Gold Mine

Last week we went home again to Hartwood. On this trip we hiked out into the woods to explore the old Eagle mine which is on the property. 

There's not much of the old mine left except a big hole in the ground and some old walls and structures which have all been overtaken by the forest.

When the mine was closed, around the end of the 19th century, much of the old machinery was left behind and was rotting until my family decided to donate what was left to the Monroe Park Gold Mine Museum which is in the county over from my family's property.

The next day we took a trip to the museum to see some of the old equipment which we donated and see stuff donated from other mines in the area. We also got a quick tutorial on how to pan for gold from Bob Sinclair, the museum's curator.

Blackberry picking

Inspired by the work of Emmet Gowin I decided that I would like to explore images from my home in Virginia. I came up with this piece based on a series of photographs I took at my parents' home last summer.

A little house in the big woods. This is my family home in Hartwood Virginia. This is where my parents live and where we spend time on holidays and in the summer.
















Last summer my cousin and her kids came to visit too.
















We took the kids Blackberry picking where there are fields of bushes. Blackberry bushes as far as the eye can see.
















The ones that are easy to find and reach are often half eaten by the birds.
















But the good ones are harder to find and are often hidden under leaves and branches with stickers.
















Someone always gets hurt. But it's always worth it.
















Last year we made blackberry short cakes. Short cake where I grew up is not cake at all but sweet biscuits sliced in half with fruit and cream in between the layers and spread over the top.
This year we used Carl's ice cream, Blackberry compote made from the berries we picked, sweet biscuits and of course whole Blackberries.
















This last photo is by Allen Grimm.