Hilda's diary of a Cape housekeeper

Different days of the week had different duties. Monday the washing went out ; the water used for it came from natural springs a little higher up than the pond described ; the bleaching-ground and big iron pot for hot water were by the washing fountain. The drinking fountain was some way off. Thursdays and Fridays were ironing days — one of the women on the farm doing the washing and another the ironing. The baking was done on Tuesdays and Fridays, by our man cook Abraham. Friday the dining-room was turned out and floors polished ; and Saturday the drawing-room was done, and fresh flowers arranged in a hanging basket in the centre, and all the innumerable vases filled ; it was such a bright, cheery room with its large windows. We always trained young servants to help the elder ones ; sometimes an orphan was indentured to us ; and we taught them all to read and write and work, and so life went on with its many duties and responsibilities; and I would assure those who may settle down on a lonely South African farm, that life need not be all drudgery, on the contrary, all work done — as unto the Lord — ennobles the humblest task, and the exercise of faith and trust makes bright and happy lives and homes wherever we are. ^ Both Dutch and English recipes for soap are to be found in an excellent book. The Colonial Household Guide, by A. R. B., published by Messrs. Darter, Cape Town, which all Colonists should get. . I S^anuatp January i. — Here I open my new journal, and who can begin a new year without a thought of absent friends, or without looking back to the past and forward to the future days, and all of joy or sorrow they may bring ! By the last mail from England a friend writes, “ Describe Cape life,” — a difficult order, for people’s ways vary so. I have given above a sketch of life at my old home, Groote Constantia, but if you follow my Diary month by month it will give you further particulars. If you have but a small house, a little garden, and a poultry-run, as we have now at Wynberg, one of the suburbs of Cape Town, and keep only one servant, the days have to be carefully mapped out to get all done. I would advise having two good ^ paraffin stoves, these if lit at 6.30 give a can of hot water for baths ; then the maid puts on another kettle, and makes the porridge in a pot placed on an “ Asbestos Sheet ” to prevent burning.^ The maid then tidies the dining-room, ^ Such as the “ Beatrice,” or else the “ Bismarck ” stove, sold by Rock and Dike, Cape Town. A special porridge-pot, sold by Whittenshaw, in Wynberg, requires no looking after, as it cannot burn. This same pot is useful for sterilizing milk for nursery use, by letting the milk remain in the pot while the water in the outside jar simmers for a quarter of an hour. The Jan. LAUNDRYWORK. RENT. FIREWOOD lays the table, and prepares breakfast — coffee, bacon, etc. Then we have prayers, and breakfast. Next the butcher comes for orders, and often a cart calls bringing vegetables, or the Damara women living at Constantia bring baskets of greens to your kitchen door. Then the ferns are watered and flower-stands attended to in summer. Hosing the flower-beds takes quite an hour. The maid does the bedrooms until 10.30 and then attends to the kitchen. Most colonial people do a little home dressmaking, and so the days go by.