I moved close to the rusting gear of a 150-year-old mining machine in order to stress the effects of rainwater flowing between the teeth of the gear. Years of streaming moisture have created ideal conditions for nature to thrive upon the abandoned work of man. The green lichen clings to the rusty gear with great precision, and even imitates the pyramidal shapes of the gear’s teeth. The machine, like the men who once built it and used it, is long dead. Yet nature still flourishes within it.