Adventures in Washing

The watercolour above shows the little church in the village of Olden which is situated at the end of a Fjord about 23 miles long? I stood on the side of the road to paint this. I could probably have stood in the road as I think we only saw about 2 vehicles.
I think I have mentioned that Alex is away with our daughter so Jac and I are having to make do. I am pretty much an organised person so my days are planned in my early morning walk. I have been walking the dog and breakfasting until about 7.30am and then doing a couple of hours domestic chores!
When Alex left there was a huge pile of washing as we had been away. Now fortunately I am a modern man (well modern for the 1950's) so this was not a daunting task. My first memories of washing day were as a child turning the great mangle for my mother while she ran the clothes through it. My next experience was as a single man. Things were a bit more practical then, two shirts and seven collars would last a week. You only needed to iron the front top of the shirt as that was all that  was in view. Trousers were different I could spend 20 minutes getting a razor sharp crease in my trousers and using soap to rub on the inside seam to hold the crease. Anyway I digress.
I found the washing machine and plumped for setting "D" as it was in the middle. I couldn't find any powder.
On closer inspection in the cupboard I found washing liquid? Easy a splash of that four loads later and I was in to the ironing. The iron was temperamental. Fortunately I started on bedding not Alex's dresses as no matter what I did it was hot enough to melt solder (or the bed linen). It also had steam ! ( in my previous experience I had put a wet tea towel over the clothes). Jac decided to leave the room as  the smell of singed cotton was beginning to make him sneeze. I finally got the iron to a temperature that didn't start fires and turned off the steam. I made my way through the mountain until in the last washing basket I found a blue ball in the bottom. I think I was meant to put the liquid in that on reflection? Anyway who will know?
Yes I am a modern man although you can say I wear the trousers in this house. You can say it, but it isn't true. Alex just lets me think that!
Ah now to do some painting and this afternoon teaching.