A Sunny Nod For The Weekend.

A collective cheer seems to be about in our village.

It's official. Moaning about the weather is universal and after the weeks on end of extreme sunny weather ( let's say as hot as blazes ) one would imagine that a week of rain would be as welcome as a win in the Lotto. The first few days of rain were celebrated by donning raincoats and displaying extra curly locks, but after day three, the smiles had certainly got less.

Even though I don't really mind having rainy weather as it makes it better to snuggle up and read, having rain days on end does crimp our ability to do laundry. Silly actually as in winter we do laundry too...although suspiciously not as much as in summer. Let's say 4 loads a week compared to perhaps one or two. A smelly winter indeed.

We don't favour a tumble dryer and thus are devout fans of the old fashioned washing line spun between the barn wall and a tree. A lot of multi coloured pegs complete the picture. In summer, it is pure bliss to be able to hang up a load of washing while the sun is shining, the lawn is green and the blackbirds are singing. It's the best feeling in the world when I have the right washing powder too. It's all in the scent you know, and the memories it evokes!

Hanging the laundry on our line seems to also be a siren call for our Tigger. For some odd but very cute reason, she loooves watching us put laundry on the line. She even stops eating to sit a meter from us, while we shake and peg away. Too cute for words.

We had heard rumours on the radio ( weather men and their predictions usually leave much to be desired...) that on Friday the sun would make an appearance and a long one too. The morning started out overcast with the odd drop of rain and like magic, as soon as the noon bell went, the sun came out accompanied by azure blue Burgenland skies. Magical to say the very least.

Driving to do an errand later on, I noticed that almost everyone in our village had hung a load of washing on their lines and the motorized buzz of lawnmowers was ever present on the wind. Spiffy lawns all over and not to forget that divine smell of freshly cut grass. A sign of summer right there.

Hanging washing on the line with our cat looking on, seeing azure blue skies and hearing the blackbirds happily frolicking on our roof while being enveloped by the fresh aroma of a cut lawn, is one of life's simple pleasures. Simple yet effective.

Biggi.

I chose well...a husband who does laundry!

No More Washing Drying On A Spindly Stand In Our Bathroom!

My personal yardstick of when Spring is here and Winter is over.

Having lived in South Africa for so long, I must admit that I got spoiled by the hot weather. Washing a load in your machine was barely hung on the line, and it was dry. Bone dry. Extra sun kissed dry.

In fact, in Summer one could do 4 or 5 loads a day and they would be dry, dry without the help of a tumble dryer. Tumble dryers do tend to make everything feel damp and cloying. Never mind how quickly the clothes get threaded.

Bob and I must be about the most adventurous couple of ' laundry-ists ' in our area. Even though technically it is still Winter, the moment either of us spots a ray of sunshine, the washing is on our line...toute de suite. Again, we must be known as the silly foreigners. In the colder months, our hedge is devoid of foliage and all is apparent. Even knickers blowing in the wind.

" Please Schatzi, don't hang my undies on the line, just in case the wind blows them off! "

At times the washing is almost dry, at times it is dry with a lingering feeling of being frozen ( yes, the temperature is still hovering around 10 degrees yet sunny ) and at other times the washing is bone dry but has an aroma of smoked ham / cedar or worse. When it's cold, the wooden stoves of our neighbours run at maximum capacity, blowing smoke onto our laundry spot.

If you've ever hung a load of washing on a spindly clothes drier in the bathroom, you will understand why we put our washing outside even in winter. Hanging anything over, on and between the rungs of the clothes dryer usually involves a few choice words and each of us tries like mad to make the other one hang up the washing...

On Sunday we did two loads of washing and it dried on the line...a clear signal that Winter is moving on to other parts of the world.

Biggi

Being Content Makes The Time Fly By.

Whatever happened to the concept of time?

Look first off, I stopped wearing a watch a couple of years ago. My cousin told me that it interferes with your energy system and being adventurous, I followed her advice. Surprisingly enough, my internal clock works just fine. ( We do have clocks around the house though. )

Comparing my life before we moved to Burgenland is almost like night and day. Thankfully,
the " hectic " part of everyday life has gone. Changing my expectations helped. Opting for a gentler lifestyle and curbing back my wants is what did it for me.

What makes one content? Well, I love doing a load of laundry and hanging it up on the line outside. There is just something so therapeutic about shaking out a t-shirt or towel and pegging it onto the line.Of course, Bob sometimes adds his 5 cents worth, telling me that I'm hanging it wrong and proceeds to rehang it!

Even our cat Tigger loves it when I do laundry. She comes out of her cat-cave ahead of her mealtime and sits there watching me hang the washing. Could she be a he...as " she " doesn't offer to help but just sits and watches me do the work!

Baking bread or a cake must be one of the most soul soothing tasks to do. Not too sure whether it is the loaf coming out perfect, the aroma of baking wafting throughout the house or having a piece that is still steaming and has butter dripping off of it? In our household we fight over the crust and thankfully every loaf has two...!

Look, there are many more facets to my day, but when I do these two specifically, my day just notches up a rung on the content scale. Oh and of course the time just speeds away. Before you know it, it is dinner time.

Once we realize that it is the simpler things that makes us " tick ", everything else falls into place. Do you agree ?

Biggi

This was taken last year, but the line and everything else is still the same. Bob put our washing line up between the barn and the earth cellar. I love it.

Just to show you the perspective. On the left of the wagon wheel, the washing line starts. Tigger can be seen lounging in the top right.

A close up of the lucky fish. All day lounging in the grass and watching the action...

Ubiquitous Pants

Marriage Secrets

Bob has a habit that was rather cute the first few weeks of wedded bliss, but it has lost that status as time goes on ! Each night, when he changes into his pyjamas, he leaves his pants a few inches next to the wash basket...next, not in ! Now I have trained myself to not look at night, but when I get up in the first light of day, those said pants are staring right at me. Sometimes the underpants are artfully displayed in them as well...

I often wonder if I would have any members for a club called : Please put the dirty laundry in, not next, the basket ?

This talk of pants, reminds me of a funny but true " happening ". Good friends of mine back in S.A., who shall remain anonymous, drove over to my place so we could go for a walk. The wife and I started to walk while the husband stretched to warm up. Unbeknown to us, he discovered old underpants ( one hopes they are from the night before ) stuck in his pant-leg ! So, slightly embarrassed, but not alarmed, he discreetly took them out of his pants and hid them under the Wheel rim of his car as his wife had the car keys !

So, we all finished the walk and said Goodbye's. I waited until they had driven off and thus noticed that about a hundred meters down the road their car stopped, he jumped out and ran around his car and a bit up the road. Puzzled I watched but then he got back in and drove off. I wondered if it might be some marital dare and thought no more of it.

My friend phoned me later, hysterical with laughter, telling me about his underpants. Turns out, he forgot that he put them on the rim, until they were halfway down the hill. The funny thing is that he did not find his undies...They had floated off in the wind...

Biggi