Clotheslines

There has been much controversy in cities across North America about clotheslines. Many places have banned them, while others are beginning to promote their use in order to save energy. Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, clotheslines are still a common sight.

Today I chose two photos taken in Belloram during my trip to the Coast of Bays on the Connaigre Peninsula. The first shows a clothesline just beneath the deck of a house that faced the ocean. There were a couple of people there and they were curious about why I would want to photograph a clothesline. When I explained that in some places clotheslines were banned, they laughed and thought I was joking. They explained that drying clothes outside is part of life in rural communities in this part of the province. I photographed quite a few clotheslines there during my trip.

The second photo shows a clothesline with codfish drying instead of clothes. This is a new phenomenon that I have seen in a few communities. Years ago, when there were lots of fish, people dryed them on "flakes" (A fish flake is a platform built on poles and spread with boughs for drying cod-fish on the foreshore of fishing villages and small towns in rural Newfoundland, Canada. Spelling variations for fish flake in Newfoundland include flek, fleyke, fleake, flaik and fleack. Its first recorded use in connection with fishing appeared in Richard Whitbourne's book Newfoundland (1623, p. 57), but these days, there are few fish and fisherpersons have found new ways of drying them.

I have a gallery of clotheslines photos at: http://lanephotography.com/clotheslines/clothes_lines.htm

As well, if you search for clotheslines in my blog, you'll find a few more photos including another with cod drying.