Why I Do Laundry When It Rains

Last Friday, it rained all day. And I spent most of the day doing laundry. It took me a while to remember why I'm so conditioned to think rain = laundry: It's because we lived in Bermuda for 7 years.

Did I ever tell y'all that? I don't think I did, so today I'll share a little bit about Bermuda life. Don't worry - there will be dog pics. (Apologies though: I didn't have a great camera back then, and the images here are snapped with my phone from my photo album. There are some lovely photos of Bermuda on their tourism Pinterest page.)

There are many interesting things about Bermuda, but today I'm focusing on the roofs. Yes, the roofs. They're very pretty - a nice, crisp white, which looks lovely against the greenery of the island and the bright colors of the houses themselves.

Pastel-colored house, white roof, lush landscape? Yep, that's Bermuda!

There's no natural source for fresh water in Bermuda other than the rain, so their very unique roofs are made of local limestone, and grooved to funnel rain into each home's underground cistern. They paint them with a special non-toxic white-wash every few years.

This ceramic Bermudian house gives you an idea what the roofs are like

The water under your house is all you've got. If there's not a ton of rain, you might have to buy water, and a truck will come and drop off a load for you. When it rains a ton (which can be often!), you have more water than you know what to do with and your cistern overflows.

This is "Bluebird Cottage," one of the many places I lived there. (The houses all have names.)

Thus, when it's really rainy, you do laundry! (And maybe even take a bath - which is an unheard of waste of water at any other time!)

It would be cool if other countries followed suit, since it's a great way to collect water, but then, here in So Cal, we don't get enough rain for it to be worth the effort/maintenance.

Okay... I promised dogs... It wasn't easy to bring a dog to the island then (in the 90s, but maybe that's changed?), and there were only a few types of dogs bred there (as far as I know they were all backyard-breeder-types). So as much as the hubs and I wanted a dog, it wasn't to be.

But... we did have this lovely German shepherd pup who would visit us when we worked out in the garage of one place the hubs lived.

He was so sweet!

And once we were dog pawrents for a day! This pup showed up outside our house in the wee hours, crying like crazy. We named him Kona* and fell in love, but by the end of the day we'd found his owners. Boo.

(And, yes, the hubs is wearing shorts - Bermuda shorts, 'natch - with knee socks and a shirt & tie in that photo. That's what men wear to work there - I kid you not.)

Although we lived there a long time, I don't honestly miss Bermuda - except in the spring and at Easter. That's when the weather is the best, and on Good Friday, everyone goes to the beach and flies kites. Not just any ol' kite either - they spend a lot of time hand-making really pretty kites. If you ever want to go, I'd definitely suggest visiting in the spring!

* Yes, THIS is the Kona that the dog in What the Dog Ate is named after.

Hope you enjoyed this little visit to Bermuda!

Thanks to BlogPaws for hosting Wordless Wednesday! Thanks for letting me be wordy! You can check out all the blogs in the hop here.