The sun is shining again today. We've had some gloriously sunny days this summer. I grew up in California and love the sun. But having spent 14 summers in the south of England, I long for it. And when it shines like this, filling my day with bright life, I feel it is a personal gift from the gods.
I just came in from hanging out a load of bath towels. The air was fresh with a gentle warm breeze - perfect for drying the towels. The hot sun and the breeze will give them a wonderfully clean smell.
A song thrush family has taken up residence in my garden. Mamma thrush was energetically hopping around foraging for worms, and papa thrush was in the trees singing his melodies. The baby squirrels were chasing each other around in the trees like they do each summer. It's amazing how playful baby squirrels are, like kittens. My two Yorkshire Terriers, Dobbie and Sirius, were lazily sitting only a few feet from me, basking in the sun, soaking it all up, noses twitching this way and that.
It's too bad about the clothes pegs.
I bought a bag of plastic pegs a few years ago to supplement the wooden ones I had inherited from my mother-in-law. But each time I put out a load of wash to dry, at least one of them breaks when I pinch it open. I can't figure it out. Is it me? Am I doing something wrong? Or were they just made that way?
The wooden ones are just fine. I can't imagine how old they are. I asked my mother-in-law about them. She told me that she bought them a very long time ago from the ironmonger shop up at the top of the hill, can’t remember when. I remember the ironmonger, though. Sadly, he is no longer there. He sold all sorts of useful things; nails, hand tools, basic cleaning stuff like caustic soda, shoe laces, rubber gloves, paints and varnishes, water butts. They had open bins of dog food near the front door, and during the spring and summer, there were stands of vegetable and flower seedlings out front. I can imagine them selling wooden pegs, right next to the clothes line and garden tools.
I bet these wooden pegs have been in the family for over 30 years. They don't break when you pinch them. For hanging out the laundry, they are virtually indestructible. If it weren't for the metal spring, they would completely decompose, not like the plastic ones that only last a few years.
My mother-in-law told me that, when she was a girl, they used to get their wooden pegs from the gypsies that travelled around the area. Only these pegs didn't have a metal spring. They were one piece and you had to push them down instead of pinching them to open them up. They did break on occasion, she told me, but not often. Then, you could put them in the wood pile. They made good kindling. Not like the plastic ones, which are worthless when they break.
So today, we have these plastic ones that will only last a few years, that are made of non-renewable resources, and that don't decompose. This is modern technology. Modern technology has put the gypsies out of business. Huge DIY stores have replaced the ironmonger shops so that people can buy non-renewable, non-degradable stuff by the truck load and spread it throughout the community.
This is progress?
I can buy wooden pegs. I’ve seen pictures of them on the Internet. They don’t look very sturdy, not at all like the ones the gypsies used to make. And they come in plastic bags! Another of my pet peeves. Oh! Don’t get me started on the plastic bags!!
Time to put out another load of laundry. I think I’ll stick to the wooden pegs this time.
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