Wednesday, October 23, 2013

A Fall Walk around the Cotton Field

I got my flu shot yesterday and my arm hurt this morning, so I skipped my morning swim in the pool.  Instead, this afternoon, I walked around the cotton field.  It's about a mile and a half, but takes some detours and dodging to make it all the way around.  
The cotton is ready for harvest, with the bolls splitting open to reveal the soft cotton inside.  Although machinery goes all around the field, weeds had grown pretty high in some places.  Cutting through the field isn't an option - cotton has thorns!
So I detoured through the volunteer corn field, where new corn plants have come up in the residue of the corn harvest.
Both corn and cotton harvests leave so much waste that it's hard to imagine how they harvest anything at all.
The path between the goldenrod weeds and the cotton field is quite overgrown with weeds, so I kept a careful eye out for snakes (hoping to see one in the distance) but I never saw any sign of a snake.
Some of the weeds look like little Sputniks with little balls with spikes that jump off the bush onto your clothes if you get too close.
Some have pods that look like Japanese beans - when dry, they pop open and spread seeds far and wide.
Some are just covered with seeds waiting to hitch a ride on anything that passes by.
Along one side of the cotton field, wild pig tracks riddled the area.
Lots of hoof tracks - deer?  pigs?
Second half of the walk is along the road, where all the pretty domestic flowers are so pretty.
Confederate Rose
Canna Lilies
Roses
Lantana
Snapdragons
and many more.  Lovely day for a walk - breezy and warm, with lots of sun, but not too hot.

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