We are told that a Mediterranean diet is one of the most healthy – lots of colourful vegetables, olive oil, fish, grains, etc. But there is something else that the Mediterranean has in abundance and is often celebrated for and that is daylight (beautifully captured in the painting here by Filippo Palizzi). Daylight is never mentioned as a component of a Mediterranean diet but there is plenty of research that says it should be.

Daylight is vital to physical and psychological wellbeing in many ways. Here are just a few.

Vitamin D

Sunlight on your skin produces Vitamin D – the vitamin your body needs to absorb calcium. Calcium is necessary for strong healthy bones and lack of calcium is a major factor in the development of osteoporosis. Vitamin D deficiency has also been linked to several cancers and one study showed that Vitamin D supplements for postmenopausal women reduced the chance of getting any cancer by 60%. Now, we do need to be sceptical about such claims made by researchers and about claims for taking vitamin supplements. But, with the other benefits of daylight exposure described below, we should all prescribe ourselves a daily dose of daylight to boost our Vitamin D levels.

In my blog post on our edition of Heath Robinson’s How to Make a Garden Grow I describe the concerns about the health of the nation in the 1920s and 1930s. Many of the working class recruited as soldiers for fighting in the First World War didn’t not meet the health requirements. Rickets is also caused by Vitamin D deficiency and many children who lived in slum housing at the beginning of the twentieth century didn’t get enough daylight or enough Vitamin D in their diet for healthy bone growth. At the time there was a lot of talk about fresh air and exercise. What they didn’t know then but we do know now is that it was the lack of daylight that was largely the cause of many of the health problems identified during and after the First World War. The relationship between light and health is also covered in my blog post on How to Live in a Flat by Heath Robinson and we see the impact of these concerns on the design of housing in the early twentieth century.

Sleep

Our sleep patterns are regulated by the hormone melatonin. The blue light part of the daylight spectrum enters the eye and sends a message along the optic nerve to the gland that produces melatonin. While blue light is entering our eyes, the amount of melatonin produced is suppressed and we feel awake. When it gets dark and the amount of blue light entering the eye is reduced, the amount of melatonin produced increases, we feel sleepy and our body prepares for sleep.

There is a very interesting article about blue light on this website http://moreintelligentlife.co.uk/content/features/rosie-blau/light-and-health?page=full I quote one particularly interesting section from this article, relating to the work of Kazuo Tsubota, professor of ophthalmology at Keio University School of Medicine in Japan:

Tsubota’s ambition as an ophthalmologist is “to protect the eye for this long-lived society”. We all know that our eyesight fades with age—what he calls “the eye as a camera”—but “the eye as a clock” does too. As we get older, our lens yellows, so less light reaches the receptor at the back of the eye to tell our brains what time it is—and we need more daytime rays to reset our body clock. “At 58 years, my lens is a third as good at receiving blue light as the 20-year-old lens,” says Tsubota, who talks with a wide smile and waving hands. “In order to have a proper amount of light, I have to play outside three times as much as a 20-year-old boy,” he says and laughs. “That gives me a good excuse to ski, go swimming, jogging.”

Tsubota says he is motivated by gokigen, meaning a life filled with happiness. This is not idle chat, he insists. Happiness is one of three things that help to stave off the depredations of age, along with diet and exercise. His remedy is not to sing and laugh, or even to get rich or get married, but to sleep: “It has almost the same beneficial effect on health as smoking has a bad one.” And getting a good night depends on having the right amount of light at the right time of day.

Much of his research focuses on his own cataract patients. After a cataract operation, people usually have fewer falls, their mood lifts and they think more sharply. Tsubota also found that his patients’ sleep “dramatically improved”. He believes many of the other benefits of the operation flow from this: “The surgery replaces the opaque lens and suddenly 90% of the blue light is received, you are like a five-year-old. So cataract is a treatment for the clock as well as the camera.”

The relationship between sleep and wellbeing is now well-known. However, I find this quotation fascinating for the insight it gives into the interrelationship between eye health, light, sleep and wellbeing. But, in simple terms, the equation is: more daylight = better sleep = health and wellbeing.

You may also notice another thread running through several of my blog posts – my references to Japanese philosophy such as Wabi Sabi and, here, gokigen. The Japanese are famously long-lived and are healthier for longer so they are able to add years to their lives and life to their years. Their diet is often given as the reason for this but I think there are other factors too, connected with their way of living.

