Snow Moon Brushes The Silvery Creek ...

“By the light of the silvery moon, I want to spoon, to my honey I’ll croon love’s tune …”

         ~ “By the Light of the Silvery Moon”

    ~ popular love song, music by Gus Edwards, lyrics by Edward Madden

       ~ published 1909, one of a series of moon-related Tin Pan Alley songs

      ~ performed in the 1953 film “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” by  Doris Day, Gordon MacRae and others throughout the film

The full Snow Moon melts into a silvery creek in the beautiful surreal in wintertime.

I created this image by blending my shot of the Snow Moon of February 1, 2026 shining over the West End of Allentown, Pennsylvania with “Silvered Shores,” my February 2017 capture of the snow-laden creek at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania as a hint of sunset blushes the creek between its silvered shores after a fresh snowfall.

The Snow Moon is often named for the heavy snowfalls common during this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere. The cold, dense air of February often makes this moon appear brighter and sharper.

I shot this soon after this Snow Moon hit its maximum 100 percent illumination at 5:09 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

Swan On Snowy Pond ...

“Those who find beauty in all of nature will find themselves at one with the secrets of life.”

           ~ L. Wolfe Gilbert

     ~ Russian-born American songwriter of 

        Tin Pan Alley

              ~ 1886-1970

A beautiful trumpeter swan gracefully glides along the pond as a mid-February afternoon segues into evening at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

 

Jewels Of Winter ...

“Snowdrops: Theirs is a fragile but hearty celebration … in the very teeth of winter.”

               ~ Louise Beebe Wilder

            ~American gardening writer & designer

      whose books are now considered classics         of their era

                              ~ 1878 ~ 1938

 

Crocuses and daffodils are beautiful and wonderful to see, but the very first sign of spring being just around the corner are snowdrops – making them the jewels of winter. I captured these snowdrops in this infrared image on a late February afternoon along the Saucon Rail Trail in Lower Saucon Township, Hellertown, Pennsylvania.

 

Snowdrops are hardy perennial, winter-flowering plants that are often heralded as the first sign of spring. They bloom as early as January or February whatever the weather ~ they will even push through frozen, snow-covered ground.

 

Snowdrops are also known as Candlemas Bells, as they were gathered at Candlemas February 2 to decorate churches before the Reformation. They were symbols of purity, which was connected to the rite of purification that Mary observed by going to the temple forty days after Christmas. The festival was formerly known in the Roman Catholic Church as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and is now known as the Presentation of the Lord. In the Anglican Church it is called the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. During Candlemas, all of the candles to be used in the church for the coming year are blessed, and the faithful are invited to bring their own candles so that they can be blessed and used in the home for prayer throughout the year.

 

Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, named the snowdrop the Galanthus nivalis, “milk flower of the snow,” in 1753.