Absolutely my last post about drying (until the next one...)

This is my grandma! She's the woman who taught me how to bake, using traditional techniques, and nothing more labour-saving than a rotary whisk. She's also the woman who spent the 1970s thinking that adding violently orange 'breadcrumbs' to a piece of fresh fish from Brixham fishmarket could only improve the meal...

And I think I can understand where she was coming from. She'd grown up in a time when women who wanted something at home had to do it for themselves or make it from scratch, and suddenly, from the 1950s onwards, she was offered a world where women could choose to work at what they liked (baking, sewing, gardening, speaking and playing the piano at meetings and raising money for charity, in her case) and find an easier option for the things they's always hated (making breadcrumbs for her, it appears!)

In addition, life wasn't just getting easier thanks to the introduction of new technology, it was also getting very exciting indeed! Having read Bill Bryson's 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid', I can see why people in the 1950s were just deliriously thrilled by the technological possibilities opening up in the world.

Advertising took a lead in telling us why the new labour-saving devices were better than the old ways, and often, the adverts were right - this post may turn up a reader who has brooms and sweepers INSTEAD of (not as well as) a vacuum cleaner, but I doubt it - vacuum cleaners just do a better job, so we all use them now.

And I guess it was this combination of liberating technology and forceful advertising that convinced home owners' associations that outdoor washing lines were a sign of poverty and generally being behind the times!Fascinatingly, Andi's comment on my last post shows that washing lines were banned in some places in the UK, as well as in the USA - her uncle wasn't allowed one in the 1970s. And I find it very understandable. Wrong, when viewed from the long term, just like my grandma's orange breadcrumbs! But perfectly understandable.

j

Thanks for all your great comments by the way - I love the way Joy's grandmother: "had two clothes lines. One under in the back of her house that was more shaded for colors and the other out front where it was open to the sun." That's really handy! I could do with that here.

j

So, I promise you that tomorrow any post I do will contain no reference whatsoever to laundry...

j

..but Sunday's Pause in Lent is shaping up to have something to say about advertising! Joined-up-thinking, that's what it is...

The Line-drying sequel

Thanks for all your great comments about how you dry clothes, and why you like what you do! Feel free to let me know more on this post...What interested me most was something I'd already read about on the great Martha Stewart's website (yes, I scoff a bit, but I also admire greatly..!). I can't find the Martha link any more, but for those of you who are interested to follow up the issue that some American housing and community associations ban the drying of clothes out of doors, I have found some other interesting articles.
j
A charming journalist called Margi gives her personal account of going back to line drying in Pittsburgh. A really cute but informative read.
j
A discussion on the pros and cons of line drying, with comments from the California Assn. of Homeowners Assns(!)
j
Some practical information and links to other articles from Charles Hudson.
j
And my very own favourite clothesline blogger Sherri B, who has lots of lovely weather/clothesline stuff but you have to SEE THIS PICTURE! Go on, look at it. If you do nothing else with my links, look at that one! And then go and introduce yourself to Sherri.
j
Good grief, I'm in bossy mode today.

Drying Laundry!

I'd say about seven eighths of this laundry dried today, despite the remaining snow! The remaining eighth was frozen when I brought it in after taking this shot. Here's the rest of the laundry, on the balcony indoors, which gets lots of heat rising from the wood fire and the oil stove. We are very lucky in being able to dry things 'naturally' all year round.

How do you dry your laundry? Do you have any favourite methods, or "do"s and "don't"s?