“… the best of summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”
~ Sylvia Plath
~ 1932 ~ 1963
~ “The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath”
~ published 1982
Facing the setting sun, a Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly clings to summer ~ my most favorite of seasons ~ in the waning days of August at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.
“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
One little snowdrop sheens its hopeful beauty in the winter sunshine in this shot I captured February 18, 2023 at Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.
In a winter shorn of snow to this point, this snowdrop still heralds the hope of the coming spring.
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.
“O, gather me the rose, the rose,
While yet in flower we find it,
For summer smiles, but summer goes,
And winter waits behind it …”
~ from “O, Gather Me the Rose”
~ William Ernest Henley
~ English poet
~ 1849 ~1903
Roses are still beauties in bloom on a gorgeous mid-October afternoon at Delaware Canal State Park, Easton, Pennsylvania.
I captured these beauties near the Forks of the Delaware Trailhead of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail).
The trail is positioned between the Delaware River and Delaware Canal, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978. The site possesses national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America.
Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.
“How lovely yellow is! It stands for the sun.”
~ Vincent van Gogh
~ 1853 ~ 1890
Van Gogh loved yellow, and the striking use of the color is seen in his paintings. Van Gogh’s paintings of sunflowers are among his most famous, painted in Arles, in the south of France, in 1888 and 1889.
The sunflower (or “soniashnyk”) is Ukraine’s national flower and has been grown on its central and eastern steppes since the middle of the 18th century. And today, in light of Russia’s horrific invasion of Ukraine, the sunflower is a symbol of “I Stand With Ukraine!”
A gorgeous sunflower stands tall and shines its beauty on a lovely mid-August afternoon on the grounds of Kreidersville Covered Bridge, Allen Township, on the outskirts of Northampton, Pennsylvania.
Kreidersville Covered Bridge was built in 1839 and is loved for its great history and tranquil setting by the Hokendauqua Creek. It is the only covered bridge left in Northampton County.
The pedestrian-only bridge that crosses the Hokendauqua Creek is the oldest covered bridge in the Lehigh Valley and one of the oldest in the state. The historic wooden Burr Truss Bridge has a 116-foot-long span and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