Psychological wellbeing

We also know that quality sleep and physical health improve our psychological wellbeing. But daylight itself improves our feelings of wellbeing and quite a lot of research is now being done into the reasons why this is the case. Much of this research is collated in the following literature review http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy02osti/30769.pdf This is a long read so, again, I will quote the section that struck me particularly:

Humans are affected both psychologically and physiologically by the different spectrums provided by the various types of light. These effects are the less quantifiable and easily overlooked benefits of daylighting. Daylighting has been associated with improved mood, enhanced morale, lower fatigue, and reduced eyestrain. One of the important psychological aspects from daylighting is meeting a need for contact with the outside living environment (Robbins 1986). According to Dr. Ott (Ott Biolight Systems, Inc. 1997a), the body uses light as a nutrient for metabolic processes similar to water or food. Natural light stimulates essential biological functions in the brain and is divided into colors that are vital to our health. On a cloudy day or under poor lighting conditions, the inability to perceive the colors from light can affect our mood and energy level. Dr. Liberman (1994) also mentioned that light plays a role in maintaining health: When we speak about health, balance, and physiological regulation, we are referring to the function of the body’s major health keepers; the nervous system and the endocrine system. These major control centers of the body are directly stimulated and regulated by light, to an extent far beyond what modern science…has been willing to accept.

We know that being outside in the sunshine makes us feel good – we don’t need research to tell us that. What the research is beginning to confirm is that it is exposure to daylight that is the reason why we feel good.

Recipe for the daylight part of our Mediterranean diet

Hang on, you may say, we are constantly being warned about spending too long in the sun, risking skin cancer, cataracts, wrinkles, etc. How do we get more daylight without incurring all these risks? Well, here is the Words to the Wise recipe for your daylight diet:

• Take a 20-minute walk every morning (even in winter – in fact, especially in winter) and expose as much skin to the daylight as is decent and without getting frostbite! You only need a 15-minute exposure to create enough Vitamin D for the day and walking in the morning means you are not exposed to strong mid-day sunlight that will damage your skin. A morning walk will also help to wake you up as the blue light will start the reduction in melatonin levels. Older Chinese people who start the day with Tai Chi outside have the right idea – gentle exercise in daylight (not artificial light) will help you to live longer, be healthier and feel good.
  

• For the rest of the day, take every opportunity to get some daylight. If you can’t go outside then sit near a window. Keep windows clean and open the curtains as soon as you get up. At work insist on your ‘right to light’ – show your employer the literature review I refer to above. I am sure he or she will be keen to improve productivity!
  

• In the evening turn off all screens (TV, tablet, mobile phone, etc.) at least two hours before you go to bed. Screens emit blue light and this will continue to suppress melatonin levels, which will make it harder to get to sleep. Make sure your bedroom is as dark as possible.
  

Add this recipe to your vegetables, olive oil, nuts and fruit to get the full benefit of the Mediterranean diet.

There is a lovely quotation that accompanies the Filippo Palizzi painting above:

Sul bordo dello scoglio vi è una scritta: Egli, che mi pose a giacere su questa roccia, mi dice di guardarti da mattina a sera e dirti sempre: sii felice. Felice.

On the edge of the cliff there is an inscription: He placed me to lie on this rock, tells me to look at you from morning to night and tell you: be happy. Happy.

P.S.: Our Photography books are all about capturing and recording light. Photography also gets you outside for your daily dose of daylight. Our first title on Developing a Photographic Style by David Penprase has just been published. For more information about our Photography titles visit www.RHEMediaPhotography.co.uk

Dad’s latest project in the Wabi Sabi Workshop has been the construction of a play house for the grandchildren. He drew up the plans himself (see below) and has been building the play house over the winter when not playing golf and it is not too cold in the workshop. Based on the traditional shepherd’s hut or living van design, this tiny house is static, although it does have wheels that were salvaged from some agricultural machinery.

The exterior of the play house is almost finished but the interior still has to be fitted out. The stable-door design has already led to the grandchildren engaging in playing shop (they have already sold Auntie Judi a gin and tonic – I need to check if they need a licence to sell imaginary alcohol!). I gather there are plans for a slide that will be accessible from one of the windows and there will be fold-up benches inside. There is enough space for sleepovers and it is surprisingly roomy, with sufficient height for an adult to stand up inside. Handy for the vegetable patch it won’t just be slugs, mice, voles, pigeons and sparrows raiding Mum’s peas, strawberries, raspberries and crunchy beans - now it will also be small children on a sleepover who fancy a midnight snack!




























