Main Street Americana ...

 “To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”

             ~ Elliot Erwitt

           ~ French-born American photographer

                    ~ 1928 ~ 2023

A slice of Americana …

American flag bunting festoons storefronts on Main Street at Union Square in the historic town of Phillipsburg, New Jersey as a Chevy truck is stopped at the traffic light on a beautiful mid-September afternoon in the waning summer.

Signs advertise the Phillipsburg Farmers Market and 2025 Railroad Festival at the spot at the end of the historic Northampton Street Bridge, commonly called the Free Bridge, which spans the Delaware River and links Phillipsburg with Easton, Pennsylvania.

Phillipsburg, a Delaware River Town, was established March 8, 1861 and named for William Phillips, an early settler of the area.

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.

Come Fly With Me ...

“Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away …

We’ll just glide, starry-eyed …

Weather-wise it’s such a coo-coo day …”

      “Come Fly With Me”

           ~ 1958 popular song composed by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Sammy Cahn, written for the great Frank Sinatra. It was the title track of Sinatra’s 1958 album of the same name.

A sweet Cabbage White Butterfly flutters toward a buddleia bush – also called summer lilac – on a perfect August afternoon along the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail), Slatington, Pennsylvania, near The Lehigh Gap.

In the shadow of the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, The Lehigh Gap is a crossroads where the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s trails connect two historic trails ~ the Appalachian Trail and the D&L Trail. 

The Appalachian Trail, a foot path, follows the ridge on both sides of the Lehigh Gap, running 1,245 miles south to Georgia and 930 miles north to Maine. Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

 

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.