Come Wash Dishes with Me

Let me tell you why I don't mind hand washing my dishes.  I've been washing dishes since I was a girl and it was one of the chores that was shared with my two older sisters.  The house I have now used to have a dishwasher, but it became aged and not energy efficient at all.  Considering the high cost of dishwashers, we decided to not replace it.

Now, right above my kitchen sink is a window that overlooks our side yard and drive way.    About four yards out from the window is a beautiful forsythia bush that has just bloomed.  Right behind the forsythia is our driveway, running parallel to the house.  About five yards beyond the driveway is our neighbors yard and house.  Between our house and the forsythia bush is a perennial garden that is home to irises, purple cone flowers, sun drops, blue flax, chives, brown-eyed Susan, lavender, peonies, lilies,  and some other pretties.  To the left of my view of the garden is a small stone bench that was a gift from my children several years back for Mother's Day.  About a foot to the left of that is a white flowering dogwood tree.  Now, this little side yard is visited, all day long, by a variety of birds:  mourning doves, sparrows, blue jays, red-winged black birds, cow birds, grackle, juncos, and cardinals, mostly.  We have a squirrel that likes to jump into the dogwood tree via the roof of the house and in the evening and early morning a little grey bunny comes to visit.  Sometimes the neighbor's chickens even pop over for a visit, too.

To the right of this scene is a glimpse of the road that is at the front of the house.  There is a sidewalk on the far side of the road, and people from the nearby side roads are walking, jogging, or riding bicycles.  My little beagle/basset, Hank is closely monitoring this activity from the large picture window in the next room.
As I stand at the sink and carefully wash and rinse every dish, bowl, utensil, and coffee mug (we are huge coffee drinkers!!), I am so drawn to the outside via this small window, that washing dishes doesn't even feel like a chore.  Rain or shine, snow or wind, there is always something to behold in this view.

I have also mastered the art of placing the washed dishes just so in the drainer that they will air dry without me having to towel dry them.  There is quite a feeling of satisfaction knowing that I can get the dishes so high and balanced so precariously that it's like a puzzle.  Usually, my husband will put the dry dishes away.  Not too long ago, he began helping with the dish washing, and I've noticed that he also spends a lot of that time gazing out the window.

Thank you for spending this time with me, and I hope you could see the view that I see through my kitchen window, through your mind's eye.