two sets of pioneers

saturday mornings are becoming ritualized and part the ritual is looking in on the former agricultural field behind the big box stores...a couple of sets of pioneers going on on opposite ends of the field...the entire field was bush hogged a few weeks ago which was doubtlessly something the people trying to unload this property thought would contribute to the aesthetic value of the plot...bare soil in never a really good idea...a view i share with nature...and in the few weeks since the big mow the pioneers have begun to stage a recovery...there was a lot of thistle that had gone to seed on the periphery of the field and thistle ( second photo ) is spread out all over the place and growing...even plants that got hacked off but not uprooted are on the move...in the third photo a new stem has sprouted from an auxiliary bud on a still rooted stem and there will always be annual grasses moving in like the one in the fourth photo...the plants in the fifth photo are at least three feet high...perhaps they were missed by the bush hog...if the agents don't keep mowing ( because i still presume spraying is a no no inside city limits ) the field will revert first to the pioneer community it was a few weeks ago and then it's on to niche diversification...one would guess shrubs...and...if left long enough...trees...on the other end of the field another pioneer of sorts is expanding as the first building to go up on the field continues to be built...more heavy equipment has arrived and the concrete drainage behemoths that remain above ground have migrated to the back of the site...with all the piles of soil that have been moved about on wonders how strictly frontier's "hand dig" caveat was adhered to...don't know since i wasn't around to watch...still no sign of what this will eventually be...no tease to manipulate future behavior...you'll know about that when the nexus reveals all.