This reminds me, I really oughta go to the haar, pardon, hairdresser one of these days. However, I hope they will not put little dresses on my haar, erm, hair. Or they might not have properly read their manual. Which is hair-raising, the thought!
It’s just cloudy haar - and pretty cold. I am dressed smart casual as we have a church lunch after the service.
Potato pie, mushy peas and red cabbage - of course!
☺️☺️
Indeed. Red Cabbage is yet another sign that God loves us, and that She wants us to be happy. As with PIE, CHEESE, ALE etc. etc. etc.
But....but....what is this smart casual wear of which you speak?
I realised quite a few years ago that I (and my Family) only do scruffy...think Jeans (possibly with holes in), Pullovers (possibly with holes in), and a complete disregard for cultural fashions and/or norms, whatever they may be.
Are we somehow missing something? Or are we even WRONG? (Not that any of us would give a Fig if we were....).
(Cousin S, who is A Nactor, stands apart - he does indeed have a snappy sense of dress, emphasising the Unapologetic, Comfortable, and Easy Scruffiness of the Rest Of Us. Not that we give a Fig, of course, but we like to see what might be done....).
[...] I realised quite a few years ago that I (and my Family) only do scruffy...think Jeans (possibly with holes in), Pullovers (possibly with holes in), and a complete disregard for cultural fashions and/or norms, whatever they may be. [...]
Jeans, especially those with holes in, are highly sought after these days. You are spot on!
Smart casual, in this instance, was - black trousers, a bright red fitted top, red and black tartan jacket and red boots. With a fetching grey scarf on which black Labrador silhouettes are printed.
I find it very hard to dress smart casual - and very hard to dress smart! My usual attire is jeans, t shirt and sweatshirt.
My eldest son is one of those lucky people who look fabulous whatever they wear.
My attire today is taking advantage of the (likely temporary) absence of too much sn*w (it's a beautiful, sunny day and 7°): black trousers and long waistcoat, plum-coloured shirt and shoes. As we're expecting more sn*w tomorrow night, I may enjoy the freedom of lightweight clothes while I can.
As for your haar, I'll take that over sn*w any day* - you don't have to shovel fog.
As we've got Evensnog this afternoon, we're going to grab a bite of lunch somewhere in town - it's really too much hassle trying to go home, eat and then come back.
* unless I'm trying to fly somewhere, in which case haar is a pain.
No haar haar so after church instead of coming home I pootled to the allotment in my unsmart casuals where I changed into ginormous jeans and shirt before weeding for 3 hours.
Tomorrow I have charge of The Grandson, aged 14. Hoping for good weather so he can do some tidying jobs in the garden.
He is currently not allowed his phone or access to computers, so I shall have to be very circumspect and not use mine!
As for your haar, I'll take that over sn*w any day* - you don't have to shovel fog.
A meteorologist whose forecast was for 'partly cloudy' got a phone call from someone who said, "I thought you would be interested in hearing that I just shoveled eight inches of 'partly cloudy' out of my driveway.
... A meteorologist whose forecast was for 'partly cloudy' got a phone call from someone who said, "I thought you would be interested in hearing that I just shoveled eight inches of 'partly cloudy' out of my driveway.
This one does when she gets the chance, although it's too long since I did. Hoping to do some flying this summer to meet my new great-nephew and go to his aunt's wedding.
The forecast for tomorrow's getting worse: snow (not light snow) starting at 2 in the afternoon and sort of not stopping. They're now saying 6-8 inches, but if it goes on for that length of time, they're going to be very generous inches.
Yesterday was a good day. I got to church for the first time in ages, which meant a nice walk there and back. Then after a lazy couple of hours off to the gym, which again is a usual Sunday thing but one we haven't done for a week or two. Then a lovely evening, my husband and I cooking a good meal (baked squash with roasted broccoli and a mushroom sauce) while drinking wine. Ending up by watching a romantic comedy film and finishing the bottle.
Yesterday was a good day. I got to church for the first time in ages, which meant a nice walk there and back. Then after a lazy couple of hours off to the gym, which again is a usual Sunday thing but one we haven't done for a week or two. Then a lovely evening, my husband and I cooking a good meal (baked squash with roasted broccoli and a mushroom sauce) while drinking wine. Ending up by watching a romantic comedy film and finishing the bottle.
