Try A Little Tenderness ...

 “… But it’s all so easy …

Just try a little tenderness …”

      ~ “Try a Little Tenderness”

            ~ 1932

       ~ song by the Ray Noble Orchestra

        ~ Renditions include those by Bing Crosby,  Frank Sinatra & Otis Redding 

  I spotted a honey of a summer sight ~ two beautiful white-tailed deer fawns, twice the joy of seeing just one! ~ sharing a tender moment as they enjoy their first summer on an early July evening along the Ironton Rail Trail, which loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania.

 The Ironton Railroad was a shortline railroad in Lehigh County. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted to carrying Portland Cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20^th century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984.

In 1996, Whitehall Township purchased 9.2 miles of the right-of-way from Conrail, transforming it into the Ironton Rail Trail.

Great Spangled's Summer ...

“The beautiful is a phenomenon which is never apparent of itself, but is reflected in a thousand different works of the creator.”

     ~ Goethe

     ~ 1749 ~ 1832

 

A Great Spangled Fritillary – the first I’ve ever captured in a photo – sips the nectar of a purple coneflower on a beautiful summer afternoon in early July at Jacobsburg State Park, which spans between Wind Gap and Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

Jacobsburg State Park offers environmental education programs from the preschool environmental awareness programs to high school level environmental problem solving programs, historical programs, teacher workshops and public interpretive programs.

The park surrounds the Bushkill Creek.

The original land for the center was purchased by the Department of Forests and Waters from the City of Easton in 1959. In 1969, additional land was purchased using funds from Project 70. This brought the total land area of the center to its present size of 1,168 acres.

 

The Cuddle Up ...

 

“Happiness is the richest thing we will ever own.”

          ~ Donald Duck

 

Adorable mallard ducklings happily cuddle up ~ with their mama nearby ~ by the Coplay Creek on a beautiful early July evening along the Ironton Rail Trail, which loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania.

 

The Ironton Railroad was a shortline railroad in Lehigh County. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted to carrying Portland Cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20^th century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984.

 

In 1996, Whitehall Township purchased 9.2 miles of the right-of-way from Conrail, transforming it into the Ironton Rail Trail.

Treetop Tweeters ...

“Tweedle-lee-dee-dee-dee, tweedle-lee-dee dee

Tweedle-lee-dee-dee-dee, tweedle-lee-dee dee

Tweedle-lee-dee-dee-dee, tweedle-lee-dee dee

Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet

 

He rocks in the tree tops all day long

Hoppin’ and a-boppin’ and a-singing his song

All the little birds on Jaybird Street

Love to hear the robin go tweet, tweet, tweet

 

Rockin’ robin (tweet, tweet, tweet)

Rockin’ robin (tweet, tweedle-lee-dee) …”

                     ~ “Rockin’ Robin”

          ~written by Leon Rene under the    pseudonym Jimmie Thomas

                  ~ recorded by Bobby Day ~

                                     ~ 1958

A pair of precious American Robin nestlings in a treetop await their mother’s return with supper on a beautiful late July evening at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Someday these little nestlings will sing the song God made for the robins to sing … and sing beautifully!