Came to this strange quarry and vintage car junkyard from Alejandro's autumn journey. I was not able to find milkweed, and have not had much luck finding signs of it at previous planting sites. However, from my own experience of raising milkweed over the past three years, it is very difficult to spot the plant the first year it is growing unless you are regularly checking the site and weeding out competing plants. A new milkweed seedling looks like a lot of other weeds and grasses; it is only when it gets bigger that it becomes obvious.
Hopefully in many of these seemingly barren sites, there is a little milkweed hiding among the invasive grass and other weeds. I sowed more seeds on both sides of the highway, in the hopes that they will join Alejandro's plantings in the coming years. I recorded a little bit of trumpet in this strange place. It has an oddly post-apocalyptic peacefulness to it in the evening sun. Though it may be difficult to believe while crossing this landscape dominated by automobiles, energy infrastructure, and industrial agriculture, these rusting cars are a reminder that our victories over nature are fleeting.
[Postscript: just under a mile east down Highway 200, I came upon an abundant patch of several dozen flowering milkweed. Hopefully the quarry will host a similar patch in a few years!]
--Caracol
