(as usual, click to enlarge photos and links appear in a different color from the regular text)
Cotton fields near Hazel Green, Alabama.
Most of the fields around Huntsville have already been picked and baled, many of the bales already transported to cotton gins for processing. I was lucky to catch these unpicked fields on the way up to Fayetteville, Tennessee this morning.
This was taken in the parking lot of the gas station across the road from this cotton field. Sorry for the lack of clarity. I lose a bit when I zoom in with my cell phone camera. [I really need a good DSLR camera--oh, well--Have iPhone, Will photograph] As a spinner, I really would like to run over and pick a few bolls and take them home to spin. I generally do not pick field cotton because I have no idea about how long all the chemical residue lasts that is sprayed on the fields to defoliate the plants before picking. I do have a limited source for what I suppose you could term "organic" cotton because the grower does not apply any herbicides, pesticides, or defoliants to her crop. She usually grows a small patch for school children to pick during the October Farm Days that they host. I got a whole Target bag full last year when I volunteered at the event. I was unable to volunteer this year due to family obligations.
I love the intense blue of the sky in this photo. You can see a little of the colors of the trees in the background. Had I been paying attention to the entire frame, I might have been able to compose a really nice photo with the autumn colors, the blue sky, and the white cotton, but I was mostly focused on the cotton. This is the same field as the one in the smaller photo above, made from the gas station.
beautiful cotton fields!
ReplyDeletei like driving past the cotton fields...and esp after they've been picked...and you can see fluffs of cotton floating across the road.
love the second to last picture with the BIG COTTON BALLS in the sky!!
When I worked at the museum, I often had bolls of cotton to show visitors. So many of them had never seen cotton in that form before and were always amazed. When folks would come before the fields around here had been picked, they always commented on how beautiful cotton in the field looked.
Delete((our 'emo' looks a lot like pascal, on your side bar!)) pascal = pants??!
Deletelovely photos you have done there!beautiful area!
ReplyDeleteThere are some really pretty places in Alabama, but my home state of Tennessee beats it in my opinion, except for the beaches. lol!
DeleteNice cotton fields...already a blur in my memory. haha We have plenty of fields up here and I remember my grandpa saying we had beautiful fields of soy beans in our area (it only took me about 40 years to realize what he was talking about!) Cotton and soy are the main things I use for my crafty things so I'm thankful for both...and the realization that there is beauty, even in fields.
ReplyDeleteSmile today. :)
Yep. I have some shots of the fields down by Ditto Landing. The owner alternates cotton and soy, so one or two years you get lovely white fields and another, like this year, you get "amber waves" of soy. :)
DeleteHazel Green. Been there! I think one of BL's brother's had a pick-ur-own farm there once.
ReplyDeleteThe place has really grown since you were probably here. Lots of houses and businesses. It and Meridianville are beginning to sort of ooze together.
DeleteMy grandmother's house was in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of cotton fields. I remember how beautiful they were when the snow white heads of the cotton opened.
ReplyDeleteIt must be neat to have a house in the middle of the fields like that. I still see one now and then, but must of the fields around here are fast becoming subdivisions. Where I grew up in the northern part of Middle Tennessee, I don't think anyone grew cotton--growing season wasn't quite long enough. These days they've probably developed short-season cottons that would work. When I was a kid, it was mostly corn and tobacco farming along with cattle and hogs.
ReplyDeleteSomehow I missed this blog posting from you last week. Odd, but I can't send emails, either, so not so veryyyy odd.
ReplyDeleteAs a child in Texas, my dad grew cotton on our dry farm and I remember seeing cotton just like that. We had migrant pickers, and I have memories of trying to pick cotton and it hurting my fingers.
All this computer stuff can be very trying sometimes. I have been remiss in keeping up with folks posts for a while now, but mostly because I don't get to them, time constraints, etc. I'm missing some good ones, but keep trying to catch up.
DeletePicking cotton by hand is not much fun. Can't imagine having to "pick a bale a day."