always seem to go together. I planted some clarkia and candytuft seed, and thought the rain had drowned them, but to my surprise they have come up again. I hope to get some petunia plants next month. I will only, get “Rose , of Heaven” be-, cause they make such a show and last so long. The house is full of daffodils; they came from the ■ cow paddock. Since we arrived in June I have only seen a woman once, with the exception of two trips to town, but have

been too . busy to miss them.— BiddyJan, Cheviot. T OFTEN , think, Mary, what a lot of 1 pleasure you give other folk through your pages. Although I don’t write you very often, I have found your pages create a new interest. Sometimes while I am working my mind is dwelling on your competitions," and although these thoughts never materialise on paper, they are often helpful to me. Through your pages I have made penfriends—people living in different localities, whose work and interests are the same as mine— we exchange ideas, thus helping to unite us in one great family. J.F., Otara. THANKS to Tiggety 800 for her help, and to those others who also wrote—it does help! The dear horses got my barbery, but. I can try again. Dear patient husband has taken an hour, ill-spared from his own jobs, to put an electric fence round .the “taboo” areas so the horses won’t find it so easy next time. And the daffs I planted out are up to expectations, so I feel that something is achieved. But the vege garden, that prosaic but necessary thing, is all behind because of the season. However, it’s a better day today, so here’s hoping.— Hydro, Kaitangata. I AM looking - forward to what the others have to say about your competition for young ior older mothers. Thank goodness I didn’t marry till I was thirty. I wouldn’t have minded having the children, and more of them, earlier, but to have had to cope with farms and animals, especially lambs, and tractor drivers, would have been beyond my simple powers. Rainbow, Oxford. MAY I join your “At Home”? I do enjoy your pages, and Dad is not the only one whose eyes sparkle when the Journal arrives. E.G., I too am very interested in kitchen gadgets, and when I arrived from Australia several years ago, with ultra modern equipment, many were the envious eyes that rested on pastry-cutter, fish

and beetroot servers, fancy cake tins, etc. Here is .a verse which .we should all remember: “Yesterday has passed,' forget it; . Tomorrow never conies, don’t worry, Today is here, use it.” 2 . '< a,— Young Mother, Nelson. T TOW do I arrange my household * - duties to allow more time for the farm? Well, it tall J depends upon the weather. On wet days I endeavour to do all the ..mending .and sewing, and I try; too, to fill my cake tins with good .. keeping c. cakes ; : and biscuits. My biggest, problem in the day’s work is.' to plan" a pudding—somehow it has always been a worry

to me to think up something fresh for each day, so. I find it saves mental strain if I' can think out and if possible prepare the pudding - the night before. Then, too, on breadmaking days, it only seems half the work if. all ingredients are placed on the rack the. night before. Next day with everything warmed the bread works quickly, and can be out of the oven before midday, ■ thus leaving a . free afternoon for the out-of-doors. -I may not be so methodical as some women, but . I find, that by letting . the weather decide my day’s work I get as much work done, if not .more, than those who plan to do certain things on’certain days.— Fruffy, Te Awamutu.