Southern Cotton...

 

They are just a little way down the road from us - two large fields, one on each side of the road. I wasn't sure what was in it when we first moved here, (I'm used to cows and corn, and more recently, sugar cane) but as it turns out, they were cotton fields, and there is a lot of cotton in this town.

 

Driving out towards Williston and White Pond, I noticed at least one historical site sign of a plantation that was up ahead. And if you talk to Dean at the donut shop, he'll give you a pretty good idea of some of the history of the area.  

Its one place I've yet to actually visit, an old plantation.  Many of the original ones are either gone -the casualties of war, are now equestrian centers or museums.

Though, these fields, and there are still plenty around, line the road, white buds of cotton standing out from the sea of leafy green. But cotton in this area did have its close call, during the civil war.

Cotton began its life in this area in 1845, when a cotton mill was built not far from Aiken, by a man called William Gregg, in a village called Graniteville, which as you may have guessed, is named aptly for the granite that was quarried there. During the war, it was very nearly burned to the ground, which was the fate of a few towns in the area as the Union army marched through. Though, as the story goes, the Confederate army was larger than expected, and instead of burning the ground, the Union army retreated. 

That mill survived and it still being used since the first cloth came off the loom in 1848.  And it seems cotton is thriving here. 

Though I have to admit, I was starting to wonder when they would actually harvest it.  I received my answer about 2 weeks or so ago, they wait until the plants have died down before stripping the cotton. The plants are then plowed back into the ground for fertilizer.

It was surprising to still see a few flowers on the plants when I first visited the field, as most of the cotton pods had already opened.

 

These were I think, the last remaining 2 or 3, small buttery flowers left, they're similar to roses.

How much cotton actually comes from those pods is pretty impressive too.  The cotton ball from the boll (yep, boll) are deceivingly large!  Each boll has approximately 8-9 seeds from which linseed oil can be made, or they are used for the next crop.

This was cotton from half a boll, I have in my hand.  This one below actually. One boll also makes about 12' of yarn. 

Cotton, and an interesting history. Though having investigated cotton, it did bring up an interesting history on a few other towns near Aiken. I now have to go and research White Pond.  I had wondered what that very old overgrown building was as we drove past...

Wandering...

And so in July, we ended up here, in South Carolina.

Who would have known that a young Aussie girl would have met her future husband  in a country that was only dreamed of being in, but never thought possible.

A kid that a visions of becoming a Paleoarcheologist (if there is any such thing), and used to hang out at the local creek of an area, nothing more than a hamlet, to look for coal and fossils. And as luck would have it, it was a hamlet with its own old story, complete with the remnants of old wagons and a wooden bridge that probably saw that wagon cross a hundred times in the past. 

And then of course there was Mr Burke senior at one of the dairies whom I wrote about in The Darling Downs, Cows and Forbidden Milk, and Mrs Donovan who had grown up in the area and seen I think, quite a bit of what it used to look like before the cyclone came in and blew it all away.  It was Mrs Donovan's parents who owned the old wagon. Course, that hamlet now is a booming town, and the old residents have sadly passed on.

Moving wasn't an unusual thing for my family growing up.  Dad being in the Australian Air Force, it was more my parents who moved, as by the time I was 10, Dad had done his 21 years and retired, moving into the car repair business.  Even still, we'd moved to two different locations in one state and then an additional move to a new state, before settling in at the little hamlet we called home for the next 8 years.

It was then, a few short years later that I started writing, in this little town, a block 2 miles long, the creek, a small school when we arrived, with 46 kids in it. I began writing to penpals all over the world.  One of them was my husband to be.  Who knew?  My writing continued after we moved to another town, a small town towards the outback.. I guess. There was nothing much there, and 5 hrs drive to the nearest big town, so it was close enough to the outback for me!

It was just a few years after that, I moved to the US, wandering (or living in) and visiting a number of different locations.  Kentucky was the first place I'd seen on arriving.  Green, lush and beautiful.  Something entirely different from the Eucalyptus and parched ground I'd been walking around in just a few days before, looking again, for fossils, only by now, I'd actually found some. A large boned mammal, possibly a very large kangaroo species.

This is where our wandering began, for the most part around the Midwest. Who knew it was going to continue for me after I'd left home. If my mind was to consider the possibility of fate vs chance, I'd say that I was previously being prepared for it.  After now quite a few years, and 7 states with 2 kids, we'd settled in South Carolina, in a cotton growing town that has a little civil war history, an area the well to do were known to escape to from the long, hot and humid summers of Savannah, Georgia, post civil war.  History, my absolute love of it has placed me in a position to really investigate the area, just as it did when we had been living in Texas, but a history quite a bit different.  

So is this the dream I had growing up?  It doesn't always come out exactly how you planned, if it is at all planned, which probably isn't just impossible, but not a wise thing to consider. But considering that I am where I never thought I'd be, and in a state even as a married couple, we'd never thought we'd be, for me is a little thought provoking.  Still missing Australia, particularly after just returning from our year there, but the experience is always something to consider.  Its that 'bloom where you're planted' quip. 

With that in mind, I've taken the challenge and been traveling around the countryside taking some photos, with many more in mind.  Researching a bit of history and talking to a couple of people with a bit of knowledge of the area.  Cotton for example... something I'd never seen before up close and personal....

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nothing like being busy on the holidays.  If you're anything like us, it never seems to end, holidays or not.  While it has been busy lately, I will be back after the long weekend with a new post! Stay tuned!

However, last minute projects are pretty much what my world is based on at the moment,

So, up with a quick and easy project post on Willow and Wattle Creative, see what you think. 

Last Minute: Thanksgiving Napkin Rings. 

Safe travels and have a great holiday!