On my daily dog walk last summer, a particular weed in my neighborhood caught my eye. It was the first time I've ever seen the infamous datura plant (aka jimson weed) first hand. Over the course of the summer and into fall, I took many pictures of it as I watched it grow and grow into a mighty bush, produce many beautiful flowers, get completely destroyed by gardeners twice, grow right back again from seemingly nothing... until finally it withered and rotted by fall. Over that time I was just fascinated by it, almost obsessed. I poured over articles about it, read a book about its use in shamanism, glorified it in Instagram posts and stories almost every day. But no- I never sampled it. I'm just not that brave/foolish.
I don't know why I thought that it was dead for good, in retrospect. Just the other day I happened to notice that it was growing back yet again! Here we go again, the endless pictures and geeking out. I'm looking forward to it! I might start posting the old pictures in progression from last summer. It was such a beautiful plant in every way, and endlessly fascinating. Below are pictures of it now. This is the first time I've observed the actual seed pods, and I'm bummed that that part is dead and desiccated. I guess at some point I just stopped observing it during my walks because I assumed it was done. I'll not make that mistake again!
