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

Saved by some dirty dishes

by Posted in Wildlife & Animals Leave a comment
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Saved by some dirty dishes. A few days ago, it was a really nice day. I felt I should go out but somehow couldn’t find the motivation. So, I stayed home and felt that somehow, I’d wasted the day. Sometime in the afternoon I noticed that there were a few dishes in the sink, so I went over to wash them.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed some movement in the garden. It turned out to be a groundhog.

Of course, I took some pictures. From this experience I learned three things:

  1. Groundhogs have great hearing. So as not to disturb it I took the pictures through a window. The groundhog was a long way away, but every time I pressed the shutter it lifted its head up.
  2. Groundhogs are much faster than you’d think. When it eventually noticed me, it took off like a bat out of hell.
  3. Groundhogs like to eat dandelions (see first picture).

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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

Reading by the river

by Posted in Landscapes, Reading Leave a comment
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I generally go for lunch by the Hudson on Sundays. After a big lunch I’m usually in need or a nap, so I usually go straight home.

It was a nice day, so I decided to sit by the river for a while and read. I ended up staying for about two hours.

By that time, I was quite hot and thirsty so since I had been sitting near 3 Westerley I decided to pop in and have something to drink: two pints of Smithwicks.

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Taken with a Sony RX10 IV