First O' The Week

Happy to report the cloud cover last night kept our temperature from dropping down to freezing. Thirty-six degrees was as low as it dipped.

I wimped out and didn't hang my laundry outside today. More of that cold wind again along with very little sun and air temperature staying in the 40s. (I did feel some guilt pangs when my daughter mentioned that she hung a load of clothes out on her lines.) Hey, I think I've paid my dues and can enjoy my easy laundry days now. There were many, many years when I didn't have an automatic washer or dryer at home. For a while I did the laundromat thing for washing, then brought everything home to either dry outside in decent weather or hang on drying racks inside in the winter.

Then when I couldn't stand hauling everything to town anymore, we invested in a James Washer. (If you're interested, Google it. They still make them and they are wonderful.) This handy-dandy little piece of equipment is a hand-operated washing machine and I used (and loved) it for years. I even got so that I could use the agitating handle and read a book at the same time. It didn't solve the clothes drying situation but not having to go to the laundromat was the thing I grew to really, really dislike, and having the James Washer at home solved that problem.

When we had the restaurant, we put an automatic washer and dryer in the basement for the business laundry, so then I would bring my home laundry in to do once a week. (I wasn't home enough hours to use the James Washer!) Now I'm living the life of luxury since we built our current place thirteen years ago and installed my very own, right in the bathroom, handy-as-all-get-out, in-home washer and dryer. Heaven! But I still enjoy hanging clothes out on my clothes lines. Just not so much when it's so dang cold I get frostbite on my fingers. Been there, done that.

How did I get off on that tangent? I truly had every intention of posting this picture of my Leopard's Bane and not writing much at all today.

These bright, chirky guys are the first to blossom in the spring. Although the flowers don't last very long, the leaves form a lush, deep green mound for the rest of the summer.

Happy June 1st, happy Monday, happy first of a brand-spanking new week. Hope yours is filled with pleasant hours . . . and sunshine. And some warm weather.