Surrey Into Fall ...

“Aprils have never meant much to me, autumns seem that season of beginning, spring.”

                        ~ Truman Capote

                                   ~ 1924-1984

                              ~“Breakfast At Tiffany’s"

                                             ~1958

What better way to soak in autumn’s beauty in full bloom along the Delaware and Lehigh Heritage Corridor Trail (D&L Trail), Weissport, Pennsylvania than to ride in a surrey (multiple-person bike) on a gorgeous November day.

Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

Surreys may be rented from Chantilly Goods and Weissport Washboard in historic Weissport. Chantilly Goods is an old fashion ice cream parlor, vintage soda fountain and candy shoppe. Walking into this old time soda shoppe is like stepping back in time into a 1920s and 1930s soda fountain.

Halcyon Summer ...

“Summer will end soon enough, and childhood as well.”

                  ~ George R.R. Martin,

                      ~ born 1948

The innocence of childhood meets the sweetness of a summer afternoon as this little girl, wearing a shirt splashed with the American flag, casts her fishing pole into Leaser Lake, New Tripoli, Pennsylvania, in a scene that paints the essence of halcyon summer days.

Leaser Lake’s namesake is Frederick Leaser, who in Sept 1777 with his farm team hauled The Liberty Bell from Philadelphia to Allentown where it was concealed in Zion Reformed Church. His homestead is located one mile north of the lake.

The lake is in the shadow of the northern Blue Mountain Ridge.

Plein Air Printemps ...

"Art is the stored honey
of the human soul."
                     ~ Theodore Dreiser
                                     ~ 1871-1945

Plein Air painter catches the nature of a sweet
spring - printemps - evening on canvas
at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania in a candid image I captured
this May.   

Where The Bluebells Bloom ...

"Sacred watcher, wave thy bells!
Fair hill flower and woodland child!
Dear to me in deep green dells -
Dearest on the mountains wild."
                        ~ Emily Bronte
                                 ~ 1818-1848
                              ~ "To The Bluebell"

This little girl twirls among the beguiling bluebells blooming in early April near the banks of the Swabia Creek at Lock Ridge Park and Furnace Museum, Alburtis, Pennsylvania in this candid capture.

The blooming of the multitude of Lock Ridge bluebells – also called grape hyacinth – is a clarion call of spring in the Lehigh Valley, drawing many people to photograph and glimpse their beauty in the span of the few weeks they bloom.

Lock Ridge Park is a park built around an historic iron ore blast furnace just outside Alburtis, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley. The park preserves portions of the former Lock Ridge Iron Works, which dates back to 1868.  The 59-acre park was opened in August 1976.