At last: a sunny day with lighter winds—a day on which to wash windows.
Windows are vital to enjoying our cabin’s view, of course, but they also provide light in the cabin while protecting us from the brunt of the winter winds. These blow in plenty of sea spray, rain, and airborne crud—dust, spruce needles, even animal fur and bird feathers. Since we rarely have opportunity to clean them during the cold months, we look forward to washing windows on the first decent, warm day of spring.
Happiness is a clean window! (Photo: Mark Zeiger).
This winter’s accumulation seems far worse than usual. In particular, the smaller window on the cabin front (as opposed to the two big picture windows on the side facing the ocean) became so grimy, it appeared to be frosted. That would not do. The hummingbirds have gathered, and begun their mating dances. Whales cruise the coast more frequently, waiting for the herring to arrive; migrating songbirds crowd the dooryard; we even have a river otter wandering the yards lately. We need to see outside!
Washing our windows isn’t easy. The uneven terrain around the cabin makes it difficult to set a ladder properly, and our most important windows are all high enough that, standing on the ground, I can only reach the bottom few feet of them, at best.
I confess that I rushed the job a bit today. I didn’t get the windows as spotless as I would like. Even so, I see 100% improvement now—in addition to a whole lot of view we’ve been missing lately.