Day: January 18, 2010

Oh the joys of a tempermental computer – we are finally online again.
Meant a trip to ‘his man’ and an open wallet – also involved purchasing a new modem as well ‘sigh’
Will be back another day
Cathy
ps this time last week we were sweltering, today has been quite cold with torrential rain.  Only reached 19c/66f with hail mixed in with the pouring rain.  Melbourne is renowned for its ability to have four seasons in one day – today I think it forgot which season it actually is lol

With the hot weather recently I’ve been doing some extra washing – winter blankets and clothing that may have seemed clean when put away but so I know it IS clean if I need it in a hurry have been given another wash.

Hanging it all out reminded me of a post I wrote a couple of years ago about washing

Hope you don’t mins if I repost it today – the first three comments are from the original posting
Cathy

Washing over the years

Not sure what made me think about it but bringing in the clothes this afternoon I thought of all the different places I’d hung our washing.

As a child we had the long line from one end of the garden to the other.

Before Mum got a machine the clothes were wrung by hand and weighed a ton so there was the big pole with a bit cut out to hold up the line and stop it sagging.

My granny in Belfast as well as other relations had long lines but also had one of these fabulous contraptions to help take most of the water out of the clothing.

When we visited I would watch them put sheets through and hope the cousin who had to feed them in didn’t get their fingers caught. Scared the daylights out of me and I couldn’t wait to go home as I thought I’d be asked to do it as well. Of course being a visitor that never happened lol

She also had one of these lovely things hanging up on the ceiling of her kitchen. Mum thought they were common and said we’d never have one in our house lol

I did get one for a house we had in England and it was marvellous in the winter. I’d hang children’s clothes there overnight and most would be dry in the morning. Really economical as the heating would do all the work. I believe they are making a come back as people ar turning away from tumble driers.

I’ve had long lines in a lots of houses and have walked the length of many a garden.

I love it when we visit rellies in Nova Scotia as they have their long lines attached to a pulley system so that they don’t even have to leave the comfort of the house to hang their washing out.

One cousin has a window opening that the line goes through and just opens it, hangs the washing on the line moving it along as she needs more space and then closes the window when its all hung. sorry no picture but how neat is that!!

But to me the most novel way I have had to hang my washing out was when we lived in Singapore.

This was about 1964 and we lived in a block of flats and like everyone else there our washing hung on long bamboo poles out over the street just like these.

Don’t believe me – then look at this photo.

On the Amah’s day off – with 3 young children it was me who threaded the washing on to the pole and leant over the edge to poke it in the hole on the other side of those iron bars :))

Nowadays I have a rotary clothes line, but we did have a metal Hills Hoist strong enough for the kids to hang on and pull each other round, unfortunately it came to grief when a tree fell on to it in a storm so we put up a newer version.

These photos were taken a few years ago when I was rearranging some of the garden beds.

As well as washing other things like to perch on the wires – heres a couple of visitors we had one day.

Yes the infamous Kookaburra came to visit ……………….they stayed there for ages and I managed to get right underneath them to take pictures:))

Its been raining again this evening but not very heavy, we live in hope. At least the washings up to date so it can rain as much as it likes :)))