perfect spring drying weather

It's been beautiful outside today. There's a full line of washing flapping gently in the breeze, fragrant blossom petals drifting in the air. I've been on holiday this week and it's been a beautiful things to see. We seemed to have moved on from winter. Haven't had to dry washing in front of the heater everyday for ages. Or maybe I'm romanticising it all, because mostly I've been coming home and seeing that it's been done. Even the folding and putting away. I shut my eyes when it's a bit messy around the edges, because I'm like that too. Still it's been a pleasure hanging washing out this week, what with spring arriving and all.

Not that you can quite see the spring thing happening in this picture because I took it before the blossom came out. I like that it seems to symbolise the distance I have sometimes to this part of domestic life now that I'm back at work more and G is holding the fort at home. Even though I still seem to do a fair bit of folding when I'm around and sometimes when we're both here it's a case of oh, I thought you were doing that and there's a lapse into a gentle befuddled anarchy. Most of the time though, someone else is maintaining the order.

Right. Off to bake a cake and take some pictures of the blossom on the washing.

the mittens of the kittens

Three little kittens, they lost their mittens,
And they began to cry,
   "Oh ! Mother dear, we sadly fear
Our mittens we have lost!"

Mother Cat admonishes the kittens and punishes them by withdrawing food. The kittens find their mittens. Pie is subsequently provided. Which the kittens eat while wearing their mittens. Most likely as mother says, "take off your mittens please," then facing screeches and tantrums she lets it slide and then, annoyed at the extra washing she says,

"What!  soiled your mittens,
   You naughty kittens !"

The kttens are contrite. Their mittens are no longer cleen.

The kittens wash their mittens. Because they are very independent young kittens. "I do it," they say. And they are very proud to show off their mitten washing skills. Mother Cat is delighted.

"What ! Washed your mittens,
You darling kittens !"
   But I smell a rat close by !
   Hush, hush, hush."

Illustrations and text from Three Little Kittens, part of the My Tiny 3-D Book, Froebel-Kan, Tokoyo, 1987.

For some reason I was thinking about this book today. Maybe it's the rat in the skirting board, the one whose scratching wakes me up at night sometimes. As the cat sleeps on my feet. Perhaps it's the utter cuteness of the little cats washing their mittens, somewhat akin to the utter cuteness of watching Grace wash her dolls in the bath. Or something to do with feeling unconnected to the washing? G asked me tonight if I thought he should do the sheets tommorrow. I said yes, of course, but really I hadn't even been thinking about it. I used to have the washing in my head the whole time. Now I don't, except in books. Strange.

And then while I'm away, I'll write home ev'ry day

A while ago, this picture of a young Paul McCartney, playing his guitar under a line of washing, appeared in the Sunday Life section of The Age newspaper. If it hadn't been for the heads up from Suse, I would have missed it. Thanks Suse!  G had scrap booked it, but at the time he didn't think to ask whether I'd seen it. Which he normally would, I think. Anyway, it's a beautiful image and a perfect example of the celebrity laundry genre, which is a favourite of mine.





The image is from Chaos and Creation on the Backyard, which I've not heard or seen because I so don't keep up with music anymore, I just listen to what's on and complain loudly if I don't like it. Like if it's jangly when I'm in the mood for smooth, or bland when I'm in the mood for loud. Luckily I live with someone who is happy to be Mr Deejay most of the time, even if he does mock me for playing the same tapes over and over in the car. Are you still listening to that Beth Orton? he says.


I wonder if this shot is staged. It was taken in the early 60s, maybe before they became mega famous but definitely after they'd been playing for a while. After Hamburg? I don't know, but I read somewhere on the 'net that Paul and Linda McCartney tried to give their children an ordinary upbringing, which included him insisting that she did the family's laundry, so the house would smell of ironing. Which reminded him of his childhood. I can't imagine he would have had time, what with being a rockstar and all.