topic Outdoor living/entertaining in Community Spirit

Outdoor living/entertaining

lurker172602 — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 21:41:30 GMT

I was just reading, yet another, article about the importance these days of an outdoor living/entertainment area in our homes and was struck by the fact that I don't remember such spaces from when I was a child.
We never ate outside unless we were at the beach or on a picnic. As teenagers we may have laid on the grass on our towels but there was no designated area for outside leisure.
When did this all change, or has it always been the same in Australia and I missed out because I didn't grow up here?

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

vicr3000 — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 21:46:44 GMT

Where were you brought up ?

Uk ?

In the UK, we didnt eat outside except as you said, or when camping.

When I came to Aus in 1978, it was all the go here.

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

lurker172602 — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 21:57:05 GMT

NZ, and I also arrived in 1978.

I'm pretty sure they adopted it over there around the time I left. It is certainly just as popular now in NZ as it is here.

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

vicr3000 — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 22:07:16 GMT

I think eating in general has become less formal re times, how it is done.

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

punch*drunk — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 22:09:56 GMT

We didnt eat outside at home much because we didnt have a verandah when we were kids. Dad built one on when we were teenagers and then we ate out there a lot. I wonder if the big gas bbq had an impact too. We always had a little round one for camping, cant remember when we got one for home but generally we ate outside if we cooked outside.

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

lloydslights — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 22:42:37 GMT

About 1976 my children's father built a besser block with steel plate BBQ near the carport. Trestle tables. Concrete laundry tubs of ice and KB.

Originally built because of his bachelor friends visiting whilst on shore leave. (Gawd, I just remembered all the bodies lying on sleeping bags on the loungeroom floor after the Don lounge had already been taken.)

DEB

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

lurker172602 — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 22:49:49 GMT

...... and so was born

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

lloydslights — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 23:02:23 GMT

Floor on the ceiling

DEB

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

lloydslights — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 23:05:41 GMT

@lurker172602 wrote:
...... and so was born

So hot and humid outdoors, that everyone is inside in the airconditioning.

DEB

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

bright.ton42 — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 01:25:06 GMT

@lurker172602 wrote:
...... and so was born

How did you know my address?

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

j*oono — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 01:49:00 GMT

I'm not that keen on eating with the flies but I don't think we get them in the same numbers now.

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

vicr3000 — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 01:55:10 GMT

Joono

What do you mean in the same numbers now ?

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

j*oono — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 02:15:17 GMT

I mean we don't seem to get as many flies around now. I remember when my nanna came for a holiday and she was surprised that we don't get sparrows in the garden.

She said ' still, I suppose you've got the flies instead'.

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

vicr3000 — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 02:18:26 GMT

Fly numbers, at least in Vic and NSW do go up and down based on a few things.

Everything's intertwined.

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

amber-eyed-girl — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 04:54:36 GMT

Plenty of mosquitoes.

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

cherry*135 — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 05:05:02 GMT

I think the BBQ was a factor too, in cooking/eating outside. My family got a little round charcoal BBQ in 1977 (NZ). Can remember eating meals cooked on that outside. We sat on the bench seat in the garden, brought chairs out from inside. No outside table that I can remember.

The BBQ came in handy when we had lengthy power cuts after storms too.

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

cherry*135 — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 05:07:00 GMT

@vicr3000 wrote:
Fly numbers, at least in Vic and NSW do go up and down based on a few things.

Everything's intertwined.

That doesn't really tell anyone anything you know

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

imastawka — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 05:13:28 GMT

Poor little sparrows can't make it across the Nullabor, joono

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

lloydslights — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 05:17:19 GMT

It's so long since I saw a sparrow. 20 years, maybe. I think an invasion of bullying Indian Mynahs caused an evacuation.

DEB

Re: Outdoor living/entertaining

imastawka — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 05:20:52 GMT

Re eating outdoors. In my day (when dinosaurs roamed the earth)

you weren't even 'allowed' to eat on the street. Very unlady-like.

I remember as a kid, the backyard was always full of dad's half- projects

Bits of metal, bits of timber, grass growing through it. Went into mum one day

with a plank of wood nailed to the underside of my foot. Rusty nail.....she just

pulled the wood off, washed my foot with water, washed the blood off my sandal

and sent me back out. Not even a band-aid! So much for tetanus shots