Arden Point and Glenclyffe

by Posted in Buildings/Structures, Flowers, Landscapes, Nature, Ruins Leave a comment

The other day I visited Arden Point and Glenclyffe.

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Arden Point is a peninsula on the Hudson River in Garrison, NY. The trail starts at the end of the Garrison Metro North Station. From there a wooded trail parallels the train tracks and the Hudson River. It eventually divides with one trail going over the train tracks to loop around Arden Point eventually returning to the bridge over the tracks. Although not a long walk it has some impressive views looking both to the north and the south.

After you return over the railroad tracks, turn right and the trail continues to Glenclyffe is a 93-acre parcel of land on the Hudson River. It’s now the site of the Open Space Institute (housed in a quite spectacular former monastery). There’s also what now looks like, an abandoned mansion once owned by New York Governor, US Senator and Secretary of State (under Ulysses S. Grant) Hamilton Fish. Grant and President Abraham Lincoln, both visited it. One of the trails maps the route taken by Benedict Arnold as he fled down to a dock on the river, where he took a boat to H.M.S. Vulture to escape the British.

All told I walked for about three hours.

I have more pictures. If interested, you can find them here.

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Taken with a Sony RX10 IV

I wandered lonely as a cloud

by Posted in Flowers, Nature Leave a comment
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I always thought that the name of the famous poem by Wordsworth was “Daffodils”, but apparently it’s actually “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”. I prefer “Daffodils”.

Here’s the poem:

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

I didn’t have quite the experience that Wordsworth had:

  • I was in a suburban New York town, so I didn’t see “…a crowd, a host of golden daffodils”, just the few that you see in the pictures.
  • I wasn’t “beside the lake, beneath the trees” although I was quite close to the Hudson River.
  • The daffodils were not “fluttering and dancing in the breeze”.
  • There certainly weren’t “ten thousand” of them.

Still, I very much agree with the sentiments expressed in the final verse.

As I writ this (April 25, 2025) the daffodils are starting to fade.

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Taken with a Sony RX10 IV

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV

Fungi

by Posted in Fungi Leave a comment
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Yesterday, I was walking from the commercial center of Briarcliff Manor on Pleasantville Road, along the relatively new bike/walking trail along the Pocantico River towards the Historical Society. This short trail connects the North County Trailway (which runs along the path of the old Putnam line Railway) to the center of the Village.

Suddenly I spotted these clumps of fungi on the side of the trail.

Aren’t they cute?

Despite my best effort, I’ve so far been unable to find out what they are.

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Taken with a Sony RX10 IV