Tuesday, August 26

Looking Forward

I think it’s called displacement or is it deferral? Anyway instead if tackling a pile of ironing I baked a cake-
Pineapple Upside-down Cake.
If it comes out badly cover it with custard and if it comes out well take some photos and blog it!

I am so happy now August is almost over…..September and October are my favourite months – well Autumn really; a few more weeks and I might be able to get away with lighting up the wood burner!
Because of the huge increase in fuel prices I am going to see how long I can keep away from using my tumble dryer. I know most eco aware people are probably crossing themselves when they hear mention of a tumble dryer but if you don’t want your house looking like a Chinese laundry and it’s pouring with rain outside then what can you do?
I have bought myself a new clothes horse and plan do dry things out in my lean-to as much as is possible but clothes can and do go musty if you can’t dry them quickly and that defeats the whole point of washing them doesn’t it?
At the end of my road a new development of luxury flats have been built….but the sadness of it is there is no provision for drying washing outside….some of the new owners in the social block have been hanging washing over their balconies which looks awful but if there is nowhere else for them to dry their laundry what can they do?

22 comments:

  1. I read a newsppaper article a couple on months ago - which may of course be tosh - about some places in the US where you weren't allowed to line dry washing at all, even if you had the space.
    I don't have a tumble drier (but might get one if and when we ever get the building work done) and therefore do the Chinese laundry look rather well - and the shouting at people for wearing things once (or sometimes not at all) and putting them in the wash because it is easier than hanging them up.
    Everyone does their own washing in this house but that seems to make the problem worse rather than better.
    Your cake looks very lovely
    J
    x

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  2. Oh I am sooo hungry!

    We use a dryer in this house precisely because it looked just like a laundry with clothes dripping off the rads. It makes the house very damp and so that is not good for your health. Unfortuntely the dryer has bust and we haven't got a line at the mo (broken also) plus it rains...a lot. Oh all too depressing and we are back to the laundry look xx

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  3. Anonymous6:27 PM

    Line drying is better than you think. It is almost always better to hang your washing out. Strangely enough, rain does not always make your washing very wet. It is often worth pegging out on a day with occasional showers, as nine times out of ten your washing is still drier, you can then finish it off in the house chinese laundry style, or if desperate give it a final tumble in your drier. It always makes it smell great too.

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  4. Karen - we must have wetter rain here in Scotland! Or perhaps I am worse at bringing it in - we used to have a house with great banisters where the washing would dry beautifully draped around the top. Now in a bungalow.

    J
    x

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  5. Gorgeous looking cake there!

    I have got an old fashioned wooden pully up clothes drier, you know the sort on a rope. It is in our utility room along with the gas boiler, so basically the clothes dry over night...she says with an air of smugness ;-)

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  6. We (like hens teeth) have a 'rack' in the kitchen, so drying clothes has to be timed with the cooking if you don't want them smelling of garlic/curry/ect! I grew up with one and would never be without. The ceilings are high in our house and clothes dry very quickly without heat.

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  7. I do know how to spell 'etc'honest.

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  8. Yummy looking cake! Is it me or is every one having a yucky weather summer this year, I don't think it matters where you live, everyone is complaining about it.

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  9. Anonymous9:28 PM

    You know the trauma involving four pairs of linen trousers, my husband and a tumble drier....it wasn't pretty. The 'N'. XX I can't eat Pineapple.....but coconut is fine in case you were wondering.

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  10. Where have you been all my life Gigibird. You need to be put on my blog roll as soon as blogging possible!

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  11. Oh yes me too, I've had enough of summer now and want to get cosy at home and into autumnal clothes....
    I'm also trying not to use my tumble dryer, I only use it anyway to dry towels/socks pants etc, but with 4 people living in a small house drying the washing is a challenge. Whilst I have a clothes horse which stands on the landing, sometimes I can't fit everything on and find myself draping laundry over the banister. It drives me mad! But with rising fuel costs I'm far more cost conscious and really don't want to switch that dryer on.

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  12. yum yum to the cake! I'm licking my lips here! I don't have a drier....and I don't know where Karen Lizzie lives, but cornish rain is very wet, just like scottish rain. Really depends on the day and the wind. And I love autumn...cosy evenings, settling in a comfy chair with a book/knitting/crafty project. Bliss! Love the corsages in the post below.

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  13. 1. awesome cake lynn...you are my baking-guru!

    2. no tumble drier in our house. although i occasionally dream of warm bouncey smelling towels i manage with a rather mouldy looking clothes horse (must buy a new one). love pegging out + do as much as possible. my grandma taught me well! you got me thinking back to our early couple years in damp manchester...living with other students + drying laundry on radiators? nightmare!!!!

    3. i'm with you on the autumn love. actually wishing down the days to a new season which i feel bad about in a way. we're stocking up on wood + even building a special store place for. (well ciaran + mate when they get round to it)

    4. i am strangely beginning to love ironing...crazy i know! i have started doing it as soon as i bring in the washing off the line (a bit damp) + listen again to radio 4 progs on the internet.

    xxx

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  14. That cake looks superb Lynn, any left...?

    I'm a peg it out on the line girl, always have been. I'm keen to get one of these ceiling pulley things, my nana had one and it was good for airing off. But with low ceilings in our little cottage I'm not quite sure where it'll go...?

    Yesterday almost felt like the first day of Autumn here, there was just that feeling in the air, like change was on it's way. Today it's sunny in between the showers so the washing is out on the line! We've had the fire lit a few times over the summer, mad really but if it's dreich there's nothing beats it. Wood chopping is the big chore of the moment, our wood shed is looking rather good at the moment.

    L x

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  15. Anonymous9:53 AM

    I would love a bowl of that right now with lots of custard! mmmmm

    Actually I would make one but I don't have any cherries! It somehow seems wrong to make it withoout..

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  16. When I can I use the line in the summer, but confess to using the tumble in the winter, although I just half dry and then put on the clothes airer to finish off, I find this works OK. When we had the flat there was a communal area but not many used it. I did, but on a couple of occasions had items stolen would you believe! Now off to have another drool at your upside-down pudding, too late for a slice, I daresay! x

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  17. That upside down cake looks delish!

    My kitchen regularly looks like a chinese laundry which drives me crazy but with 6 of us in the house and no tumble dryer I have to use airers over the aga when it rains.

    I too love autumn, knitwear, yummmy

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  18. Anonymous8:26 PM

    Delicious looking cake! I have a pulley in the kitchen (one of the advantages of living in an old Glasgow tenement are the very high ceilings) which is great as it always seems to be raining in Scotland! I do have a drying green in the back garden but never use it as I am always worried that someone will nick my washing. Paranoid? Moi?

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  19. I've only had to dry clothes in the dryer twice this summer! I've had a few loads that got rained on but they dried after that. Most of America allows line drying--probably just posh places with inflated ideas of self-importance forbid it.

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  20. Anonymous9:29 AM

    I have given you an award - please pop over and collect when you get a chance. No, this is not a cunning way of getting a bit of that cake. But if you wanted to send some over..............

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  22. Hey! Are you trying to sabotage my diet? I've been 'good' all day - but now ... Just discovered your blog - like it a lot and will visit again. My guilty secret is that I've got a tumble drier and use it once a week 'cause I haven't got space for a clothes line. But do try to take the most of the wet out first.

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