Clothesline Musings

I'll be spending a lot of time alongside my clothesline from now until October.

We don't have a dryer. My two methods for drying all clothes, towels, sheets and blankets for a family of four is on wooden dryer racks placed near the wood stove or hanging them out to dry in the sun.

I've been known to grumble about this. It's all good, actually, until Scout decides to randomly pee on our bed. Let me tell you how long it takes to wash and dry a comforter, blanket, sheets and mattress cover when you use the aforementioned methods. It takes a while. It's also all good until one of the kids get sick and I'm trying to wash everything in sight.

I digress.

The clothesline does have its benefits. I throw a load of laundry in the washer as soon as I get up, and hang it up, often barefoot, in the morning dew before the kids gets up. I love watching the sheets billow in the wind, making sails. I especially enjoy making the bed with these freshly line-dried sheets, slipping between the coolness of them and inhaling the sweet smell of the outdoors as I drift off to sleep.

Anything and everything flows through my mind as I hang the day's wash: What's on the agenda for school committee tonight? Where are the kids and I going to go explore today? Did I defrost chicken for dinner?

I'd like to think that if I did have a dryer, I'd still hang the laundry out as much as possible. I would miss the time to think, the time that can only come from a chore you could do with your eyes closed. Even though laundry is an endless, often thankless task, there is the satisfaction of seeing a neat row of clothes on the line, waving its beautiful colors.