Pickled Laundry

   Australians really love their polyester clothing. Difficult to comprehend, especially during the very hot summers, but this is as it is.  Kev has his share of  poly and poly blend tops which, along with being pique knit, are serious lint magnets.  Regardless of how the pullovers are washed or what with, they come out quite furry.  This then takes quite a bit of brushing as all of our clothing is dried on the clothesline on the back porch and not in a dryer.  A colleague suggested that I put white vinegar in the rinse cycle as a lint deterrent.  It reduces the amount of lint on the clothing and no, your clothes won't smell vinegary.  Pickle the laundry?  I tried it again today and there does seem to be some improvement.

   It certainly doesn't have an Australiana kind of sound to it, I thought later as I was handwashing a party dress. But the delicate fabric washing  liquid does.   It harnesses the natural cleaning power of eucalyptus, ballyhoos the label.  So many cleaning products make the same assurances to homemakers from coast to coast.  Eucalyptus extract is the OZ equivalent of  North America's  orange oil.  And why not, it grows on trees around here. Ha ha ha ha. (sorry.)

   Tonight we may have another opportunity to employ native, Aboriginal-ly, natural-type home remedy to mosquitoes.  We've got those green, clay-like rings that you burn like incense that is supposed repel mosquitoes, but I doubt their efficacy.  A few whiffs of that noxious, toxic smoke and you are more likely to feel your DNA shifting than witnessing mosquitoes in full retreat.  Again, we head to the trees.  This time sandalwood comes to the rescue.  Natives in the bush have long burned sandalwood  as a defense against "mozzies".  Fortunately, and with  greeny pride, a company in WA collects fallen sandalwood from the ground and process it into over-sized incense sticks.  These garden spears do a credible job deterring skeeters with a far more pleasant scent.

   Now to find a tree that will take the laundry off the line....