Kissed By Nostalgia ...

“Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.”

           ~ Khalil Gibran

               ~ 1883-1931

I saw these X’s & O’s – symbols of hugs and kisses – etched on a tree a few weeks before Valentine’s Day 2020 at Lehigh Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania and presented the image in sepia to enhance a nostalgic feel.

I’m not sure how long they’ve been there, but I first photographed them in October 2014, just before Sweetest Day – that image was posted on this blog as “X’s & O’s” on October 15, 2014.

Side By Side ...

“Oh we ain’t got a barrel of money

Maybe we’re ragged and funny

But we’ll travel along singing a song

Side by side …

Through all kinds of weather

What if the sky should fall

As long as we’re together
It doesn’t matter at all…”

              ~ “Side by Side”

                  ~1927

          ~ popular song by Harry M. Woods (1896-1970), now considered a standard. It has been recorded by many artists, but is probably best known in a 1953 recording by Kay Star. Woods was a Tin Pan Alley songwriter & pianist. He composed his songs on piano, despite the fact that he was born without fingers on his left hand.

A sweet white-tailed deer doe and her yearling pose for a spring portrait on a beautiful early April evening at Lehigh Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Cold Creek December ...

“The good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.”

        ~ “The good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise” is an American slang expression implying strong intentions subject to complete frustration by uncommon but not unforeseeable events. It presumably evokes occasional and unpredictably extreme rainfall in Appalachia, that has historically isolated one rural neighborhood or another temporarily inaccessible on several or many occasions and when most folks in the mountains use this term, that is exactly what they mean.

The cold waters of the Little Lehigh Creek gently flow through Lehigh Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania on an early December day, as autumn prepares to segue into winter.