Just seen my aunt, uncle and cousin off to Kings Cross on the train. That'll be my third auntie this month, so that's probably it for a while. We didn't have time to do much but introduced them to the exotic possibilities of veggie lasagne and sweet potato fries in Sainsburys Café. The continual stream of relatives are to see my Dad and his amputated toe. I think there maybe a second cousin who is next on the list (no joke), but she's only coming from Leicester.
I put out a line of washing to dry while I went out singing.
There was a risk of rain (I went out in a waterproof!), but I much prefer line-dried washing to putting it in the tumble dryer and the forecast for tomorrow is very wet.
Happily the washing was all dry when I got home, and I had given my lungs a good workout in the meantime.
I do dry some things on a rack indoors if the weather is inclement. Undies mostly, and other small items.
But they do end up feeling a bit like cardboard.
I have put my laundry outside to dry, as it is sunny today. I also don't have a tumble dryer - never had one. I can't imagine one appliance costing £20 a week in electricity. All my electricity usages combined don't cost that much. My smart meter predicts when I need to top up now, and it is getting the hang of how much I use.
Every spring there is lots of wild mint on the grassy hill I walk up to the bus stop, and that mint is there now, and I picked some today. I pick a few sprigs when I walk through, and use them to make mint tea. I was thinking about this thread, because I was thinking about how in a few months there will be blackberries to pick again, and I still have plenty of my blackberry gin left to drink. I am quite slow getting through it. I keep forgetting I have it. It is nice though.
I shouldn't worry about taking a while to get through your GIN, Fineline - it'll keep!
Although we never had a tumble-dryer until we moved to Canada (we just used a clothes-horse, radiators and the back of dining chairs), I wouldn't be without it now. When you can have snow for up to six months (yes, we're in our sixth month of snow at the moment), drying outside is just not an option.
Talking of snow, it started about an hour ago - not much so far, but ominously small flakes*. I think the birds must sense something, as they've been fluttering round the deck and the feeder for a while.
Nearly all our regular little visitors are back now - mourning doves, grackles, cowbirds and we saw a robin on the grass earlier today.
* wee flakes, big snow
* * * * *
I think either I'm getting soft in my old age, or it's too long since I've been in Orkney: someone posted a video on Facebook of the Kirkwall City Pipe Band playing Highland Cathedral in New York for their Tartan Day, and my throat started getting all lumpy and my eyes threatened to spring a leak.
I’m sure I’m not the only one happy to help with the GIN. @fineline
I’m writing this next to my clothes-maiden. Tomorrow is meant to be sunny again so I’m thinking I’ll put my bedding in the wash in the morning and hang it out in the afternoon.
No tumble dryer here either (I used to be a moderator on an eco friendly parenting forum so tumblers are much frowned upon here! When I joined the old ship I had a business making and selling cloth nappies from pretty recycled fabric).
I’m finding it not quite dry enough outside yet so clothes are put on an old fashioned pulley rack on the landing ceiling over the stairs.
I can’t imagine how families in a small (around here that’s normal) house with a small garden cope without a tumble drier. I have the luxury of washing for one and have 2 spare bedrooms so one has a frame drier up in it most of the time. The rotary clothes drier touches the edge of the garden but I do use it now & then (ok, just a couple of times a year).
The four of us live in a 3 bed ex-council terrace house with no spare room (one bedroom is my office), we have a long narrow garden with one line across the width. It’s a struggle in winter to get everything dry.
I didn't have a tumble dryer until we moved here.
Previously we had a long garden with a clothes line that would accommodate three washloads if needed. Also a gas central heating boiler around which drying rack could be put if the weather was disobliging (but in dry East Anglia it rarely was for long). And a warm walk-in airing cupboard - oh how I miss that!
Here, on the windy but wet channel coast of Sussex I have a tiny garden with a washing line that barely takes a small washload and has to be supplemented with a drying rack (which I put out in the garden when I can).
The estate agent pointed out the launderette located within sight, but on inspection I discovered that three of the five dryers and two of the washers were out of order. It has since been demolished.
