Welcome to my new project – Washing Lines
I spotted this one in Marrakech.
There is a real basic pegging out error here. Can you spot it?
Peg sharing! This is when one peg is used to secure two items of washing. It looks sloppy and untidy because in my opinion each item should be hung with two pegs (same colour of course) and completely separate from each other so that they dry properly. I would be ashamed to peg out like that.
It is a Challenge. Feel Free to join in.
Posted in Africa, History, Marrakech, Morocco, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Balconies, Marrakech, Monday Washing, Washing Line Challenge, washing Line PegsWashing, Washing Lines
Welcome to my new project – Washing Lines
This one I spotted in the Moroccan city of Fes…
A sneaky picture this because people in Morocco don’t like having their picture taken. As we walked through the city Kim kept snapping away taking pictures of local people as they went about their business. She had to be quick however and mostly secretive about what she was doing.
This is something to do with being suspicious about having an image made of themselves and on most occasions when someone saw a camera pointed their way they would either turn away or wag a reproachful finger to say no.
It is a Challenge. Feel Free to Join in.
Posted in Africa, History, Morocco, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Fes, Fes Morocco, Laundry, Washing Line Challenge, washing Line PegsWashing, Washing Lines
Welcome to my new project – Washing Lines
The five best places to find washing lines for photo opportunities are Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Malta.
This one is from Malta, Valletta I think although I cannot be absolutely certain…
Clearly it was trousers, jeans and tracky bottoms washing day. I can’t help noticing that they have been hung to dry inside out, I imagine this is so they don’t bleach in the sun
My only other observation is that personally I would have hung them from the bottoms and then the waist band would dry quicker that way.
Like this…
It is a Challenge. Do feel free to join in.
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Malta, World Heritage
Tagged Malta, Malta Balconies, Valletta, Washing Line Challenge, Washing Lines
Welcome to my latest theme. Monday Washing Lines.
I liked this one for the way the colour of the washing compliments the shades of the building.
Villajoyosa is a wonderful place, an ex-fishing town, now a Spanish holiday resort of coloured houses with twisted rusting balconies with rattan blinds decorated with overloaded washing lines and pot plants gasping for water, all looking longingly out to sea. It reminded me of Burano in Venice, Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera and of Milos in the Greek Islands.
It is a Challenge. Do feel free to join in…
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Europe, History, Spain, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Benidorm, Burano, Cinque Terre, Costa Blanca, Milos Greek Islands, Monday Washing, Torrevieja, Venice, Villajoyosa, Washing Lines
Welcome to my latest theme. Monday Washing Lines.
This rooftop washing line I spotted in Fes in Morocco…
The clothes now wave that hang upon
the tired old line that stretches from
a leaning pole to a rusted hook
left here now for folk to look.
Every garment pegged and spaced
each shirt and sheet carefully placed
along the line the stockings run
until they dry in the scorching sun.
Posted in Africa, History, Marrakech, Morocco, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Fes, Poetry, Washing Line Challenge, washing Line PegsWashing, Washing Lines
How many of you knew that today is International Laundry Day? I certainly didn’t.
In the mid-1800s a man called Emmett Lee Dickinson established April 15th as National Laundry Day. Dickinson had invented the laundry basket on wheels and wherever he went he urged others to join his crusade for national cleanliness.
I remember laundry day when I was a boy. Monday was traditionally washing day but in the days before automatic washing machines this meant hand washing and firing up a gas boiler and two or three loads of washing to manage. No spin drier either so wet clothes had to be put through the mangle to get rid of the excess water and then without tumble driers, hung out on the line to dry. Getting clothes dry was fairly straightforward on fine days but was a real problem if it was raining or in the winter when linen and clothes were hung around the house and in front of the open fire in a race against time to get them aired.
I have been looking for a good story about laundry and I have chosen this one…
During the troubles in Northern Ireland the British Army needed to determine who was making the bombs and where they were being manufactured. One military advisor recommended that they operate a laundry.
The plan was simple. The laundry would send out “colour-coded” special discount tickets: “get two loads for the price of one.” The color-coding was matched to specific streets and when someone brought in their laundry it was easy to determine the general location.
While the laundry was being washed an additional cycle was added. Every item was sent through a process that was disguised as just another piece of laundry equipment that checked for bomb-making residue.
Within a few weeks multiple positives of bomb residue had shown up. To narrow their target list, the laundry simply sent out more specific numbered coupons to all houses in the suspected area and before long they had a list of addresses. The army swooped down on the homes and arrested the suspects and confiscated numerous assembled bombs, weapons and bomb making ingredients
Welcome to my latest theme. Monday Washing Lines.
This week I am back in Italy in the town of Frascati quite close to Rome. I have chosen this washing line because I like the use of a single peg colour – the work of a professional pegger…
It is a Challenge. Do feel free to join in…
Posted in Europe, History, Italy, Literature, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Frascati, Monday, Rome, washing Line PegsWashing, Washing Lines
Welcome to my latest theme. Monday Washing Lines.
I am in the Greek Islands again this week on the island of Milos. I include this picture because of the attention to detail in the peg work…
It is almost a perfect 10 but if you look more closely what lets it down slightly is the unequal distribution of colours – eight red and six green. Seven of each would have been perfection. This has led to a simple error because the red-green red-green red-green sequence is not carried through along the whole length of the washing line. A real pity that.
It is a Challenge. Do feel free to join in…
Posted in Cyclades, Europe, Greece, Greek islands, Greek Taverna, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Cyclades, Greek islands, Milos, Monday Washing, Washing Lines
Welcome to my latest theme. Monday Washing Lines.
This one I spotted on the Greek Island of Koufonisia, I think it was the uniformity of the branding of the socks that really caught my eye and the nagging thought “who wears socks in the Greek Islands?”
In the apartment next to us there was a young French couple. They were like a couple of characters from a French movie – silent, quiet, moody and almost completely non-communicative as each did their own thing, he drinking endless cups of coffee and smoking his way through a packet of cigarettes, blowing smoke rings and contemplating the resulting shapes and she permanently connected to the internet through her laptop or staring blankly at her mobile phone.
Everyday there was a washing line full of clean clothes with what I for one thought included an abnormal amount of socks! I am not against washing on holiday, I quite like the smell of Tide, but it seems such a waste of time to be carrying out chores normally associated with home.
There was enough material here for a complete Luc Besson trilogy, here was the first – ‘Les Vacance de la Introvertis’ to be followed up I suggest with ‘La Maison de la Introvertis’ and finally ‘Les Jardin de la Introvertis’. It’s sure to be a winner!
Can you work out the embedded message in the colour order of the pegs?
Answer tomorrow.
Welcome to my latest theme. Monday Washing Lines.
In Lisbon we stayed in an apartment and outside the bathroom window was one of those washing lines with a pulley system and the washing hangs out over the street. I have always wanted one of those so washed some clothes just for the sake of it and used it.
We had selected a studio apartment for our four night stay and it turned out to be most satisfactory. The Travel and Tales rooms were situated in a domestic block of apartments so we were going to spend our time in Lisbon rubbing shoulders with real locals with real washing lines and we were happy about that.
We were allocated the Fernando Pessoa apartment who according to Wikipedia turns out to be… “a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher, described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese language”.
I apologise immediately for my ignorance in this matter but I have to confess that I had never before heard of him.
It is a Challenge. Do feel free to join in…
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Europe, History, Portugal, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Lisbon, Monday Washing, Washing Line Challenge, Washing Lines, Washing Powder
