Spring!?

    
Well, I think...I hope spring has sprung, at least here in north Idaho.

The croci (I looked it up and croci is a proper plural, plus it’s cuter than crocuses) are blooming and groups of yellow daffodils are blazing around town like spots of earthbound sunshine.  The trees are just beginning to leaf out.  I love the way they’re bare one day then a day or two later fresh new leaves suddenly pop out.

Maybe I’m weird (my family would probably agree), but spring makes me think of fresh laundry hanging outside in the warm sunshine, flapping gently in a warm summer breeze. 

When I was a kid growing up in Alaska, we didn’t have a clothes dryer so Mom had to hang our laundry out to dry.  In winter she hung it inside on lines Dad strung in the utility room.  In the spring she hauled it all outside to hang on the sturdy lines in the back yard; sometimes so early in the spring that the wet fabric would freeze before the sun warmed the air enough for it to dry.  We used to joke about Mom freeze-drying our clothes.

One of the first things I asked my husband for after we moved here was a clothesline.  He may have thought I was crazy, but he made one for me.          

                                                                    Summer Colors

I love the excuse to be in the great outdoors, but I think the real reason I like to hang my laundry outside is because not only does the fresh, sweet smell and the crisp feel of sun-and-breeze-dried fabric remind me of summer and my childhood, to me they represent the comforts of home and the importance of family.