Central Plateau, North Island

Central Plateau, North Island
View from a friend's farm

Wednesday 29 August 2012

A Learning Curve

Night sky at 1005 metres asl
Night Sky, taken high in the hills above the Central Plateau in the North Island,New Zealand.
Here it is, my name on my photo, thanks to Jim at Ocean Breezes. in Nova Scotia. Picasa made it so easy, after many hours of trying with PSE7, GIMP ( I gave up on this one) and others. Last year I detailed the quilters’ guide to spring cleaning.This year it will be “ Goldfish pond repairs and maintenance” and photos will follow when the week is over. Many hours with bucket, waterproof pants, emptying out the last water, and then the ‘SMELLY SLUDGE”. Needless to say, the working clothes get hosed off, rinsed again, then into the washing machine each night. Did our pioneer ladies do this all by hand,  chop the wood, light the copper, use a hand wringer??? I remember a copper, concrete twin  tubs and a hand wringer similar to  these  when I was  a child, at TeHihi, South Auckland. Light the copper, bucket the water to a concrete tub, the whites had a second rinse in cold water,that had a “ Blue Bag” dipped into the water to make sure the “ whites were white”. Dad cut the bigger wood, my Mum had a wonderful little hatchet, perfect for cutting the kindling.Today I can rinse them off, put them in the machine, hot water on tap,  and walk away.Have all these wonderful appliances made us soft, or do we really need them as we cope with modern day life and all its business???
copper in 1900's
handwringer
Quotation of the day, a Chinese Proverb
“Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere”
Cheers from Jean

9 comments:

Nancy J said...

I can see there still needs to be some "learning" but for now I can be very happy, thanks again Jim, Cheers from jean.

Lindsjö taxar said...

Beautiful picture.....I´m working on why my new picture is not to see in blogg followers,m Friend Connect

Brit said...

Det er ingen vei tilbake når man først har fått nye hjelpemidler : vaskemaskin, oppvaskmaskin, mobil tlf og ikke minst pc :)) Men jeg tror ikke vi har fått bedre tid selv med alle hjelpemidlene / Brit

Michaele said...

That must be something like cleaning a giant fish bowl. I always hated that. I can imagine the smell at the bottom. I will enjoy the photos though : )

Michaele said...

Oh! Congrats on the watermark : )

Nancy J said...

Hi to you all, thanks Michaele, yes I am so,so happy to have mastered the watermark, need to enlarge or re-colour it, a HUGE fishbowl,Lindsjo, love the new photo, Brit, all mod cons, are we really better off, or the more we have,the better we want to be.Photos of pond to follow when all finished!!!.Fond greetings, Jean.

Jim said...

I remember my mother using an electric wringer-washer and using a 'scrub-board' for those stubborn stains. As I got a little older I was allowed to put the clothes through the wringer....I loved doing this!!

I am all one for 'moving ahead' and all that but I wonder if we are forgetting the benefits of having to use physical strength to do the housework. I think the proof is in the pudding with the rising incidents of healthcare related illnesses.

Glad the 'watermark' worked. It looks great!

Tanya said...

I am blog visiting today. It looks like you are having fun with your camera! I am s-l-o-w-l-y learning things on mine but I probably will never get into Photoshop...

Ah spring cleaning. I really ought to get off this computer and go wash the screens. It might even be refreshing in all this heat!

Gayle said...

I am really excited for a walk through of the gold fish pond. I want to build one and am having problems getting started. So many options...