522 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



E 



CONSTANCE 



(Slant- 



Uf 



WHEN I have 

 per mittcd 

 myself to 

 think of the ap- 

 proach of old 

 age I have al- 

 ways dreaded it 

 as a time of life 

 w h i c h, though 

 peaceful, would 

 probably be devoid of thrills. If that is 

 true, then I am still young in spite of a 

 dozen gray hairs and the record in the fam- 

 ily Bible. For few thrills have surpassed 

 the one which came to me when the head of 

 the family displayed the keys to our new 

 home and said the former owners had at 

 last departed and left us in possession. And 

 unlike most thrills this one persisted and 

 even grew when we unlocked the front door 

 and went on an unconducted tour of ex- 

 ploration through living room, dining room, 

 kitchen, screen porch, hall, three bedrooms, 

 six ample clothes closets, cleaner closet, 

 linen closet, large un-Californian attic and 

 nice little basement, not forgetting the two 

 shady porches and entrance terrace. And 

 we positively gloated over the fruit trees, 

 an apricot, a nectarine, a peach, half a 

 dozen orange trees, 12 grapevines and 80 

 blossoming rose bushes. Having left plenty 

 of fruit, flowers and shade in our old home 

 we did not want to wait years for the same 

 comforts in our new one. 



Laugh at us, if you like, you people to 

 whom a change of residence is a common, 

 if uncomfortable, incident, but remember 

 we have had just one home in our married 

 life of 24 years, and we had it all that time, 

 and giving it up was a most painful opera- 

 tion with no anaesthetic. We thought we 

 had always appreciated the word "home," 

 but being homeless for five months made 

 us feel it to be the most beautiful and com- 

 prehensive word in the English language. 



In these days, when we see instead of read 

 much of our news in the pictorial section 

 of newspapers and magazines and at motion 

 pictures, an article seems uninteresting nnd 

 old-fashioned when it is not illustrated. For 

 that reason I am showing a couple of snap 

 shots of our "Little Gray Home in the 

 West." (The song of that name lias long 

 been a favorite with the liead of the family, 

 and it is a curious coincidence that when 

 our choice narrowed down to four or five 

 houses they all happened to be gray, al 

 though we had not considered them for that 

 reason.) This is a very pale gray, just off 

 Avhite, with white trim and green shingles 

 and shutters. One picture shows the front, 

 facing east, and a part of the side includ- 

 ing the little pergola which extends south 

 from the front porcli. The other sliows a 

 view from the southwest including tlie rose 

 garden, behind the white fence, and the Int- 

 tice enclosed pergola, which covers the porcli 

 at the west of the house. Tliat is where 

 my Corona and I are writing this, and since 

 the picture was taken tlie grapevines have 



Our " Little Gray Home in the West.' 



1 



ROOT BOYDEN 



V Puerden) 



TU 



August, 1922 



grown so luxuri- 

 antly that the 

 portth is shady 

 practically all 

 day. 



When we were 

 househun ting, 

 real estate agents 

 and others told 

 us porches were 

 little used in this climate, that they were apt 

 to be too warm during the day and altogeth- 

 er too cool for comfort in the evening, both 

 of which statements have proved to be er- 

 roneous in the case of the fresh air loving 

 Boydens. It is true that the interior of the 

 house is rather more comfortable in tlie 

 early afternoon, on very warm days; but 

 during the mornings, late afternoons and 

 many . evenings the porches have been de- 

 lightful. We have already eaten Sunday 

 evening lunch on the porch under the grape- 

 vines, and although it was dark enough to 

 need the lights we did not find it too cool. 

 Another comfort with which we would be 

 most unwilling to part is the 30-inch over- 

 hang to the roof. Keeping the direct rays 

 of the sun from tlie glass of the windows 



during tlie middle of the day insures a 

 much cooler house, for the summer sun is 

 undeniably hot in California. In the win- 

 ter Avlien the rays of the sun are needed 

 for warmth and cheer they will strike the 

 south windows owing to the lower position j^ 

 of the sun in the sky. All of the west 

 windows are shaded by the grapevines in 

 the summer, but when the leaves fall in the 

 winter those windows too will be "sun- 

 kissed. ' ' 



OUR living room, a little over 14 feet by 

 23 has four French doors opening on 

 to the porch at the end, four casement 

 \vindows, a wide solid front door flanked by 

 sidelights which are screened and will open, 

 on the east side and casement windows 

 above the bookcases on either side of the 

 fireplace to the north. While this insures 

 an abundance of light and air it does not 

 leave much wall space for pictures, but we 

 find the changing views through the win- 

 dows more to our taste than any pictures 

 we could buy. I wish T could show you one 

 of my favorites through a north window. A 



