Spring With A Cherry On Top ...

“Came the spring with all its splendor,

All its birds and blossoms,

All its flowers and leaves and grasses.”

                   ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

                                ~ 1807-1882

An artistic view of delightful cherry blossoms that top off an April afternoon with the spirit of spring on North Ott Street near Cedar Creek Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania, where Kwanzan Cherry Trees line the city with splendor with their beautiful but fleeting pink canvas.

There are 46 Japanese Flowering Cherry Trees in the vicinity. The original trees date to the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Confederate Rose ...

“Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders.”

                     ~ William Faulkner

                           ~ 1897-1962

     ~ Southern American author,

                  Nobel Prize Laureate

The grace, beauty and memory of The Old South dreamily bloom in this beautiful pink Confederate Rose on an October morning in the Lowcountry of Beaufort County, South Carolina.

The Legend Of The Confederate Rose

Once the Confederate Rose was pure white. During the Civil War, a soldier was fatally wounded in battle. He fell upon the rose as he lay dying. During the course of the two days he took to die, he bled more and more on the flower, till at last bloom was covered with his blood. When he died, the flower died with him. Thereafter, the Confederate Rose (or Cotton Rose), opens white, and over the course of the two days the bloom lasts, they turn gradually from white to pink to almost red, when the flower finally falls from the bush.

The Confederate Rose or hibiscus mutablis is actually a Chinese import. Brought into English gardens in the 1600’s, it is said to have gained favor in the South due to its ease of cultivation during the hard financial times after the Civil War. The hibiscus mutablis is a member of the hibiscus family which includes both the tropical hibiscus and the hardier Rose of Sharon. It is considered a large bush or a small multi-stemmed tree. The plant roots easily from cuttings and grows vigorously during the summer. Once established it is drought resistant. The blooms appear in the fall.

Wisp Of A Summer Morn ...

“Many a forenoon have I stolen away, preferring to spend thus the most valued part of the day; for I was rich, if not in money, in sunny hours and summer days, and spent them lavishly; nor do I regret that I did not waste more of them in the workshop or the teacher’s desk.”

                       ~ Henry David Thoreau

                                  ~ 1817-1862

                            ~ “Walden”

                 ~originally published August 9, 1854

To me, there’s nothing so beautiful in nature as a summer morning, and Thoreau’s words seamlessly flow through this image of milkweed basking in the morning sun that I shot on a brilliant August day at Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.

If we all had more sunny hours and summer days, how much richer – and happier – we’d all be.