I Love Spring!

The windows are open. The trees are blushing lavender and pink and yellow-green. The mockingbirds are singing and fighting full-throttle. The tomato seedlings are looking strong. Even my saved banana pepper seeds have decided to germinate. I don't like working in an environment where you can NEVER open the windows. Even when I worked in a school with no windows, the janitors would open the hall end doors, and teachers left their fire doors open, to allow the breezes to blow the stale air of an overcrowded school out and fresh spring in. Then the fire marshall and middle school shooting aftermath stopped the air flow. 

Here at home, despite the barred windows, we can enjoy the day by letting the breezes blow through the house. And blow they do- I read a paper about Southern house design before the days of air conditioning. The author stated that Southern homes were often built with a "dogtrot", or 2 small structures connected by a bit of roofing, in which the hot kitchen with its huge fireplace was separated from the rest of the house. In our house, the "dogtrot" evolved into a main hall that runs the length of the rear of the house, with the kitchen on one side and bedrooms on the other. The authors of the paper stated that wind velocities in dogtrots (and later in houses with interior halls oriented with windows to take advantage of prevailing winds) were 2-3 times those outdoors. Ventilation was a necessity for good health then, and it is now, too. Thank God for open-window days! Sorry to quote something I cannot cite, but I can't find the paper now.