Hay

This morning I found two excellent websites devoted to hay.

Hay in Art has links to essays, poems, maps, paintings, and photographs of hay-related material.

The wonderfully varied symbolic and metaphoric associations of hay mirror its cultural and economic importance in the history of humanity. Hay has variously symbolized wealth and poverty, sexuality, love, life and death. The somewhat dated saying in our own culture "That ain't hay" (meaning "that's not entirely worthless") is remotely connected to the beliefs and rituals of the Low Countries of Europe over half a millennium ago. 

There's lots of material there to be perused (and blogged), since I'm a big fan of hay.  I need to go back later to learn things and harvest some material.

And for those (few) interested in the day-to-day aspects of creating and maintaining a hayfield, there is a lot of practical information at Haying FAQ.


Photo from Marisio Pepi, via First Time User and A London Salmagundi.