Picture
Reminiscing  about a summers evening  in 1950 when my mother would hang an old  thin sheet outside an open combined workroom and kitchen window and position the garden hose to lightly sprinkle water on to the sheet so it would remain damp and cool the air entering the window.  My sister and I thought our mother the most intelligent being on earth as we watched her create this effective 1950’s style, evaporation air cooler. 

A year ago tomorrow, Reg and I purchased our summer retreat here in Northern Victoria. We set to work immediately to create the garden, with emphasis on cooling summer shade and winter sunlight as the functional purpose in the garden design

It was a very hot spring day today, unusually hot for spring, here in Northern Victoria, which for my international readers has a climate that can best be described as Mediterranean. We had 40-degree heat today, even the small birds, and the willy wagtails, flocked to our shady oasis garden, and sang their pleasure to us at the dense tree shade and birdbath haven we have created.  I did not even turn on our split system, air conditioner, as we were comfortable using the old fashioned cooling methods I learned as a child. I open and close doors, windows and drapes, according to the temperature and breeze outside.  I use electric fans and a portable evaporation air cooler fan, in the area of the house where we spend most of the day, during the heat waves.

During the hottest part of the day, I sometimes go to gym, it is very cool there and I exercise under the giant fans or I might do walking exercise in an air-conditioned shopping mall. The bathtub of cool water under a shade canopy in the courtyard garden is a great way to cool off and water the thirsty garden with every drop of that water after it has served my own personal use

The split system air conditioner is there for Reg and I to use, if we feel the need for it. Somehow, an energy guzzling, air conditioner is something Reg and I are both inclined to turn to as last resort; we are alike in being happy with our low energy simple system of cooling. 

Tonight I am sitting here quietly, late at night, enjoying the memories I have conjured up of what now seems a very peaceful and romantic family life moment from my childhood.  In my mind, my sister and I are sitting near our mum who is dressed in loose fitting, floaty, floral,  house dress, sitting at the industrial Singer sewing machine, sewing, piece work,  ‘for the rag trade’,  her second job after she had worked all day sewing in the hot sweaty factory. She would sew, every night, in summer, in front of the open window and her home made, evaporation cooler.  

My sister now lives in Northern California and right now she is thinking about furnace filters while I am thinking, ‘I must check and clean the air conditioner and cooler filter' and lol, J, my mum would just have hosed down the sheet.  
I feel an inner peace tonight, in remembering these quiet times, when my sister and I were proud of our mum and what she did do for us, like on that hot summers night at the peak of a heat wave in 1950,, when mum ingeniously it seemed to me and my sister, kept us cool, in front of her brilliant evaporation air cooler.
 
 


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    _Happy New year :-)
    I am going to combine several seemingly contradicting eating and exercise programs and put together my own Artslim Naturally slimming and Gray-Nomad fitness program.  I plan to bring these out as a low cost EBook and small paperback. They will suit anyone interested in managing weight with son=me difficult health conditions such as metabolic syndrome and past injuries.

     I'll be showing you some of the books I am reading that have some excellent qualities, although they will not be exactly what I am putting together to suit me and my style of doing things.
    I will be focusing on eating and exercising for wellness, weight loss if obese, weight management and balanced fulfilling lifestyle..

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