Our book Home Carpentry by John Barnard includes advice and guidance on the basics of woodwork and carpentry for absolute beginners. It is set out in a logical order and provides information and plans for constructing the key elements of simple structures like Dad’s play house – windows and doors for example. After discussing the various types of wood, woodwork tools and how to use them, joints, lathe work, etc., the author begins his section on construction, sensibly enough, with a chapter on how to build the most crucial tool for all carpenters – a work bench.

The next chapter covers ‘Simple and Easy Constructional Woodwork’ and includes detailed instructions for making picture frames, roller blinds and curtain poles, a kitchen table, chairs, household steps and ladders, a clothes horse and flower stands and stages. Having mastered these simple items the amateur carpenter can then move on to the construction of a simple building like a garden shed (or a play house). The author focuses on the construction of simple gates, doors and windows and then goes on to describe the construction of more elaborate designs such as panelled doors and casement windows. Also, reflecting the time at which the book was written (1933) the section on windows includes very useful information on repairing that early form of air-conditioning, invented perhaps as early as the sixteenth century, the sash window (the author does not propose that the amateur carpenter actually constructs a sash window). For more information on the origins and value of sash windows for ventilation see 
http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-1151,00.html

Tiny homes, garden sheds and other small buildings are very trendy in the USA and UK at the moment – both for living in and as places to pursue hobbies, to work in and, of course, to play in. For those who don’t want to spend what can be a great deal of money on a custom-built tiny home or garden office, there is plenty of inspiration around for those who want to construct their own very individual project in the back garden.
http://www.countryliving.com/home-design/g1887/tiny-house

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/george-clarkes-amazing-spaces

http://thetinylife.com/what-is-the-tiny-house-movement

Our two woodwork titles, Woodwork Tools and How to Use Them and Home Carpentry, provide a wealth of practical advice for those who are also keen to use traditional tools and techniques in the construction of their own extraordinary or even eccentric small spaces. After all, the process of building your tiny home or garden retreat is all part of the fun, and working with natural materials is the Wabi Sabi way to wellbeing.

Like many house-owners I possess some of the tools essential for sorting out problems and making minor improvements around the house. Although this ‘work’ may not extend much beyond hanging pictures, changing plugs or tightening hinges and catches, the quantity of the equipment is considerable.

There is the ubiquitous power drill plus assorted screwdrivers, hammers, pliers, saws, spanners and Allen keys. And then there are gimlets, spirit levels, a power sander, set squares, gauges, wrenches, a power screwdriver, adjustable spanners, mallets, chisels, files, pincers and planes. Note the use of the plural – it seems one is never enough.

After rummaging through one toolbox yesterday to find an appropriately sized electrical screwdriver I started wondering how and why I had amassed this collection. I’m a typical, average, would-be handyman and like to think I can handle those basic repair jobs, but rarely have I embarked on anything more ambitious. So why all the tools? I concluded that, like many others, I cannot pass an opportunity to acquire another piece of kit even it is a just-in-case purchase. I realised I can justify this too. I remember very clearly as a youngster watching my father at work with a plane – he was quite good at making and fixing things around the house and garden – and how he impressed upon me the importance of having the right tool for the job. So that explains the multiple screwdrivers, hammers, etc. A specific job required a specific instrument. However, perhaps what I failed to pick up from him was that you have also to know how to apply the right tool in the right way if you want to get the right result! But I can work on that.

My collection consists mainly of modern tools of variable quality but I also have acquired hand tools from street markets – there is a particularly good stall in Bridport run by the Dawsons, who also sell vintage tools online at www.secondhandtools.co.uk/about.htmfew. A few tools were handed down through the family. My grandfather was a joiner and a great-grandfather was a skilled machinist. Like many professional artisans they had their own sets of tools, many made by themselves and a few of these, following disbursement, have found their way to me.

Despite my lack of experience and ability there is something special about holding a well-used, hand-crafted and beautiful hand tool. You hold it knowing it is truly unique. Add the family connection and there is a little magic at play. For a moment I am suddenly Grinling Gibbons!

