Beautiful Dreamer ...

“Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me,

Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee,

Sounds of the rude world, heard in the day,

Lull’d by the moonlight have all passed away …”

  ~ “Beautiful Dreamer”

  ~parlor song by American songwriter

              Stephen Foster

                  ~ 1826-1864

 ~published posthumously in March 1864

  ~ one of Foster’s most memorable ballads & best loved works

  ~ recorded by Bing Crosby in 1940 & various other artists

 ~ Foster, known as “the father of American music,” was an American songwriter known primarily for his parlor music. He wrote more than 200 songs, including “Oh! Susanna,” “Hard Times Come Again No More,” “Camptown Races,” “Old Folks At Home” (“Swanee River”), “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair” and “Beautiful Dreamer.” Many of his compositions remain popular today. He has been identified as “the most famous songwriter of the nineteenth century” and may be the most recognizable American composer in other countries. His compositions are sometimes referred to as “childhood songs” because they have been included in the music curriculum of early education. Most of his handwritten music manuscripts are lost, but editions issued by publishers of his day can be found in various collections.

An April sunset beckons as a beautiful blossom waits for a nearby bud to wake and bloom on my favorite pink magnolia tree at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Seating By Magnolia ...

“Gentle as the sweet magnolia, strong as steel, her faith and pride …”

  ~ “Eagle When She Flies”

   ~ 1991

~ Grammy award-winner for best country song by Dolly Parton, one of the stars of the 1989 film “Steel Magnolias”

 ~ “Steel Magnolias” is the film adaption of Robert Harling’s 1987 play of the same name. The play and film are about the bond a group of women share in a small-town Southern community, and how they cope with the death of one of their own.

The story is based on Harling’s real life experience of the death of his sister, Susan Harling Robinson, in 1985 due to complications from Type 1 diabetes. He changed his sister’s name in the story from Susan to Shelby Eatenton-Latcherie, portrayed by Julia Roberts in the film.

The title suggests the main female characters can be both as delicate as the magnolia flower, and tough as steel.

A sweet and beautiful pink magnolia tree beckons you to come sit a spell on a gorgeous early May afternoon at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Moonlight And Magnolia ...

“You can drop the moonlight and magnolia, Scarlett!”

              ~ Rhett Butler,

             ~ “Gone with the Wind”

          ~ Academy-Award winning 1939 American epic historical romance film starring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, adapted from Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel of the same name.  

Moonlight and magnolia refers to the romanticization of the pre-Civil War South.

“You can drop the moonlight and magnolia, Scarlett! So things have been going well at Tara, have they?” Rhett asks Scarlett in my favorite movie of all time. When Scarlett wore a dress made of green velvet drapes to Atlanta to try and get money from Rhett to pay taxes on her home, Tara, she smiled sweetly and claimed to have everything she could hope for, and “not a care in the world.” Rhett noticed her hands, calloused from picking cotton, and knew she was lying.

I created this image by blending “In The Fire of Spring,” – a shot I took of a beautiful blossom and breaking bud in tandem in the fire of spring as sun set on my favorite magnolia tree at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania in April 2015 – with my capture of the Supermoon over Cedar Creek Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania on December 3, 2017.