I quickly got myself a tumble dryer, which is installed in the corner of the tiny garage we can't even fit the C3 in.
Oh the hidden delights of downsizing!
I don't know how much it adds to the electricity bill, but the amount of fluff captured by the filter of the dryer convinces me that it doesn't do much to lengthen the life of our clothing!
Certainly no outdoor drying here today - bloody snow.
As D. was out, I decided that I'd clear a bit of the snow to keep ahead of it, so I went out with the shovel at about 8 o'clock, before it got completely dark, and spent about half an hour clearing the deck, path and drive. At that stage it wasn't snowing too heavily, but it must have got a good bit worse: when he came in at about 10, there had been another two or three inches, and he didn't realise I'd shovelled at all.
I'm no longer allowed to dry washing indoors, because of the condensation - not a problem in our last, modern house, but in a 200-year old stone cottage, just awful - we've just had a forced ventilation system fitted! So what can't be dried on the rotary dryer out on the edge of the forest has to go in the tumble dryer, and then I feel guilty about it
The outside dryer is great, but I need to anchor sheets and towels pretty firmly in the strong winds we get, a bit like trying to reef sails as the wind gets up!
Fortunately we have room to dry clothes indoors if I can't put them out, although I do give them an extra spin in the washing machine to get them as dry as possible, and open a window a little to help against condensation. I hang shirts on hangers if I'm drying them indoors. We have a rotary drier outdoors, if I put a rack outside it nearly always blows over!
if I put a rack outside it nearly always blows over!
With the strength of the prevailing south-westerly blowing in from the channel mine would definitely blow over - if I didn't tie it securely to two, heavy, wooden garden chairs
Boogie, you may be right about the hardness of the water having an effect on indoor-dried laundry. The water here is hard, and was in our last place, too.
Yes, the water here is very hard and it does make the washing stiff.
Supposed to be my day off but a long meeting is scheduled this morning (not a common event so I shouldn’t grumble ). Then some housework beckons.
I got a dehumidifier to help with drying clothes indoors, because my home can get damp. It makes a big difference. I put it right by the clothes horse, it takes in all the water, and it collects in a box that I then empty.
And yes, regarding hard water and soft water, when I lived in a hard water place, my laundry would dry stiff - especially towels. Now I am in a soft water place, it dries soft. I also don't need to put water softener tablets into my washing machine, which I always used to do in hard water places.
I dry washing over a rack. Occasionally on a line outside if the weather looks suitable ( it rarely does ). The best place for the rack is in our extension, which also acts as my “study”, as well as being the corridor through to the back garden from the garage.
I am fed up with this arrangement, so I plan to turn the tiny third bedroom into my study area as well as keeping the single bed in there.
I am behind with the washing as yesterday my grandson was here, tidying the garden, so, indoors or out, the washing would have been in the way. Completed one load, now on the rack. Further loads will have to wait.
Hard water so towels are always hard, even worse if dried outside in too much sun or a cold wind.
Many years ago we lived in West Africa. Although we employed a lady to do the washing, we felt we should wash our son's nappies (both muslin and terry) ourselves. Our water was, I think, quite hard.
In the rainy season we hung them under the verandah and they took three days to become even reasonably dry. In the dry season I could hang them out on the line; by the time I'd pegged out 12 muslin nappies the first ones were dry so I could go round again and collect them in. They would, however, be rigid as boards and had to be "worked" to soften them.
The place in Uganda where the charity from our Church works you can easily dry the clothes outside but everything has to be ironed to kill horrid little larva which get into the clothes. 🤢
I got a dehumidifier to help with drying clothes indoors, because my home can get damp. It makes a big difference. I put it right by the clothes horse, it takes in all the water, and it collects in a box that I then empty.
I have one of these too and it’s great in cooler months when opening windows isn’t a great option.
The great advantage of the dehumidifier is that there is always distilled water for the iron. Not that I do much of that, but the boiled shirt needs it.
When we lived in a terrace house in the coal-fired 50s not only was there a pulley on the living room ceiling, but there were woollens layered in newspaper under the hearthrug.
