General Chat

We were having the usual night-time argument last night because OH doesn't seem to like air. I am sure he would sleep in a hermetically sealed chamber if he could and I like the windows wide.

When the bedroom was mine alone I would sleep with my head by the window and, if there was a gale blowing, would have it open so the wind and, sometimes a bit of rain, would blow over me.

What I think I would really like to experience is the way that the old sanitoria used to put their patients to sleep on wide balconies with roofs. Alright, so the walk to the little house would be something of a trial but how lovely it would be to be tucked up in a warm bed, maybe with a hot water bottle and the snow coming down. Wanna do it!

Yeah you totally lost me with the snow bit....no way :-)

I do mean British snow but it would be on a roofed verandah so with no danger of it falling on the bed.

More than thirty years ago, I lived in a house with a verandah in Oz. Once when the house was unduly warm and the air outside had cooled down after a very hot day (as air often did) my children and I decided we'd sleep better on the open verandah.

We slept so well that we never heard the car at the side of the house being broken into! OH could not believe it.

Luckily nothing had been left in it. :-D

Many older houses in Canada had at least one sleeping balcony or porch, opening off the main bedroom and possible one other. They are always on the second level, never at ground level.

People slept out there in the summer months.

You can usually tell them because they have a roof, and a solid half wall at the front so that people sleeping there cannot be seen from the outside.


Luckily both OH and I agree with wanting the bedroom window open even in the coldest months

Having stayed in Banchory Sanatorium (otherwise 'Glen O'Dee' sanatorium) made famous by Somerset Maugham in his book 'Sanatorium', I can assure you that in the early '60's, we patients weren't allowed outside. :-|
I was incarcerated in a cot, in a room, all alone, no schooling, and had almost lost the ability to walk when I was released.
The day of my release was the day I had a bath, and my hair washed.
First stop after arriving home was the hairdressers where I had my long, tangled hair chopped off!

I've also been so cold I might as well have been outside.
In the 'Bessacar' caravan, our vicious cat would come into my bed (a board and foam 'cushion' on the unplumbed in bath).
She didn't 'love' me, she went straight down to the hot water bottle, and worked her way up as it cooled!

Although not to taking it to the same extremes, I can sympathise with Sharron & their sleeping arrangements. My ‘cooling breeze’ is OH’s ‘#*@!!’ Cold draft.

Sylvia bet you wouldn't sleep with the windows open all year in the rest of Canada :-)..Yes in many old homes or cottages you'd find the back porch covered in with netting to stop the bugs but open to allow the cool air in at night. my husband uncle would always sleep out there during summer as he didn't have A.C. but being Quebec he'd not sleep there during winter :-)
I'd rather the window was open than A.C. all night but only in a 2 storey not a single storey these days.