I remember telling Ady and the kids way back at the start of our WWOOFing year that I’d like to do without a washing machine and return to the olden times of having a day a week as laundry day. I can safely say that of all the modern conveniences I miss a washing machine is top of the list. The expense, the trashing of clothes that happens in big, tough commercial washing machines and above all the hassle of the two mile round trip with washing and the 40 minute hang around while a load goes round conspire to have me thinking wistfully of the days when bunging a load of washing on was a five minute job of grabbing dirty clothes, checking pockets and shoving it in, twisting the dial and then forgetting all about it and getting on with other stuff until it had finished and then just nipping out the back door to hang it on the line, or distributing it around the radiators in the winter.
Washing machine – very, very high on my list of stuff I want to get sorted out asap.
The washing had built up thanks to Ady and I sorting out our wardrobe and getting some musty clothes out so it ended up being three loads and with the weather forecast poor all week I could envisage my parents arriving on Friday and us all struggling to find clean pants to greet them in. Today was nice so it was the ideal day. We listened to Popmaster and then Ady, Bonnie and I took the washing down leaving the kids doing drawing and DSing. Scarlett has exploded into reading thanks to the National Geographic kids magazine she has a six month subscription to. As predicted long ago it was animals that got Scarlett reading. Given she has had even less in the way of phonics training or formal reading instruction even I am amazed at how she seems to know letter sounds and can blend so easily but it seems to be coming fairly naturally. Hurrah for two nearly reading children without me ever having to say kicking K and curly C 😉
Ady and I bumped into Sandy so had a cup of tea with him, a chat with Mel at the castle, a wander round to the shop to see Claire and Sean the rat and a quick word or two with Jinty. We came home long enough for Ady to collect Davies and take him with him to go to Kilmory with Sandy to do some maintenance on the deer hide down there. Scarlett and I took all the beads off a big box of necklaces and bracelets Rachel had given us and sorted them into colours. Scarlett made lunch for her and I, cups of tea and chose some music to listen to while we chatted and then we went down to the animals and the polytunnel and the animals. We fed all the birds and put them away and then I tried to do some general maintenance in the polytunnel but keot getting distracted by visitors – three sets came along and chatted.
Ady and Davies came home and we all went down to the village to collect veg and attend the RCA meeting but due to there not being anyone there it was postponed. We stopped for a beer and chat before coming home just as the rain came in. Ady and I managed to grab all the washing off the line in the nick of time so it’s all now dried and put away. Dinner was a lovely chicken stew and dumplings using leftovers from yesterdays dinner.
Tomorrow is forecast to be dire weather so we have various indoor stuff planned for my first Tuesday of Freedom including uploading some of Davies’ films to youtube, some looking at cabin options, croft grant application forms and cleaning out Scarlett’s hamster.