Before the clothes got to the drying stage there was the fun of putting them through a wringer, with the shirt buttons flying like shrapnel round the scullery.
Spin dryers were a terrific advance - provided you loaded them correctly. Otherwise they waltzed madly round the room, gushing soapy water.
Frankly I’m quite happy to bung things in a machine, push a button marked ‘Wash’, come back a couple of hours later and push another marked ‘Dry’.
A rainy day here so my plans of potting up seedlings will have to wait until tomorrow, so today is baking (2 loaves of bread, a seed cake, a batch of digestive biscuits and a plum crumble) and sewing (a summer frock from an old duvet cover - it’s proving a challenge to get the pattern to fit me, but once I do will be useful for future summer frocks planned, with more expensive fabric).
Comments
Potato pie, mushy peas and red cabbage - of course!
☺️☺️
It's cloudy, too, and about 9C in WesShire.
Indeed. Red Cabbage is yet another sign that God loves us, and that She wants us to be happy. As with PIE, CHEESE, ALE etc. etc. etc.
But....but....what is this smart casual wear of which you speak?
I realised quite a few years ago that I (and my Family) only do scruffy...think Jeans (possibly with holes in), Pullovers (possibly with holes in), and a complete disregard for cultural fashions and/or norms, whatever they may be.
Are we somehow missing something? Or are we even WRONG? (Not that any of us would give a Fig if we were....).
(Cousin S, who is A Nactor, stands apart - he does indeed have a snappy sense of dress, emphasising the Unapologetic, Comfortable, and Easy Scruffiness of the Rest Of Us. Not that we give a Fig, of course, but we like to see what might be done....).
I find it very hard to dress smart casual - and very hard to dress smart! My usual attire is jeans, t shirt and sweatshirt.
My eldest son is one of those lucky people who look fabulous whatever they wear.
As for your haar, I'll take that over sn*w any day* - you don't have to shovel fog.
As we've got Evensnog this afternoon, we're going to grab a bite of lunch somewhere in town - it's really too much hassle trying to go home, eat and then come back.
* unless I'm trying to fly somewhere, in which case haar is a pain.
On a different subject, I am happy. The right crews won all the Boat Races (except the veterans)
He is currently not allowed his phone or access to computers, so I shall have to be very circumspect and not use mine!
A meteorologist whose forecast was for 'partly cloudy' got a phone call from someone who said, "I thought you would be interested in hearing that I just shoveled eight inches of 'partly cloudy' out of my driveway.
Love it!
This one does when she gets the chance, although it's too long since I did. Hoping to do some flying this summer to meet my new great-nephew and go to his aunt's wedding.
The forecast for tomorrow's getting worse: snow (not light snow) starting at 2 in the afternoon and sort of not stopping. They're now saying 6-8 inches, but if it goes on for that length of time, they're going to be very generous inches.
Chuffing winter.
That sounds lovely!
A boring morning of admin so far. I find it hard, psychologically, to work when my children are home on holiday.
There was a risk of rain (I went out in a waterproof!), but I much prefer line-dried washing to putting it in the tumble dryer and the forecast for tomorrow is very wet.
Happily the washing was all dry when I got home, and I had given my lungs a good workout in the meantime.
But they do end up feeling a bit like cardboard.
Every spring there is lots of wild mint on the grassy hill I walk up to the bus stop, and that mint is there now, and I picked some today. I pick a few sprigs when I walk through, and use them to make mint tea. I was thinking about this thread, because I was thinking about how in a few months there will be blackberries to pick again, and I still have plenty of my blackberry gin left to drink. I am quite slow getting through it. I keep forgetting I have it. It is nice though.
Although we never had a tumble-dryer until we moved to Canada (we just used a clothes-horse, radiators and the back of dining chairs), I wouldn't be without it now. When you can have snow for up to six months (yes, we're in our sixth month of snow at the moment), drying outside is just not an option.
Talking of snow, it started about an hour ago - not much so far, but ominously small flakes*. I think the birds must sense something, as they've been fluttering round the deck and the feeder for a while.
Nearly all our regular little visitors are back now - mourning doves, grackles, cowbirds and we saw a robin on the grass earlier today.
