Welcome. Whether you meant to end up here or just kind of drifted in — either way, you’re in the right place.

Lost The Path is what happens when curiosity refuses to stay in one lane. It’s part greenhouse journal, part iPhone photography playground, part wallpaper wonderland, and whatever my ADHD or BPD decides to hyperfocus on this month.

You’ll find cactus victories, the occasional plant casualty I’d rather not talk about, travel shots that actually don’t suck, and obsessions with Edgar Allan Poe, Van Gogh, and Nikola Tesla turned into wallpapers — some made with a little AI mischief, others straight from my own photos that I’m honestly pretty proud of.

There’s poetry that swings between hopeful and deliciously dark, short stories, music experiments, and whatever else bubbles up. I used to paint constantly — oils, watercolors, drawings — and a lot of that lives over at patrickriley.art, which is woven right into this site under the Art menu. I’m taking a breather from the brushes right now, but one random sunny afternoon the itch might come back. The art and photography are still there if you’re looking for something for your wall, and a few pieces are still available.

I spent way too many years in IT — PCs, servers, switches, routers, all of it — before finally ditching it for Macs and a quieter life with plants. These days I mostly lose track of time in the garden or greenhouse, wondering how I ended up with this many cacti.

This site runs on the same rhythm. Sometimes I update it like I’ve had three Red Bulls and a revelation. Other times it just sits quietly while I recharge or exist for a bit. No schedule, no guilt.

If you want something perfectly predictable, this probably isn’t it.

But if you like creativity, a little chaos, and following whatever looks interesting — you’ll fit right in.

Wander around. Download a wallpaper, read some poetry, listen to some music, laugh at my greenhouse experiments, or drop me a line if something here makes you smile.

The path might be lost, but the company’s decent and the succulents are surprisingly good listeners.

Enjoy the meander,
Patrick