It’s hardly earth shattering, but oh it was so good to do, and it smelled totally wonderfully breath catching freshened with spring scented air. Yes, I’ve turned into a fresh air frugalista, and started to use that clothesline that the former owners left us. You can’t beat the cost, FREE a few minutes of fresh air to hang the laundry, and a few hours of watching it gently twirl out there in the backyard and the laundry is air dried and fragrant, ready to be gathered up and inhaled. Makes me wonder why more of us don’t do this, think of the electricity and money we would save. The weather was more suited to the young, or those who thought to insulate themselves properly when I went out to hang up the laundry. Nippy, as in nip it in the bud if you thought the disappearing snow would hasten the spring like temperatures. I have forgotten how cold, wet fingers can get while they hang up clothes fresh from the washer, but it was worth it. The afternoon was sunny, and delightful, still with underlying cool, but a slight breeze.
You can tell it’s spring that’s coming along, there are kids playing in the driveways, sounds of laughter and skateboards, warbles of birdsong caught on a sunbeam. Neighbours are stirring from their winter dens, rakes are taken out of hibernation, and hello’s are exchanged. I haven’t hung up laundry on a line since I was very young… but I have not forgotten how to do it. Sheets doubled over so they don’t hang on the grass, and always allocate 3 of the new eco friendly bamboo clothespins per sheet. Socks doubled up, two per pin, shirts hung upside down, pants from the waistband, it’s all coming back to me now. And skivvies, well nothing would convince me to hang them outside, not for all the fresh air in the world, it’s inside with those babies.
The scent, the glorious fresh air, no chemical in the world can duplicate the smell of line dried laundry scent. I’ve missed that for so many years, we haven’t had a laundry line for decades. It’s spring, it’s sunny, it’s warming up soon. We’re hoping that all of the snow will disappear from the lawn, and my husband can finish raking those last little snow covered patches it certainly needs a good working over. We took 38 black plastic bags of yard waste to the dump, during their yard waste recycling period, it was originally a big bump in the backyard, but fir needles and branches will take forever to breakdown, and we have yet to build a proper composter. Some day soon I hope to have some sort of system that will accommodate our yard waste.
I’ve planted my hardier bulbs in pots for now, some dahlia, a fern, a peony, two colors of bleeding heart. Of course I need some containers around the house for color. They go outside during the sunny days, and perch inside the garage on the potting bench situated in the window on snowy days. Happy Sunday.