Clothespins

Recently my aunt found an old clothespin bag from my grandmother and sent me a few of her clothespins as a memento. Seeing the clothespins immediately sent me down memory lane. I remembered the sheets hanging on my grandmother's line when we visited and the overalls that were worn by both my father and Theo that had hung on the same line. But mostly, my thoughts centered around hanging up clothes during my youth.

Our family got a dryer when I was a baby and my mother always talked about how happy she was when she got it. She was finally going to have a way to dry diapers and everyone else's clothes on a rainy day. However, we still hung most of our clothes outside. I remember that my father put up a clothesline just for me and it was my job to hang up all of the washcloths. And as time went on, I took my turn hanging up all of the wash. I learned how to stretch the clothes to have the fewest wrinkles and hang shirts from the tails instead of the shoulders. I also learned about sublimation at home long before I learned about it in school because we hung out clothes all times of the year even when they froze on the line. But they did get dry even if it took a little longer than in the summer.

And I learned at church to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. So when my mother had no other choice than to do the wash on a Sunday, I worried about what the neighbors would think when they saw it hanging outside. Now I understood that they thought here is a woman with a big family that sometimes had to catch up on things after church. But most of all, I learned the wonderful smell of clothes dried in the sunshine. There was nothing better than climbing into bed with freshly washed sheets that had dried outside.

Today, I don't hang up clothes outside because of allergy problems in the family. We dry them either in the dryer or on folding drying racks. Most of the time I don't think much about this part of our laundry routine, but today as I go down memory lane, I sure do miss the smell of freshly dried sheets from the line outside.

A Second Look--February 11, 2015

The winter weather continues typically for our region with temps ranging from teens to actual fifty's over the weekend. Too bad I had to work during that time, but it was good just knowing that it was warm outside. We also went almost an entire week without precipitation, but we are back to the old routine with freezing rain yesterday. However, February shows more hope for the coming of spring than January. Maybe I'm seeing what I want to see, but I think I see more birds and squirrels about. And I'm noticing more buds on trees. Actually they've been there since last fall, but I like to believe that they are a sign of spring.

Here are a few things I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

Female cardinal among maple buds

Rhododendron bud

There are fresh chips in the hollow of this tree. I vote for a woodpecker since there are other holes in this tree made by them. A sign of spring?

Dogwood buds

Male downy woodpecker. Down for a bite...

Up for a swallow.

Miss Landers sent me this picture. It reminds me that I don't have to be in a natural setting to enjoy the beauty of Mother Nature.

Thankful Sunday--February 7, 2015

I am thankful for my alarm clock.

Leo wakes us up every morning. However, he's not so happy when we wake him up.

We learned years ago that if we want a decent night's sleep, we have to banish the cats to the basement for the night. We have a cat door in our basement door, and we lock it at night so they can't get out. That works well except for one of our cats--Leo. He has learned to outsmart the lock and get out while still leaving it locked to the rest of the cats. So Leo spends the night where ever he wants which is usually on the couch in the den. However at 6:48 AM every morning, he walks all over us with loud meows which promptly wakes us up. And luckily, that's about the time we want to get up anyway. Sometimes with the late sunrises this time of year, we have the tendency to oversleep. But not with Leo, our feline alarm clock. We don't use any other kind. For Leo's wake up call every morning, I am thankful.

Smile

There so many clever and amazing things to see on the Internet these days that I pretty much ignore them.  Or else I wouldn't get much done. However, a friend showed me this clip that really made me smile and it only took 15 seconds to watch. Fits my bill perfectly. See if you find it as entertaining as I did.

15 second clip

A Second Look--February 4, 2015

Here's what I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

Even in the winter, dandelions are providing color in the yard.

Blue Jay and Downy Woodpecker. The blue jay has just taken off to land on the feeder below.

Front door hole and back door hole for the local groundhog. (The front door hasn't been used much.) I don't know if he even bothered to come out Monday for Groundhog's Day. If he did, he wouldn't have seen his shadow because it was raining that morning.

The birds have been using this nesting box to keep warm. There was a little material left from the last nest in the bottom, but I found new feathers on top of that from whatever has been using it.

And speaking of nesting boxes, you can see that something has enlarged the hole on one of them. It could have been a woodpecker or an squirrel. I vote for squirrel.

This is the first time I've noticed a white-throated sparrow this winter. They travel in flocks, so I don't know where the rest of them were.

With the snow, we can more clearly see the evidence of where the deer have been in our yard. Everywhere!

Sunrise