Starry, Starry Sweet Gum ...

 “How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.”

                ~ John Burroughs

                    ~ 1837 ~ 1921

The leaves of a sweet gum tree are the star of show, tinting the landscape with hues of autumn on a late October afternoon at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The most distinctive feature of the leaves is the star shape, typically with five pointed lobes. In summer they are a glossy dark green, and in the fall they turn striking shades of red, orange, yellow and purple, often with multiple colors appearing on the same branch or tree.

The Sweet Gum is highly prized for its beautiful autumn foliage. It is one of the most common hardwoods in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States.

Silhouetted ...

 “Never waste a shadow in creating art.”

         ~ attributed to John Constable

                 ~ English painter

                   ~ 1776 ~ 1837

 General Harry C. Trexler looks majestic and stately on horseback, silhouetted on a late October day when the autumn sun and clouds gave play to light and shadows around this beautiful bronze statue of his image at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

 

The statue depicts General Trexler on his horse, Jack ‘O Diamonds.

 

A silhouetted bird, likely a Canada Goose or gull, flies at bottom right in a V formation, visualizing a sense of freedom. 

 

General Trexler (1854-1933) is the father of Allentown’s park system. He was an industrialist, agriculturist, philanthropist, conservationist and soldier. The park is his namesake.

 

During his lifetime, General Trexler contributed a great deal to the growth and quality of life in the City of Allentown and the surrounding County of Lehigh. 

 

This bronze statue of General Trexler was presented to the City of Allentown by his trustees Nolan P. Benner, William B. Butz, Joseph S. Young, Carl J.W. Hessinger and Richard E. White. It was commissioned January 16, 1979 and dedicated May 8, 1982.

 

General Trexler was a great man, and I’m personally very thankful to him, as Trexler Memorial Park and Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania are two of my very favorite places to be and to photograph.

An Autumn ...

 “As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas and colors enough to paint the beautiful things I see.”

           ~Vincent van Gogh

                ~ 1853 ~ 1890

A late October evening comes softly as sunset rays pepper the peaceful beauty of autumn at the ford of the Jordan Creek, one of my very favorite places to be and to photograph, at Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.

In The Autumn Leaves ...

“The falling leaves drift by the window

The autumn leaves of red and gold

I see your lips, the summer kisses

The sun-burned hands I used to hold

 

Since you went away the days grow long

And soon I’ll hear old winter’s song

But I miss you most of all my darling

When autumn leaves start to fall …”

   ~ “Autumn Leaves”

  ~written 1945, released 1946

 ~Popular song & jazz standard composed by Joseph Kosma with original lyrics by Jacques Prevert in French, & later by Johnny Mercer in English. An instrumental version by pianist Roger Williams was a number one best seller in the U.S. Billboard charts of 1955. It was recorded by Nat King Cole in 1955 and many other artists throughout the years, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra & Tom Jones.

 

I captured this candid shot of a couple walking in step with one another along the Saucon Rail Trail, Hellertown, Pennsylvania on a beautiful October afternoon.

 

Though autumn is the season of colorful fall foliage, I thought presenting the image in infrared was in tune with the melancholy mood of that beautiful song, “Autumn Leaves.”

Marquee Music ...

“The hills are alive with the sound of music

With songs, they have sung for a thousand years

The hills fill my heart with the sound of music

My heart wants to sing every song it hears

My heart wants to beat like the wings of the birds

That rise from the lake to the trees

 

My heart wants to sigh like the chime that flies from a church on a breeze

To laugh like a brook as it trips and falls over stones on its way

To sing through the night like a lark who is learning to pray

I go to the hills when my heart is lonely

I know I will hear what I’ve heard before

My heart will be blessed with the sound of music

And I’ll sing once more”

         ~ “The Sound of Music”

        ~ from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music”

                 ~ Broadway ~ 1959

                     ~ film ~ 1965

Follow The Sound of Music on a mid-October evening and you’ll arrive at the marquee of The Nineteenth Street Theatre in the heart of the quaint West End Theatre District in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The Nineteenth Street/Civic Theatre is an historic community center that hosts theatre, arts education and film. It is the oldest cinema in Allentown, opening Sept. 17, 1928. In July 1957, the property was purchased by Allentown’s Civic Little Theatre.