What is felt from a house facing south?  Shadows on the wall are good.  How fortunate you are if when you look out your front door you see something of beauty.  These are subjects discussed in short yet lovely fashion in  Patience Strong’s Book of Homes and Gardens.

A Vista of Atlas Cedar by CarlisleFlowers

“If you cannot have a vista” out your door with some pretty plant or tree, “make yourself a glimpse,” Ms. Strong counsels.  Her book,  first published in 1953 by Frederick Muller Ltd. of London, reminds one of a coffee table book, pretty pictures with not a lot of text. Her book measures 8″ x 5 1/2″ so it can be placed upon a guest’s bedside table. Returning to a house “Facing South,” Ms. Strong wrote, “How good it is to look at a house that stands squarely in the full light of the sun.”  She activates the sunshine by its saturation into a home’s brick, stone or timber. The sun’s “warm glow must surely linger on” when winter descends.  Just that thought, a bank of sun draws interest in winter months of rain and snow.