Laundry as Loss Consultant

I'm doing laundry in my little rental house now, as a way to relieve the stress of moving, of dust, of January, of everything. Here's some ways that laundry can soothe the sould.

The next photo is a still life I call "Laundry and Bike" -- I think it's Mathew's. (His name really only has one "t") The globe is important, too, because you never know when you'll need one. I think today's blogging is getting out of control, and the dryer is beeping. I do put some things in the dryer -- for a little while.

Grammy Darning

It's been a long time. I'm still struggling with the thesis plans. Lots happening. Sore neck and shoulder. But this is a great photo, and I wanted to start back into blogging with something wonderful.

Can you imagine all those socks getting a new life at the nimble fingers of my grandmother?

I still do mending for my family, but holey socks go in the trash. At least Jackson's cotton ones. I guess I might darn a nice wool sock.

A New Degas!

Well, new to me, anyway. I had no idea that I'd missed this absolutely gorgeous Degas laundress painting -- thanks to Eavan Boland's poem, I found it. Here's the poem:

Degas's Laundresses

You rise, you dawn

roll-sleeved Aphrodite,

out of a camisol brine,

a linen pit of stiches,

silking the fitten sheets

away from you like waves.

You seam dreams in the folds

of wash from which freshes

the whiff and reach of fields

where it bleached and stiffened.

Your chat's sabbatical:

brides, wedding outfits,

a pleasure of leisured women

are sweated into the folds,

the neat heaps of linen.

Now the drag of the clasp.

Your wrists basket your waist.

You round to the square weight.

Wait. There behind you.

A man. There behind you.

Whatever you do don't turn.

Why is he watching you?

Whatever you do don't turn.

Whatever you do don't turn.

See he takes his ease

staking his easel so,

slowly sharpening charcoal,

closing his eyes just so,

slowly smiling as if

so slowly he is

unbandaging his mind.

Surely a good laundress

would understand its twists,

its white turns,

its blind designs --

it's your winding sheet.

Socks on a Rock

Stella spent 14 days in Montana on a great Outward Bound adventure. She took lots of gorgeous photos, even one of her laundry drying on a boulder, which just goes to show how much she loves her mother.

I'm working myself into a thesis topic about Eavan Boland's poetry -- something about how she uses domestic images -- an aesthetic or political choice?

Dick Cavett on Depression and ... Socks!

First of all, it's hard to get back from vacation. I'm certainly back in body, but my mind doesn't seem to be completely cooperating. This could take a while.

Second, a friend sent me a great hilarious column from the NY Times, Dick Cavett commenting on depression (ick) and socks (funny) and also (I do not lie) on finding humor "there" as well as can be expected. I love the idea of a depressed person somehow pulling his socks up and just getting over it all -- boy, I wish that had worked for me. Sure be cheaper than doctors and drugs (and phone bills to friends, the poor patient wonderful friends).

I don't think I have a photo of a depressed person pulling her socks up to post, but I do have a great picture of my daughter with her outrageous socks pulled all the way up -- definitely not depressed. She's still in Montana and I miss her a lot a lot. So, here's her picture. (You have to look closely to see the socks. She's sitting on a dead tree stump in the middle of a geyser crater in Yellowstone Nat'l Park. I don't know why she hikes in knee socks. What a great gal.) If you click on the photo you can see a close up of her beautiful face and socks.

Laundry from the Road

In Livingston Montana I spotted this laundromat, Off the Cuff. There are many many many of these wonderful homespun laundrys in all these smaller towns. I saw one somewhere else (Wyoming?) called The Missing Sock. I wish I'd started taking photos of them sooner. Still on vacation but home again this weekend.

On Vacation

Bye for now -- a funny thing about vacations -- I still do as much laundry when I'm away from home as I do all the time -- I need less soap in Tahoe (softer water) -- wonder what the water is like in Montana. (Montana Ghost Towns Photography)