Yesterday.
There was only laundry.
Spring cleaning. Everything is so dusty, musty and crusty.
Laundry is cloth, maybe that is why I love it. I also love laundry shadows. I always stay looking. How they float. Like ghostly exits to other worlds.
These pieces seem to fit right in. Blend. While I feel rather in between. Between a now named stress and an unformed path.
Yes to every thought here…..centering, enlightening and inspirational.
Kathleen Norris wrote “The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and Women’s Work” … as I recall, the text didn’t live up to the promise of the title, but now I’m thinking one could make a good beginning on an alternate take using the comments left here …
sadly, I have seasonal allergies, which means pollen on clothing and bed linens is a very real problem … not to mention Texas has pollen of one sort or another every single month of the year … so I hang my wash inside on bamboo racks … which is still waaaaay better than using a dryer …
that said, I remember how much I loved hanging clothes outside once upon a time … and in my mind, I can still smell the salted air of Shelter Island caught in crisp cotton bedding …
Liz…I remember thinking the same thing about Norris’ book. I read it hoping to feel less resentful of bearing brunt of most of the housekeeping in our home. It didn’t. Lately I just try to think of my role as keeping the house from falling into complete chaos…kind of the last line of defense. Maybe I can begin to think of it differently too….
for me, the only redeeming thing about laundry IS the outdoors clothesline, the FreshSmell, especially bedlinens
I do enjoy learning about cloth by washing and drying it, exposing it to the elements. That might sound funny but, really I do.
Hanging laundry, yes such a pleasure; the meditative outside’ness of it, birdsong, open sky and the shadows, shapes and colours flying on the breeze
yeah, it is not just the cloth, eh, it’s all of it.
Oh my! I used to think that my love of laundry was somewhat odd, but yes, it is totally related to my love of anything fiber or fabric. And that smell from hanging in the sunshine! Nothin like it. I now live somewhere where clothes lines are forbidden – soulless covenants for the sake of property values I guess. I miss having one…..(a clothes line that is)
Yeah, it was frowned on in my old neighborhood, imagine that 🙄
Couldn’t live without my trusty line. Nowt so satisfying as a day washing & airing. Here in Australia its Autumn – time for a seasonal change of linen, washing, airing, folding. A kind of settling in for the winter to come.
Such a beautiful ceremony.
When cleaning I think how wonderful are textiles. It’s a little miracle the way they collect the mess and then with a rinse they are clean again. What would we do without cloth! I love laundry, the sensory awareness when hanging out the items especially when it’s sunny, then their freshness. It is so simple, but cannot be bettered.
It’s huge! The laundry experience, I so much agree.
How dark those shadows are!
Absolutely nothing like the scent of outside air dried laundry in the warmth of the sun!
hard to describe
One of my laundry lines is inside. Recently I’ve had kittens as well as laundry hanging from the line…
well i can picture that. squirrels often hang from this one. Indoor lines are great humidifiers in winter.
Shadow steps…magic carpets…wonderful ..where do they go travelling at night:)…
where we dream of
The straightness of the trees and the hanging down of cloth.
The wrinkled, bumpy cloth and the lumpy-ness of the rocks.
The shape of cloth and the shape of shadows, telling part of the story.
A conversation between cloth and land, such a lovely thing to consider.
xo
it was really just like you said.
such poetry … I can smell the special fragrance of line dried laundry through all the thoughts in your words and this thread … delicious!
Probably my earliest memory is at about 1-1/2 or 2 yrs. old, on a summer day, standing under the clothesline & reaching my little arms up while my mother unpinned my special blue blanket from the line and let it fall — drifting down to envelope me with its unforgettable sun-warmth, scent of summer, and pure comfort and love. No wonder I’ve always had a special place in my heart for cloth & fiber.
Gee, what a grand memory!
the other day, the cat came in from running around and I picked him right up because he often smells like fresh laundry…
Who doesn’t love laundry?! ha! Now dishes, those are another story. I’m a HUGE fan of clotheslines, have always been. Things smell so good when they have been hung outside.
And I came across in my house hunting, someone put a big long sink outside on their patio and connected the hose to it for the water source. I thought that was a great idea!
i had one at the old place, but never actually hooked it up
all the unformed, fitting right in.
and there it all is
I love laundry also, the smell of clothes dried in the sun and wind, for my birthday one year I asked for a clothesline, it was my chore growing up, winter or summer, I remember the clothes freezing as soon as you hung them up, the peaceful quiet moments to yourself taking them in and then sleeping on those sun dried sheets, Wow, such good memorues
many cloth stories in laundry
🤗
I love seeing your cloth swinging on the clothesline! it reminded me of my grandmother 💙 she would hang the sheets out in a U shape between two lines, and I remember liking the smell leaning inside the curve of the sheets 😁
mom had one of those umbrella style lines, used to stand among sheets
Laundry..I love laundry and clotheslines, and collecting old clothespins.
My birthday is tomorrow and I have asked for an outdoor laundry sink.
I always feel a sense of connection to women all over especially if I hand wash outdoors.All the women washing in rivers and streams…water and women connected in a simple chore.
oh gosh I was just about to put one in the basement, outside! yes!
I didn’t realize until you wrote it here, why I love clotheslines and laundry
i even like ironing for the same reason
How well they fit in to the Landscape
amazing right?
old cloth, old earth, old sky
laundry lovers united…
hey ho!
“Folding sheets like folding hands
To pray as only laundry can.”- Carrie Newcomer, Holy as the Day is Spent.
beautiful
Ohhhh yes …
i love mobiles ‘n shadow play. these cloths remind me of flying carpets. or colorful sails on a magical ship. definitely going. somewhere…
yes, magic carpets are on my mind too, would like to weave one