This

won't get any emptier

And neither will this

This won't get full:

And this won't get emptier either:

Why, you ask? Because look what happened:

Can't REALLY see, other than a few odd angles?  let me show you how I found it, early one morning:

Do you see NOW?!

Investigations into the mysterious new angle of my somewhat vintage clothesline have revealed that three children plus that pesky spare kid may have something to do with its rakish angle,  late the previous afternoon. Intense gruelling of suspect #3 have revealed that "the big girls did it". Further investigations and interviewing of suspect #1 have shed more light on proceedings, especially on the matter of the carefully edited narration of events by #3, suggesting he (#3)  had no role in illicit activities.  Furthermore, suspect #2 has suggested that in fact the whole thing was #3's idea.

(which leads Chief Investigator to enquire on the wisdom of Suspects #1, #2 and that pesky spare kid #4 in following the suggestions of the youngest, the four year old #3!)

Pesky spare kid suspect #4 has been invited on a sleepover at her earliest convenience at which time she and her fellow felons will be undertaking bindy picking and unsavoury tasks of that nature. However, mother of said pesky child (who, it has to be said, was quite unsympathetic and laughed hysterically at the tale) has said pesky child is unavailable for sleepover due to a previous fencing commitment, however due punishment will be dished out in the form of exceptionally early and rather nasty cold mornings. This sounds like a rather fitting form of retribution for my own children, however due to the fact that I myself am not overly fond of exceptionally early and rather nasty cold mornings, will continue along the bindy picking or NO TV path.

Postscript:  Clothesline now returned to its former level glory, thanks to the husband and my un-idle threats of great marital disharmony should it not be fixed before he drove away that morning.