Yes, I do enjoy doing the laundry!

Strange as it seems to some who know me, I rather enjoy doing the laundry.  A load of clean clothes flapping on the clothesline, smelling sweet from the sunshine, what could be nicer than that?  I still attend to the laundry regularly even though we are in the midst of our South Island Odyssey caravan trip.  Bliss is staying in a camp where there is a washing machine available, usually where you put a gold coin or two in the slot to start it up.  And if there is no machine available and we are on a powered site I can get my dinky little travelling washing machine out.  (This is a bit of a white elephant and is sometimes more trouble than it is worth).  The other alternative is to do some hand washing in my pink bucket.  But……..I now have a new tool in my laundry arsenal, a small sized clothesline.  This comes apart, and folds down to a small size to fit inside it’s own little carrier bag.  It is very light, so is no good in strong winds.  But on a nice fine day with a bit of gentle breeze, it works very well.  The weather looks a bit grey,  but the sun is starting to break through the clouds.

  My camping clothesline

A visit to the Gore Historical Museum had quite a selection of early washing machines, and as this is my area of expertise, they certainly attracted my interest.  I imagine that these machines were specially made by some enterprising manufacturer to make life easier for the colonial housewife.  These were manual machines and no doubt an awful lot of hard work was required to agitate the machines and turn the mangles.  The airing frame overhead would be a boon to get the never ending nappies dry on wet days.

Washing machines at Gore Historical Museum

Well, I’m not quite sure how this next one works but I’m assured it is in fact an early washing machine although it looks rather like a rocket to me.  Robin took this photo as I’d walked right past and didn’t notice this one.

Another early washing machine

Dare I say it?  I quite enjoy ironing as well!  But to be honest, I don’t have an iron in the caravan, I just fold up the clothes and put them away.  But once I get home, it will be a different story, the iron will be getting a workout then.  Wonder if I was a “washerwoman” in a former life?