Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Sweet Smell Of...

Rain is predicted for next week.  Leaving off washing pigs for the day (an indoor job), I took advantage of the still-warm afternoon and breeze to wash bedding; not just the linens but blankets, pillows, and comforters.  No matter how they try, no one has yet found an artificial aromatic substitute for washer or dryer that can compare with the sweet smell of laundry hung on the line, scented by sun and wind.  Slipping between those crisp sheets last night was pure bliss.

Having four Kids in five years, for the longest time there were always two in diapers, cloth diapers at that.  On rainy days, the house would be festooned with diapers like a ship under full sail.  It wasn't until my youngest was born that I got a dryer and thought I was in seventh heaven.  A dryer became a necessity as much as a stove, indispensable to daily life.  I understand that in some places (condos, mobile home parks, etc.), it is now forbidden to hang laundry outdoors.  A clothes line was in place when we moved here (bringing a dryer, of course).  Well, why not use it?  Moving here was a step back in time anyhow, so I began hanging clothes outside.  Come wet, cold, winter weather, I will be as grateful as the next for the dryer in the laundry room, but the sheets will never smell as sweet.

1 comment:

Kathryn said...

You always make the sun-dried sheets sound sooo wonderful. I remember my aunt hanging laundry when she still lived at home with her parents, but at the same time, my mom, her sister, used a dryer for our sheets, so I really have never experienced your bliss. But I am now seeing first hand, the magical powers of the sun, as my new grandson is wearing Fuzzibunz, a wonderful invention that is a new twist on cloth diapers. Each day they go into the wash, and then they are hung on a portable rack that goes in the sun, and the sun's bleaching power makes them spotless once again. Yay sunshine!!