Teardrops On The Water Lily ...

“I must have flowers, always, & always.”

   ~ Claude Monet

    ~ 1840 ~ 1926

 ~ One of the most famous Western painters of all time, founder of Impressionist painting, creator of the iconic Water Lilies series & a symbol of French painting

Rain droplets on a water lily are all that remains of a summer shower that briefly eclipsed the sun on a beautiful early August afternoon at Johnson’s Pond & Wildlife Park, Schnecksville, North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania.

Water lilies, plants in the genus Nymphaea, are aquatic blooms that grow in ponds and water gardens and are abundant on Johnson’s Pond.

  

This wildlife park provides an environment for bird watching, nature study and trails.

 

Where The Water Lilies Bloom ...

 “Water Lilies’ is an extension of my life. Without the water the lilies cannot live, as I am without art.”

            ~ Claude Monet

               ~ 1840 ~ 1926

   ~ One of the most famous Western painters of all time, founder of Impressionist painting, creator of the iconic Water Lilies series & a symbol of French painting

Kissed by the summer sun, the loveliness of the pink water lilies dances in the pond on a beautiful mid-July afternoon at Johnson’s Pond Wildlife Park, Schnecksville, North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania.

A blue-tailed dragonfly can be seen alighting on the bloom at left and in the foreground on the pond.

Water lilies, plants in the genus Nymphaea, are aquatic blooms that grow in ponds and water gardens and are abundant on Johnson’s Pond.

  

This wildlife park provides an environment for bird watching, nature study and trails.

 

Color In The Grey Of Winter ...

“The beauty of things must be that they end.”

   ~ Jack Kerouac

      ~ 1922-1969

It’s a moment frozen in time in the soft stillness in the grey of winter, as three orange balls on the water briefly deliver a pop of color in this abstract image I captured in early March 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.