Sunset Snuggle ...

"Study nature, love nature,
stay close to nature.
It will never fail you."
                    ~ Frank Lloyd Wright
                                 ~ 1867-1959

The light of an April sunset wraps softly
around these precious goslings as the
baby Canadian Geese snuggle at 
Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.   
 

Dancing In The Mirror ...

"There are two ways of spreading light:
to be the candle or the mirror 
that reflects it."
                    ~ Edith Wharton
                                   ~ 1862-1937 

The light of a waning winter sunset
dances as it is mirrored in the waters
spilling over a crest of the 
Little Lehigh Creek in Lehigh Parkway,
Allentown, Pennsylvania.   

The Spring Seeker ...

“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want – oh you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”

                          ~ Mark Twain

                                      (Samuel Clemens)

                                       ~ 1835-1910  

The rays of a waning winter sunset

brush this sweet robin perched atop

the highest branch of a tree at

Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania

as it dreams of the nearby spring

just around the corner.  

                                                                                                                                                                         

Fire Frost ...

"It is the life of the crystal,
the architect of the flake,
the fire of the frost,
the soul of the sunbeam,
This crisp winter air is full of it."
                       ~ John Burroughs
                                    ~1837-1921
                             ~ "Winter Sunshine"
                                           ~ 1875

The fire of the frost and the soul of the sunbeam
kiss at sunset, painting a fiery frozen beauty
at one of the highest elevations at
Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville,
Pennsylvania.

This is my abstract view of a snowy scene I shot
soon after the historic January Blizzard of 2016.
In a winter shorn of snow until the blizzard,
the storm plonked 31 inches of snow on nearby
Allentown in a 24 hour period.  

Winterset ...

"One day I will find the right words,
and they will be simple."
                                   ~ Jack Kerouac
                                          ~ 1922-1969

A simple and serene sunset splendor
shimmers across a frozen Leaser Lake
in the shadow of the northern
Blue Mountain Ridge, New Tripoli, Pennsylvania.

I shot this high contrast monochrome capture
in early February, as a quiet beauty
filled the chilly air. 

The lake's namesake is Frederick Leaser, who in Sept 1777 with his farm team hauled The Liberty Bell from Philadelphia to Allentown where it was concealed in Zion Reformed Church. His homestead is located one mile north of the lake.

   

Flight Into Sunset ...

"Softly the evening came ..."

                                     ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

                                                                 ~ 1807-1882 

 

Canadian Geese fly into a fiery sunset as the evening softly

comes to Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania

on the first day of winter in December 2014.

Memories At Sunset ...

"Memories, pressed between the pages of my mind

Memories, sweetened through the ages just like wine

Quiet thoughts come floating down

And settle softly to the ground

Like golden autumn leaves around my feet

I touched them and they burst apart with

sweet memories ..."

                 ~ "Memories"

  ~ recorded by the great Elvis Presley

                                                            ~ 1968 

 

          Swirling shades of an October sunset float around a beautiful white horse walking at the historic Hopewell Farm.

          

           The farm is part of Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site in southeastern Berks County near Elverson, Pennsylvania, an example of an American 19th century rural “iron plantation.” The buildings include a blast furnace, the ironmaster’s house and auxiliary structures including a blacksmith’s shop, a company store and several worker’s houses.


           Hopewell Furnace was founded in 1771 by ironmaster Mark Bird for whom Birdsboro was named. The site’s most prosperous time was during the 1820–1840 period with a brief boom in production during the American Civil War. In the mid-19th century changes in iron making, including a shift from charcoal to anthracite rendered smaller furnaces like Hopewell obsolete. The site discontinued operations in 1883.

        Today, Hopewell Furnace consists of 14 restored structures in the core historic area, 52 features on the List of Classified Structures, and a total of 848 mostly wooded acres. Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site is located in the Hopewell Big Woods and surrounded by French Creek State Park on three sides and the State Game Lands to the south which preserves the lands the furnace utilized for its natural resources.