Clothesline

Last year I decided that we should install a clothesline in our yard. I wanted to save electricity and reduce our energy footprint. In Europe, as you can see here in Italy, everyone hangs out their clothes, no matter how small the space is.
But we have loads of space and have always thought we had loads of energy. The clothesline was installed, one of those windmill things, next to the vegetable garden and a short schlep from the washer.
I thought I would hate having to hang out the laundry every day, another chore. But it didn't turn out that way. We start the laundry washing before breakfast, and by the time we are finished eating and cleaning up the kitchen, the laundry is ready to be hung out. This is my best chore: we both love it! We get out there in the first sunny and warm moments of the day. The sand hill cranes are just zooming in with their wild cries and the vegetable garden is so green and verdant and all of life is full of possibilities.
The best thing for me is the artistic arrangement of the clothes to be placed on the line. I love it when we have colorful sheets and towels, maybe a tablecloth or two in brilliant colors. I even love those blue jeans that will flap in the breeze, my black bra, Andy's red underwear and the socks neatly pinned together in pairs. We have our system- socks together, the heavy things towards the sun, the colorful things on the outside to be seen as an artistic gem.
In a few hours, just before lunch, I'll take everything down, folding them from the line into neat stacks, everything smelling sweet from the sun and breeze.
Our parents always dried clothes outdoors. Probably only our mothers did this.