Older hand tools are very collectable and there are numerous dealers and specialists, particularly in the UK and USA, who will buy and sell. I presume the buyers fall into one of two camps. There are those who just like vintage tools for their beauty and distinctiveness and those who see them as a useful, working tool for their workshop. I think it is particularly rewarding to see these tools remain in use and, with appropriate care, their longevity is assured. It is not unlike the perennial debate concerning classic cars – use them or cocoon them? There are those cars maintained in concourse condition but which remain unmoving, parked in an environment where the temperature and humidity is managed carefully and the public, if admitted, stand behind a rope. Of course they are a wonder to the eye and seemingly factory-fresh but there is something missing and it seems almost unfair to leave them there. [Rather like an animal caged in the zoo I believe they long to be given their freedom.] In my opinion the best cars are those that are driven as intended. Of course they are well looked after and maintained but they go out in the rain and the revs are pushed up towards the red when the opportunity arises. This approach recognises that they were built for a purpose and that was certainly not to remain static in a museum or collection.

The same applies to good tools. They deserve to be handled; to carve, gouge, saw, plane and hammer. Whatever your skill level or ambition cherish them, but use them.

If you need more advice then take a look at our Vintage Words of Wisdom title Woodwork Tools and How to Use Them written by William Fairham and first published in 1925. Despite its ninety years it is packed with information on how to use your hand tools and maintain them in peak condition.

As this is the last blog post before the holidays, we would like to wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Visit us in 2015 for more words of wisdom. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfSB9Q8Phz8 

During the Depression years at the start of the 1930s gardening became a popular hobby. Gardening was a good way to save on food bills and the start-up costs were low. Much of the new social housing had gardens, 1930s semis often had large gardens and, for those who lived in one of the new flats, indoor gardening was also a popular activity (see our title Room and Window Gardening). There was a significant increase in the number of gardening magazines published, radio programmes on gardening were broadcast and information films produced – see, for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiiXAiSReJQ. Garden clubs proliferated both in the UK and the USA.

The health benefits of gardening were also recognised in the 1930s. In the Introduction to How to Make a Garden Grow K.R.G. Browne says,

Though a lot of Britons now inhabit flats – and many of them pretty comfortably, too, thanks to Mr. Heath Robinson and myself (advt.) – the bulk of the population still prefers to live in houses, each with its allotted ration of this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. This is all to the good, in the opinion of authorities on hygiene, because even the smallest garden is a good place to get fresh air and gentle exercise in.

At the time the book was published there were concerns about levels of malnutrition and Britain performed poorly at the 1936 Olympics. It seems that a combination of factors were the cause of the lacklustre British Olympic performance. Lack of government funds, a strict code of amateurism and the generally poor state of the country’s health have all been blamed. However, these factors were also in place in 1924 when Britain did so well so the 1936 failure was probably because other countries had improved their sporting prowess considerably since 1924, due perhaps to state funding of sport, while Britain rather rested on its laurels and didn’t think change was needed. The celebration of the body beautiful that began in the 1920s was therefore revived in the next decade by the Government’s National Fitness Campaign and by a general focus on outdoor recreation in the fresh air. Activities such as hiking, swimming, camping, sunbathing and gardening were all advocated as healthful pursuits. We can see Heath Robinson and Browne’s take on the combination of gardening and sport in this illustration:

The psychological and wellbeing benefits of gardening are also understood today and this awareness can be traced back to the care of shell-shock victims during and after the First World War. Creative activities like gardening were used to help victims of shell-shock and the psychological trauma caused by war. For much of the rest of the population, both in the UK and USA, life was also hard in the inter-war years and gardening became a source of solace for many. K.R.G. Browne also says ‘That gardening is good for the soul will be denied by nobody who has ever tried it’.

Of course, laughter is also good for the soul. People have often poked fun at the British love of gardening. I was an avid reader of the Asterix and Obelix cartoon books by Gosciny and Uderzo when I was a child and I remember that one of their British characters in Asterix in Britain used the phrase ‘A garden is a lovesome thing, Got wot!’. K.R.G. Browne also uses this reference in How to Make a Garden Grow. It comes from an awfully sentimental poem by Thomas Edward Brown called My Garden:

A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!
Rose plot,
Fringed pool,
Fern'd grot--
The veriest school
Of peace; and yet the fool
Contends that God is not--
Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?
Nay, but I have a sign;
'Tis very sure God walks in mine.

