If Only Summer Could Stay ...

 

“It was a lovely afternoon ~ such an afternoon as only September can produce when summer has stolen back for one more day of dream and glamour.”

    ~ L.M. Montgomery

     ~ 1874 ~ 1942

Blue Aster flowers bask in the warm, waning summer sunshine of a beautiful mid-September afternoon at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center at Lehigh Gap, Slatington, Pennsylvania.

 

Blue Aster flowers have large flowerheads that bloom in different shades of blue throughout the summer and early autumn. Their beautiful blue blooms range from light blue to deeper, vibrant dark-purple like blooms. Blue Aster is a popular choice for wildflower, native plant and butterfly gardens.

 

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 Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (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.

Wild Hearts ...

“Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.”

                ~ Maya Angelou

                    ~ 1928 ~ 2014

Bleeding hearts dance in the spring breeze on a beautiful April afternoon along the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail).

 

I captured this shot this after setting out from the Cementon Trailhead of the D&L Trail in Cementon, Pennsylvania, part of the Asher F. Boyer Eagle Trail section of the D&L.

Bleeding hearts are shade-loving woodland plants that bloom in the cool of spring. Although they stay in bloom for several weeks, the plants often become ephemeral, disappearing for the rest of the summer if exposed to too much sun or heat. The roots are still alive, though, and the plant will regrow in the fall or the following spring. The fringed-leaf varieties of bleeding heart repeat-bloom throughout the summer.

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

 

The Beguiling Bluebell ...

“I do not think I have ever seen anything more beautiful than the bluebell I have been looking at. I know the beauty of our Lord by it.”

     ~ Gerard Manley Hopkins

     ~ English poet & Jesuit priest

       ~ 1844 ~ 1889

 

A beguiling bluebell softly blooms near the banks of the Swabia Creek at Lock Ridge Park and Furnace Museum, Alburtis, Pennsylvania on a beautiful mid-April afternoon when temperatures soared into the 80s and the chorus of spring peepers floated through the air.

The blooming of the multitude of Lock Ridge bluebells ~ also called grape hyacinth ~ is a clarion call of spring in the Lehigh Valley, drawing many people to photograph and glimpse their beauty in the span of the few weeks they bloom.

 

Lock Ridge is uniquely beautiful when the bluebells are in bloom. Bluebells are actually muscari, or grape hyacinth, a plant that produces spikes of blue flowers that resemble bunches of grapes in the spring.

 

The 59-acre park was opened in August 1976.

 

Lock Ridge Park is a park built around an historic iron ore blast furnace just outside Alburtis. The park preserves portions of the former Lock Ridge Iron Works, which dates back to 1868 and operated as an iron mill until 1921.

 

Acquired by Lehigh County in 1972, the Lock Ridge Furnace Museum was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 and is operated by the Lehigh County Historical Society.