Tale Weaver #278

Michael’s challenge this week:

This week I’ll admit to borrowing the prompt title from another blog I came across and I wondered what we might make of this title.
Dirty Windows are a fact of life. Some windows we constantly clean and some we don’t.
Write this week your response to what you might see through your windows, perhaps the unclean and then the clean.

What’s worse? A dirty window completely covered with grime, a window that has half heartedly been cleaned, or a spotless window with an obvious ‘missed a bit’?

It’s human nature to look into someone’s window when passing if there is no curtain up and you can see right into the room concerned.
In NZ, I was taken on a tour of Millionaire Row in Napier, as my friend said hardly anyone had nets or blinds up, and it was interesting to see other people’s decor!

We have vertical blinds at our lounge, kitchen and bathroom windows. It is not unusual to see people looking in and waving at us (the bathroom is at the side of the house, has a frosted window and nobody can see in anyway). In fact it was quite nice as I’d just come out of hospital when a group of 15 -20 walkers went by, and our neighbour pointed our house out, so everyone waved at me.
Then of course there was the lady in the window a few doors down who used to wave at everyone, and sadly died over the Easter weekend.

Our windows aren’t bad, but when Hubby washes them, you can guarantee it will usually rain within 24 hours or the birds will start their target practice out back. As I sit on the inside, I can guide him to bits he’s missed with the spongee, and we learned a long time ago that spray glass cleaners were not a good idea for us.
Being at the front of the house, we see a lot of people walking by and get to know the faces of our residents. If anyone chooses to wave if they see me sitting here, I don’t mind.

I have a couple of stories about windows though.
It’s quite amusing how many people think that because they live in a flat overlooking the beach they don’t have to draw the curtains or blinds in the evenings to maintain their privacy.
Such was the case on Sandbanks beach many years ago when I was first married and had quite an education in bedroom olympics when couples on several floors were, shall we say, entertaining each other with dress up or diving techniques.
Hard as we tried not to look as we were walking back to the car park, it was the flying cape and feather duster that was my undoing.

Dirty windows can of course hide a multitude of sins, as well as the obvious not liking to clean them. From the inside, occupants can view a blurry outlook, but for outsiders, they rarely see anything behind the dirt. In empty properties, windows were either smeared with cream cleaners or covered in newspaper, and when we were decorating the cottage, we got fed up with people standing by the fence looking in instead of going on their way (heaven only knows how many buses were missed because we were more ‘interesting’), so we covered them with black bin liners.

Now steamy windows are a different matter:
Take it away Tina