* wee flakes, big snow
* * * * *
I think either I'm getting soft in my old age, or it's too long since I've been in Orkney: someone posted a video on Facebook of the Kirkwall City Pipe Band playing Highland Cathedral in New York for their Tartan Day, and my throat started getting all lumpy and my eyes threatened to spring a leak.
And I don't even like bagpipe music!
I’m writing this next to my clothes-maiden. Tomorrow is meant to be sunny again so I’m thinking I’ll put my bedding in the wash in the morning and hang it out in the afternoon.
I’m finding it not quite dry enough outside yet so clothes are put on an old fashioned pulley rack on the landing ceiling over the stairs.
Previously we had a long garden with a clothes line that would accommodate three washloads if needed. Also a gas central heating boiler around which drying rack could be put if the weather was disobliging (but in dry East Anglia it rarely was for long). And a warm walk-in airing cupboard - oh how I miss that!
Here, on the windy but wet channel coast of Sussex I have a tiny garden with a washing line that barely takes a small washload and has to be supplemented with a drying rack (which I put out in the garden when I can).
The estate agent pointed out the launderette located within sight, but on inspection I discovered that three of the five dryers and two of the washers were out of order. It has since been demolished.
I quickly got myself a tumble dryer, which is installed in the corner of the tiny garage we can't even fit the C3 in.
Oh the hidden delights of downsizing!
I don't know how much it adds to the electricity bill, but the amount of fluff captured by the filter of the dryer convinces me that it doesn't do much to lengthen the life of our clothing!
As D. was out, I decided that I'd clear a bit of the snow to keep ahead of it, so I went out with the shovel at about 8 o'clock, before it got completely dark, and spent about half an hour clearing the deck, path and drive. At that stage it wasn't snowing too heavily, but it must have got a good bit worse: when he came in at about 10, there had been another two or three inches, and he didn't realise I'd shovelled at all.
Stuff that for a lark.
Commiserations, really! May at least be a spring in your, in all our step, to bring forth said joyful season of flowery goodness... atchoooo!
God bless us all!
The outside dryer is great, but I need to anchor sheets and towels pretty firmly in the strong winds we get, a bit like trying to reef sails as the wind gets up!
Mrs. S, very grateful to have the choice
Electric clothes airer
Our indoor-dried clothes are perfectly soft. Maybe because we have very soft water?
Boogie, you may be right about the hardness of the water having an effect on indoor-dried laundry. The water here is hard, and was in our last place, too.
Supposed to be my day off but a long meeting is scheduled this morning (not a common event so I shouldn’t grumble ). Then some housework beckons.
And yes, regarding hard water and soft water, when I lived in a hard water place, my laundry would dry stiff - especially towels. Now I am in a soft water place, it dries soft. I also don't need to put water softener tablets into my washing machine, which I always used to do in hard water places.
I am fed up with this arrangement, so I plan to turn the tiny third bedroom into my study area as well as keeping the single bed in there.
I am behind with the washing as yesterday my grandson was here, tidying the garden, so, indoors or out, the washing would have been in the way. Completed one load, now on the rack. Further loads will have to wait.
Hard water so towels are always hard, even worse if dried outside in too much sun or a cold wind.
In the rainy season we hung them under the verandah and they took three days to become even reasonably dry. In the dry season I could hang them out on the line; by the time I'd pegged out 12 muslin nappies the first ones were dry so I could go round again and collect them in. They would, however, be rigid as boards and had to be "worked" to soften them.
I iron about 3 things a week and that’s all.
I have one of these too and it’s great in cooler months when opening windows isn’t a great option.
I’d love to have a rack and a fire to hang it over. Alas I have neither so a maiden it is.
That’s what I have, my husband fitted it last year - I wish we’d got one years ago.
Before the clothes got to the drying stage there was the fun of putting them through a wringer, with the shirt buttons flying like shrapnel round the scullery.
Spin dryers were a terrific advance - provided you loaded them correctly. Otherwise they waltzed madly round the room, gushing soapy water.
Frankly I’m quite happy to bung things in a machine, push a button marked ‘Wash’, come back a couple of hours later and push another marked ‘Dry’.