Mary Frances is a sweet lady. She reminds me of Sophia, “ma”, from the Golden Girls. I took a bag of unginned cotton to the guild meeting last month. (Oh my gosh, it’s December already.) I was just sitting there, separating the fiber from the seeds. (I gave away lots of seeds that day.) Mary Frances came over to see what I was doing. As it turned out, she was quite an expert. She quickly showed me a few tricks to keep the fiber soft and fluffy. She also made a comment, “what is this stuff? It’s so dirty.”
Yes, I admit, it has a lot of bits and pieces of the “husk” in it. But I don’t mind, they will probably fall off during spinning.
Mary Frances went on to tell me that she grew her own cotton. Varieties of them. “Do you want some?” she asked. Ding! Of course I did. She got my address and promised to send some. It came in the mail yesterday.
I was expecting a big bag of cotton for spinning. Now I know she really meant to send me some seeds to grow my own plants. 
Silly greedy me! I didn’t feel any bit of disappointment though. Not at all. It was a thrill to see different cotton fiber in it’s natural form.
She sent me three kinds of cotton fiber. Top left is from an 8-year-old plant that is now a tree. It is the softest and fluffiest of the bunch. The white fiber is from Thai cotton plant. It feels a bit coarse. But that will probably change when it’s fluffed out a bit. Top right is from “Workshop Door”. (Anyone knows what that is?) Two different colors. The darker orange tan is really beautiful.
There are lots of seeds in them. I wonder if they can be grown in Northern California?
Thank you Mary Frances! I can’t wait to see you at the next meeting to thank you in person. 
Oh, can I come see your cotton plants?
