Come Fly With Me ...

“Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away …

We’ll just glide, starry-eyed …

Weather-wise it’s such a coo-coo day …”

      “Come Fly With Me”

           ~ 1958 popular song composed by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Sammy Cahn, written for the great Frank Sinatra. It was the title track of Sinatra’s 1958 album of the same name.

A sweet Cabbage White Butterfly flutters toward a buddleia bush – also called summer lilac – on a perfect August afternoon along the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail), Slatington, Pennsylvania, near The Lehigh Gap.

In the shadow of the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, The Lehigh Gap is a crossroads where the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s trails connect two historic trails ~ the Appalachian Trail and the D&L Trail. 

The Appalachian Trail, a foot path, follows the ridge on both sides of the Lehigh Gap, running 1,245 miles south to Georgia and 930 miles north to Maine. Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

 

Bakin' Up Some Whimsy ...

“What’s life without whimsy?”

 ~ Dr. Sheldon Cooper

  ~ “The Big Bang Theory”

   ~ American sitcom

   ~ 2007 ~ 2019

 

The adorable Pillsbury Doughboy declares “I’m a Hot Little Biscuit” as he poses in front of my stovetop percolator in this monochrome capture where whimsy meets nostalgia on a summer day in the kitchen.

 

Poppin’ Fresh, more widely known as the Pillsbury Doughboy, is an advertising mascot for the Pillsbury Company, appearing in many of their commercials. Many commercials from 1965 until 2005 (together with some for Geico between 2009 and 2017) ended with a human finger poking the Doughboy’s belly. The Doughboy responds by giggling when his belly is poked (Hoo-Hoo!, or earlier on, a slight giggle “tee hee”).

 

The Pillsbury Doughboy was created by Rudolph “Rudy” Perz, a copywriter for Pillsbury’s longtime advertising agency, Leo Burnett Company. Perz was sitting in his kitchen in the spring of 1965, under pressure to create an advertising campaign for Pillsbury’s refrigerated dough product line (biscuits, dinner rolls, sweet rolls, and cookies). His copywriter, Carol H. Williams, imagined a living doughboy popping out of a Pillsbury refrigerated dough can and wrote the campaign, “Say Hello to Poppin’ Fresh Dough.” Williams was inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame in 2017.

 

Cube & Thread's Pop Of Red ...

 “The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.”

                     ~ Alberto Giacometti

                             ~ 1901 ~ 1966

                           ~Swiss sculptor

The Cube And Thread brings a bold pop of red to Cedar Creek Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania on a beautiful late May afternoon.

The public sculpture was created by artist Paul Sisko in 1977 and gifted to the city by the late philanthropists Phil (1915 ~ 1997) and Muriel (died 2004) Berman. Phil Berman was the retired owner of the iconic Hess’s Department Store, which he acquired in 1968 and had been headquartered in Allentown.

The Bermans were American art collectors, philanthropists and the founders of the Berman Art Museum at Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania, Phil’s alma mater.   Phil was the chairman of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Muriel was an honorary member of the board. They endowed many Jewish charities including Hadassah as well as funding the “Philip and Muriel Berman Sculpture Park” in Allentown.

The sculpture is an 11’ x 13.5 ‘ steel and stainless steel piece featuring a large cube with a screw-like element extending from one side. It was restored in 2025 by the Heritage Conservation Collective of Philly. Initially painted red, the sculpture had become rusted and decayed. The restoration involved refinishing the piece and bringing it back to its original vibrancy.

Liberty In Light ...

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

   ~ from the inspiring Inaugural Address of

  President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

  ~ 1917 ~1963

  ~ 35th President of the United States of America

  ~ 1960 ~ 1963

  & U.S. Navy veteran

Liberty’s red hot rays of ravishing light burst across the summer night sky during the 2025 Fourth of July Fireworks set off from J. Birney Crum Stadium, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Happy Birthday, America! Bravo!

How wonderful it would be to have fireworks ~ and the fire of patriotism ~ in our hearts every day!

Great Spangled's Summer ...

“The beautiful is a phenomenon which is never apparent of itself, but is reflected in a thousand different works of the creator.”

     ~ Goethe

     ~ 1749 ~ 1832

 

A Great Spangled Fritillary – the first I’ve ever captured in a photo – sips the nectar of a purple coneflower on a beautiful summer afternoon in early July at Jacobsburg State Park, which spans between Wind Gap and Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

Jacobsburg State Park offers environmental education programs from the preschool environmental awareness programs to high school level environmental problem solving programs, historical programs, teacher workshops and public interpretive programs.

The park surrounds the Bushkill Creek.

The original land for the center was purchased by the Department of Forests and Waters from the City of Easton in 1959. In 1969, additional land was purchased using funds from Project 70. This brought the total land area of the center to its present size of 1,168 acres.