May is the month when the cotton flies. That's how we refer to it around here. When the cotton flies, you need to make sure your car windows are closed, even when you're driving, and you need to keep your mouth closed, too, when you're outside. Although I've been sneezing like crazy lately, making it suspect, I still love this fluff from the female cottonwood tree. And just from gathering a handful here and there when walking the dogs, I've collected a large bowlful, about 3½ ounces, maybe enough to actually do or make something with it. I still don't know how to
spin, so that's out. But a person could pick out the vegetation and save the cotton for future pillow filling. Or make stars like on this little packet from a long-ago Waldorf holiday fair. A little experiment in absorbency might be fun. And dyeing some. Or burning some. Or what else?
Yesterday,
moonday, was a holiday in the U.S. so I holidayed by doing basically nothing. In case you're wondering, the waxing moon is under the sign of Virgo today.
My eyes are watering and my nose stuffing up just thinking about working with cottonwood puffs! They are pretty and the ground looks like a dusting of snow. Hope you have a wonderful and fun filled week.
ReplyDeleteJeannie, you, too? I never used to be like this but this year seems to be special. If you can call sneezing and nose-blowing special. ;-) I hope you're having a great week, too!
ReplyDeletei love looking at it too, w/the windows rolled up tight. allergies seem to get worse each year- starting when the beautiful cherry trees bloom. maybe the prettiness of all of it is supposed to be our consolation prize!
ReplyDeletewe have pollen here - so much that the wipers on the car require squishes of the wiper fluid to remove!!
ReplyDeleteCindy, it must've been a banner year everywhere -- looking is usually good enough for me, too -- I don't really know why I wanted to collect it this year?!
ReplyDeleteDee, wow. I noticed that the honey locusts were heavy pollen-makers this year here, too -- driveways were golden yellow. When trees are about to die they put out a big last effort. I hope we're not headed for some crazy weather. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteThe photo is lovely but when this fluffy stuff is flying around over here (another tree I think, some kind of poplar, trees that stand along aaaaall our main roads (!) )my daughter doesn't want to come outside !!!! She sneezes, her nose itches and her eyes water .... !
ReplyDeleteWe don't like this "cotton" at all !
there is a cottonwood tree in the drainage ditch behind my house. i have been trying to get the city to allow me to cut it down. it creates havoc here. my neighbor can't come out of his house with his allergies and it gets into the a/c condenser behind his house. never thought of catching the stuff and doing something with it. i might try that with the next dusting.
ReplyDeleteEls, oh dear. I wouldn't like it either if I was you! ;-)
ReplyDeleteDeanna, I had no idea so many people were allergic to cottonwood blooms/fluff! And I also had no idea that it gets into air conditioners -- we just got ours 2 years ago so we'll have to check for that -- so thanks!
ReplyDeletePollen still flying here, and I have the sneezing and stinging nose to prove it. Being from Georgia, I do love cot tong, though. Have a vase with a couple of stems on my desk, my single foray into cotton picking.
ReplyDeleteHi Wholly Jeanne, well we've got lots of company with the sneezing, etc.! Nice to have it on your desk.
ReplyDeletePeggy~ Northern Nevada has tons of cottonwoods near all the various water (rivers, irrigation ditches, etc.) They did not bother me at all when I lived there 28 years ago! We don't have as many here and I miss them. Those trees feel like home to my heart :)
ReplyDelete"The cotton flew"
ReplyDeleteand we love you! ;-)
Indulging in a little rhyme
and heart-felt sentiment. . .
Chris
Nancy, yes, they are soulful beings -- I can't remember where but somewhere I read that when we have problems or questions or turmoil in general, to go to a tree and the tree spirit will help us. And I just read about the Balmville cottonwood -- believed to have started its life in 1699! That's a lot of living.
ReplyDeleteChris, thank you ;-) ....
ReplyDelete...and I hope you like your lemon balm water!
Mmmmm. . . The lemon balm water was scrumptiously lemony, light, bright, moonlike: I think I'm glowing from it!
ReplyDeleteWe have a huge bank of cottonwood at work and at the right time of the year it looks like it is snowing. My understanding is that the puffs don't cause allergies at all, that the trees were blooming months ago. The puffs fly around at the same time grass pollen goes up. :) Achoo!
ReplyDeleteDeb, I wondered about that since the fluff encases the seed and is sometimes still attached to the stem, meaning it had to have bloomed a while back. Thanks! That makes perfect sense. ;-)
ReplyDelete