rosendale century house and widow jane mine

Yesterday I went with Allison to the Century House Historical Society, location of the Widow Jane Mine. Next weekend the Shawangunk Catskill Area Grotto (SCAG) is hosting a caving convention, and Allison met up with another SCAG member to plan out a vertical climbing workshop. I wandered around a bit and took pictures while they were planning.

The campsite for the convention is in a field on top of a hill... On the outskirts of that field are some gravestones from the 1800s. Spooooooky!

 The Century House was really overgrown and difficult to get a good picture of. Random cans, jars, and other containers were in weird spots around the house.

I was a bit tired, so I went back to where Allison and John had set up and hung out on the ground while they hung from the grand sycamore tree.

 After that, they did some mine exploration and I took a few more pictures around the property.

Hopefully next weekend (if I'm not working) I will be back up here to help out with the convention.

sunflower power

So I've been to my fair share of corn mazes (or maizes), but never before this year have I been to a sunflower maze! It was overwhelmingly beautiful. We went towards the end of the day, so there weren't too many people around and the weather was cooling down.

path through the maze

non-conformist 

Fractals and patterns appear everywhere in nature and they are one of my nerdy interests. I think part of what I find so beautiful about sunflowers is the fact that their golden ratio is acutely visible.

This recurring pattern that exists in everything from pine cones to clouds to the veins in our bodies helps me believe that there is an order to the universe  (which also might be an ever-increasing Fibonacci sequence). Anyway, Nova has an episode about it if you're interested.

Was it something I said?

 

*facepalm*