Keep your cool

It's a glorious sunny Easter Sunday and my thoughts have turned to how to keep the house cool in the summer. If the last few years are anything to go by, then I think the forecasters are right when they say that this summer is going to be another hot one. I don't like the heat and would be quite happy to have a summer home in the Arctic Circle! But, as that is not an option, I try to keep the house as cool as possible without resorting to high energy consuming air-cons.
The one method that I have used for the last few years that works well, is to shade the south facing windows. I tape greenhouse shade cloth over the outside of the windows, just applying the tape at the top so the window can still be opened. It's important to shade the outside of the window as this lessens the amount of sunlight/heat entering the room.
Another tactic I've employed the last few years, is to grow runner beans in front of Mikey's (no.2 son) bedroom window. His room is downstairs, faces south and is a testosterone filled oven during the summer months. So, every spring I position bamboo canes about 4' in front of his window. Then run shorter canes from a batten fixed to the wall above the window to the others, forming an upside down L. The runner beans are then planted next to the canes where within a few weeks they have formed, what has been dubbed 'the bean shed'. This provides us with a lovely cool place to sit, cools Mikey's room considerably and provides us with yummy, fresh runner beans.
This summer, I want to take this a step further and grow stuff on the flat roof (Mikey's room is an extension). The problem is, I'm going to have to get a longer ladder to be able to get up there. A few years ago it wouldn't have been a problem for me to haul myself up the last few feet of wall but, well, I'm abit older now and the body just doesn't bend like it used to!