That was my grandmother's doomladen cry when the heavens dared to open on a Monday morning. It was the law in the thirites in working class homes, that Monday was washday. It took Tuesday and Wednesday for the drying and the starching. Thursday was ironing and Friday airing.
We are having so much rain here just now the west country is becoming the wet country.
Sadly this is not a world wide state of affairs. Below are photos I took of the Lake Palace hotel in Udaipur - before I got a digital camera. Now at monsoon time the lake is bone dry and the children are playng cricket where once we sailed.
Oooh! the sun's come out. I'm off.
The Lake Palace Hotel at Udaipur
16 comments:
I recall my grandmother using her mangle to wring water out of her washing. She regarded rain as a constant enemy and when it rained the house would be festooned with sheets.
We appear to have rain in all the wrong places and wrong times.
M. Defarge: welcome! I can smell those damp sheets. Sounds like you had similar experiences. I wonder what they would think of today where the washers are constantly in use. I still find myself following Gran's way of stretching the sheets to make ironing easier. Unfortunately MTL can't seem to get the hang of it:)
Monday is still wash day here Pat, and the wee steamies are just that... Steamy.
It's very rainy here too. I'm glad we've got a dryer now. Before, all the laundry had to dry in our not too big living room as that is the only room where the drying rack fits. And with this kind of weather it could take a while.
Wow, that place looks amazing! It's warmer and dryer than usual here, though we have had the odd deluge over the past week or so.
A whole week dedicated to laundering: ye gads I might have been tempted to smell!
At my house, with three kids, two of whom are boys, everyday is washday!
Cheers.
The weather looks lovely in Minehead in those photos, Pat...
Every day is wash day here. Right now the clothes are on the clothes line.
It's been unseasonably cool her in NE Ohio this July. Warmer temps are predicted later in the week.
The photos are wonderful, Pat. Seems so exotic.
My Grandmother had such a routine... I keep meaning to have one, but it never works out. I can never get the hang of the mangle.
I think it's been raining since I came home!
Sx
Jimmy: we were - unwittingly - much greener then. In so many ways'
Wont let: my dryer doesn't work but with the garage used as a laundry room and the Aga it doesn't worry me.
Eryl: laundering was only a part of the chores : scrubbing (the steps outside the house)polishing, cleaning, bottling, preserving, cooking, mending - a woman's work truly was never done. And I'm afraid they probably were not so fresh as today's folk but as i said they were much greener. We have a lot to answer for the pollution of the atmosphere.
Randall:I think in the thirties children - apart from the princesses - tended to look like little ragamuffins.
Kim: how clever of you to recognise it after your short visit:)
Debra: it was an exotic mix of splendour and squalor.
Scarlet: my nursing days means I committed to some sort of routine - with lots of off-duty.
Beautiful photos, Pat!
Beautiful pictures ! How lucky you got to visit there when it looked like this !
p.s. love your word verification, I am compiling a list of the words. . I am making up definitions for them
Judy: they would have been better with digital and this way I have to scan them. Ah me!
Parsnip: it is tragic really. Some of the word verifications are surprisingly apt. I wonder if there is a little man choosing them.
That is pretty Horrendous, that this Lake is now bone dry, yet you all are floating in an abundance of Rain....It does seem like you all had more Rain this year than I remember reading about before....
Glad the Sun came out for you, my dear! It certainly was a beautiful place when there was water there. Lovely pictures--digital or not.
Naomi: it could get pretty smelly when there was rain. I dread to think what it is like without.
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