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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Wash Wednesday

When I was in my early 20s, I spent a summer in Whistler, BC. There was a bylaw forbidding clotheslines. Having grown up in a rural area where you knew the colours and sizes of all your neighbours' undies, this was unfathomable to me. They were forbidding people to use the wind and sun to dry their clothes, because it was offensive to tourists? Huh?

I have happily hung my clothes on a line ever since. My fondest memories include that pre-birth washing of yellow and green baby clothes and diapers, hanging them out, and carefully folding them in preparation of the birth. Then the rural equivalent of a birth announcement in the newspaper: little pink or blue garments strung across the yard. And the nursing bras and postpartum undies, of course.

This picture was taken last summer, in July. We spent the last week of June in the hospital, and I took this very commonplace picture because everything I saw, all the ordinary little things in my life~ my garden, the wading pool, the play structure, and the clothesline~took on a new sheen. I still feel happy when I look at it.

7 comments:

  1. I miss our clothes line back at our old house, seeing yours brings back the wonderful memories of never using our dryer *sigh*

    I *need* to see this fabric you are using for your kitchen cupboards!!! ;)

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  2. Happy Wash Wednesday!
    I love your photo. There is nothing more reassuring than to find like minded folks who also use their clotheslines, or would if they had one.

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  3. I love this photo--- such a good feel to it!

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  4. Oh, that's so funny -- as I photographed my laundry line this past weekend, I was reminded of all of those times that the green and yellow newborn clothes were hung up, broadcasting to the world that a babe was on the way. Sadly, I don't think I ever got a photo of it.

    I love your shot and comments!

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  5. I am hoping for a clothesline for my birthday!

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  6. I truly appreciate and love everything you have shared here through your writing! It is so beautiful as is your photo. I am so happy you are joining in on Wash Wednesday, I look forward to sharing your photo next week!

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  7. It's bittersweet when all those lovely rainbow colours and small childrens clothing are replaced by lots of denim, dark blues and blacks and t-shirts that are way too big for me. A testament to a growing family of boys. Love your posts!

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