This past couple of weeks, Spring has finally sprung here in my neck of the woods. Though we've had as much as 30 degree fluctuations (we have freeze warnings tonight!), we've had enough warmer days that grass is greening and growing enough to mow, trees and spring flowers and spring bushes are blooming, people are working in their yards and garden beds, kids are out playing...it's just wonderful!
This past Sunday was my 55th birthday (yikes!). For my birthday, besides a lovely dinner out at my favorite restaurant, my hubby built me a raised bed for my vegetable garden. It is all filled with good planting soil and ready to go! It's 4'X8' and will hold a lot! It'll look really nice when the privacy fence goes in soon too.
The other most wonderful thing he did was to put up a clothesline for me! Now that may seem like a small thing..even not that great to some, but I have waited years to have a clothesline again. I haven't had one in 16 years! I have missed the scent of linens and clothes hanging out on a line to dry..there is just nothing better then sliding into sheets after they've been outside! So fresh and crisp and clean smelling!
I have such wonderful memories of clotheslines. My grandmother had one..as I'm sure most people did back in those days :) I can still picture her in her housedress and apron, taking out baskets of the same items, along with linens and grandpa's work shirts to hang them on the line. This was after I helped her with her old ringer washer! :) She had one of those sweet clothespin bags that looked like a little girl's dress. She would hand that to me and I became her pin girl..handing them to her as she clipped clothes to the line briskly and efficiently..talking to me about her garden or canning or asking me about the current book I was reading or school. With every piece that went up...my nose just had to go into it, to get a big whiff of that great scent as it flapped in the breeze.
When I had my own clothesline, my own daughters would do the same thing. Help me with the pins, run thru the damp sheets leading with their noses, laughing and enjoying the cool feel on a hot Summer day. Always brought a smile to my face and a memory of my own childhood. As time marches on and the Wheel of Life turns, my own darling granddaughter, Lily, watched as I hung out my first load of clothes on my new line. As soon as I hung up the bright pink sheets, as if by an inner need...she started running thru the sheets...feeling the dampness and smelling the great, clean scent..laughing and having a great time. Soon her little brother joined in. And this Nana just smiled....and remembered.
I'm so anxious to start planting my garden beds. Around here...we wait until Mom's Day...anything sooner and you risk losing the plantings. I will, I'm sure, blog about my gardens, and herbs and landscaping...and all the improvements we are doing to our new yard. We just love this house and making it ours! Hope you all have a great rest of the week!
Love,
Kim aka Nana
