Moonglow Meets The Delaware ...

“It must have been moonglow, way up in the blue,

It must have been moonglow that led me straight to you …”

                        ~  “Moonglow”

            ~ 1933 popular song & jazz standard

           ~ Will Hudson & Irving Mills, composers

               ~ Eddie DeLange, lyricist

   ~ “Moonglow & Theme from Picnic” is a 1956-releaased medley of both “Moonglow” & “Theme from Picnic” (1955) by Morris Stoloff – one of my favorite movies!

Moonglow meets the Delaware River over the historic Free Bridge during a soft purple twilight in autumn in the beautiful surreal.

Reflections from lights on the historic Northampton Street Bridge, commonly called the Free Bridge, trip the light fantastic as they dance in harmony on the Delaware River from my vantage point by the banks of the Delaware in Phillipsburg, New Jersey at dusk in late November.

Programmable LED lights illuminate the iconic bridge which spans the Delaware River to link Phillipsburg with Easton.

The lights were installed as part of a bridge rehabilitation/improvement project that spanned from late 2021 until spring 2023. The bridge is colloquially referred as the “Free Bridge” to distinguish it from the Easton-Phillipsburg Toll Bridge (previously the Bushkill Street Bridge), a short distance upstream.

The bridge that spans the two states was completed in 1896 and survived massive flooding from Hurricane Diane in 1955. It underwent a thorough restoration in 1990 and is one of my very favorite places to photograph.

Historic Phillipsburg was established March 8, 1861 and named for William Phillips, an early settler of the area. The historic town of Easton was founded in 1752 and is located at the confluence of the Delaware River and Lehigh River, known as the Forks-Of-The-Delaware. Both are Delaware River Towns.

The Free Bridge can also be seen from across the Delaware River at Delaware Canal State Park, Easton, near the Forks of the Delaware Trailhead of the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail).

Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

I created this image by blending my November 22, 2025 shot of the bridge with my capture of the Supermoon of December 3, 2017 shining brightly over Cedar Creek Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania. 

A Supermoon happens when the full moon coincides with the moon’s closest approach to Earth in its orbit. Supermoons make the moon appear a little brighter and closer than normal.

The term Supermoon has only been used in the past 40 years.

 

Fly Me To The Moon ...

“Fly me to the moon

Let me play among the stars

Let me see what spring is like

On a-Jupiter and Mars

 

In other words: hold my hand

In other words: baby, kiss me …

 

… In other words: please be true

In other words: I love you”

      ~ “Fly Me to the Moon”

  ~ song written by Bart Howard & made famous by the wonderful Frank Sinatra

 

     ~originally titled “In Other Words,” the song was written in 1954 by Bart Howard. The first recording of the song was made in 1954 by Kaye Ballard. Frank Sinatra’s 1964 version was closely associated with the Apollo missions to the Moon.

 

Love can fly you to the moon, and in this case, the flight takes wing in the surreal!

 

I created this image by blending my shot of a Finnair plane soaring through the skies over Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania on February 18, 2023, with my capture of the Supermoon over Cedar Creek Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania on December 3, 2017.

Finnair is the flag carrier & largest airline of Finland, with its headquarters in Vantaa on the grounds of Helinski Airport, its hub. Finnair flies between Europe, Asia & North America via Helsinki.

 

Strawberry Moon Field ...

“Let me take you down

'Cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields

Nothing is real

And nothing to get hung about

Strawberry Fields forever …”

      ~ “Strawberry Fields Forever”

          ~ released 1967

   ~written by John Lennon & credited to

              Lennon-McCartney

~ John Lennon based the song on his childhood memories of playing in the garden of Strawberry Field, a Salvation Army children’s home in Liverpool.

 

The Super Strawberry Moon “ripens” in a beautiful field in abstract, where nothing is real.

 

I created this image by blending my shot of the Super Strawberry Moon holding court in the sky over the West End of Allentown, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley at 10:33 p.m. June 24, 2021, with background texture by Jai Johnson for artistic effect.

 

This Super Strawberry Moon is the last near-Supermoon of 2021. According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, the name “Strawberry Moon” originated with Algonquin tribes in eastern North America, who knew the June full moon as a signal to gather ripening fruit of wild strawberries.

 

This Super Strawberry Moon rose just before 9 p.m. in the Lehigh Valley, about a half-hour passed sunset. It is the first full moon of summer 2021.