Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/34

 WOMAN'S HOME i6 The possessor of a roofed-in verandah can have her open-air bed- room practically for nothing. THE VERANDAH BED- ROOM In fine weather the protection afforded by the house against which the verandah is built will probably be enough. In cases of storms, however, some sort of shelter should be provided. Perhaps the simplest form is a curtain of waterproof canvas, hung on strong rods top and bottom, which can be drawn across the open sides to the exact extent desired. This type of screen is shown in the illustration, Undressing should be done indoors, and one can then walk out to the garden-room without fear of cold-catching while getting A verandah rr.ade into an open'air bedroom The garden'bedroom is adap sitting'roo.-n ready. Warm shoes and a thick dressing- gown are necessary, and an umbrella should be at hand in case of rain in the morning. It is a mistake to imagine that the climate of this country is unsuitable for sleeping out in the winter. If armed with a hot-water bottle and warm clothing, one need never suffer from the cold. The nights, however, which perhaps may be avoided are those when the wind is very strong or the rain very violent. Light sleepers may find the noise of the elements too disturbing. In a house where there is a child, or several children, the uses of a garden-room are more than doubled. Baby will sleep there in his perambulator dunng the morning. Later on, when hs has become weather-hardened (as all modern babies do), he will no doubt have his cot fixed there, and spend his nights in the shed also, if the doctor advises it. On wet or stormy afternoons it can be used as a play-room, and it will give shade for the little ones on the hottest summer days. It would be a mis- take to allow a baby in his first year to sleep out of doors at night. He should be hardened gradually by, letting him be con- tinually in the open air during the day, and by keeping him in a room with open win- dows at night. Then, when he reaches his second summer, he can be allowed to imitate his elders, and sleep altogether in the open air if the doctor ap- proves. By the time the cold weather comes he will have become thoroughly accus- tomed to it. He will also have learned to sleep all through the night with no intervals of sitting up in bed to take food. The chief danger with children is, of course, that they may throw off their coverings during the night and run grave risks of chills. To prevent this, the blankets can be joined together at the bottom and at both sides, thus forming a sleeping-bag. Or tape can be sewn on and the blankets fastened by them to the cot at the necessary intervals The garden-room may also be the dining-room — in summer. Whsn folding beds are used, they can be packed into a corner during the day, and a folding table brought out in their place. Though the carrying out of meals may cause a Httle extra work to servants, the enjoyment of the food is so much greater in the open air that the younger members of the family are generally only too eager to assist in the preparations. The garden-'oedroom dby
 * d during the long summer days as an open-air