The Color of Country Life

Middlesex, North Carolina, where the loudest sounds are the wind rustling the pine boughs and the call of the birds as they fly overhead. Cars don't travel the roads much here. Tractors dot every expanse, like gravestones in a graveyard. Abandoned barns and buildings are all that remain of what once was. Rusted cars, fading paint and battered mailboxes are the only indication of a place still inhabited. And even then, you can't be sure. Faded lace curtains hang from the windows of what appears as a dilapidated building, but truly is someones home. Because despite the run down, quiet - in fact, near silent - scene, the fields are still fertile, sown and tobacco and soy, a bit of corn. Smoke still rises from chimneys and debris piles, the pungent scent of burning wood mixing with the unique tang of fir in the air. And the deep, rich color of country life - the green of productivity - saturates the landscape. Welcome to life in Carolina country.