This poem led to the phrase ‘Godwottery’ to mean a garden of affected and elaborate style. A garden with gnomes, sundials, bird baths, rockery and sundry statuary are all features of Godwottery. Heath Robinson gently ridicules the Godwottery popular in the 1930s with cartoons on gnomes, sundials and, his particular favourite, bird baths. 

I think Heath Robinson was particularly fond of birds as they appear in all four of the How to… books. His designs for luxurious bird-baths – often with H&C (hot and cold running water) and towels laid on – and the care shown to avoid chicken casualties in the How to be a Motorist title demonstrate his great concern for their welfare. Chickens even appear in How to Live in a Flat and birds (if not bees) appear as agents of courtship in How to be a Perfect Husband!

So, once a young couple has got married (see How to be a Perfect Husband) and moved in to their modern bungalow (see How to Live in a Flat, which also covers bungalows), they can escape from the trials of early twentieth-century life in their garden and gain valuable advice from How to Make a Garden Grow.  The happy couple will also benefit from the many Heath Robinson devices designed to make their gardening easier – from the Eeziweeda to the Ever-Ready Cat-dowser, for the benefit of the cat-ridden. Heath Robinson and Browne don’t claim to be gardening experts but in How to Make a Garden Grow, as in all the How to… books, they have expertly captured both the spirit of their time and the essence of what it was (and in many ways still is) to be British. What they remind us of is that a key aspect of that essence is the ability to laugh at ourselves, particularly in difficult times.

A couple of weeks ago I visited the Mary Rose museum at Portsmouth. It was fascinating to see that the carpenter on the Mary Rose used tools that were almost identical to those used today. Planes, mallets, mortise gauge etc. have changed hardly at all over 450 years. The carpenter also had a tool box with a very similar design to that described in our new title Home Carpentry, and several of the people on board the Mary Rose had their own chest containing personal possessions including a wooden bowl (that would have been turned on a simple pole lathe) a wooden, bone or horn spoon and a wooden tankard with a lid, often marked with words and/or symbols to identify the owner. These simple wooden boxes, sometimes divided into compartments for specific items, were clearly highly valued and very useful items on board crowded and extremely uncomfortable Tudor warships. On a wooden ship, on which the majority of the equipment and weaponry (longbows, arrows, spears, etc.) was also made of wood, the carpenter was obviously a very important man.

I would strongly recommend a visit to the Mary Rose Museum. Buy your tickets online to avoid the queue and you will also get a free boat tour of Portsmouth harbour. The new Park and Ride service in Portsmouth is great value for money at the moment and, from Tipner Lane beside the motorway, it delivers you to within a few minutes’ walk of the historic dockyard where the museum is located.

The Wabi Sabi workshop has continued to be productive in recent months. Dad has made some toy animals for Noah’s ark (see my previous blog post). The bear, gorilla and rhinoceros have been made from Honduras mahogany reclaimed from a Victorian bed frame – definitely upcycling in action! The toys have been articulated using bungee cord stretched tight. Dad’s next project is a play house for the grandchildren. This will be in the form of a miniature living van or shepherd’s hut on wheels. More on this, with a blueprint, anon.

We also have a free gift for all the toymakers out there. Last Christmas my nephew Noah received a wooden walking chickens toy, said to be a traditional toy from Poland. I have pinned a picture of a similar toy on Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/WttWBooks ) – this comes from a company www.realwoodentoys.com  that makes the same toy with a variety of different animals that ‘walk’ down the sloping ramp. It is simple but the rhythmic action of the chickens nodding along down the track is mesmerising and it makes a lovely clicking noise! We all played with it at Christmas and it made Noah laugh. So, with this in mind, we have taken a chapter from a vintage book called Toy Manufacture by J. T. Mackinson (first published in 1921) and included it as a free PDF file on our ‘Free Gifts and Samples’ page. We considered publishing an ebook of this title but most of the book is about setting up a commercial toy company and it not relevant for today’s amateur toy maker. However, the chapter on ‘The Movement of Toys’ is both practical and interesting, and offers several challenges for those who enjoy creating self-powered toys based on ‘Simple laws of nature, such as, for instance, gravitation (involving acceleration and retarded velocity); inherent properties of bodies (elasticity, expansion and contraction); and finally, chemistry…’ that ‘make possible the successful operation of many most ingenious contrivances.’ The swing-boat toy looks so complicated and requires such precision that I find it hard to believe an amateur Geppetto could make it work. Anyone want to prove me wrong?