The Color of Wheat

Took a different route to the coast this weekend.  Headed north from Eugene toward Corvallis.  The land between here and there is rural, nothing new about that. I'm coming to learn that much of Oregon is rural and not very populated.  But along the way we pass by some wheat fields that are truly beautiful to behold.

The wheat is so light and bright.  Looking across these fields I'm reminded of the "cotton top" hair of two boys, children of a dear friend.  When you see those cotton tops you are always taken aback at how white they are.  It's the same with these fields, not that they are white, but that bright buttery yellow set against the dark green of all those evergreens in the distance and the bright blue sky and dark mountains....well I can't look at them enough.

The fields are so thickly planted that looking at them from the side makes me think of a man with thick hair cut in a crew cut style.

When the fields have been cut and raked into windrows the piles look silky, kind of like big piles of corn silk.  The farmers around here bale them into square bales and stake them out in the field in walls as tall as a house.
By the way, Corvallis is a town of about 51,000 and home to Oregon State University.