Winding Wintry Sunset ...

“Well, I know now. I know a little more how much a simple thing like a snowfall can mean to a person.”

           ~ Sylvia Plath

              ~ 1932-1963

        ~ “The Unabridged Journals of 

                   Sylvia Plath”

                 ~ published 1982

The path winds toward a wintry sunset amid the snow painted landscape on a beautiful January day at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

The Sugared Trail ...

“Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature’s darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees …”

                ~ John Muir

                      ~ 1838-1914

The peace of a beautiful winter afternoon is palpable on a January day along the snow sugared trail of the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail) that hugs the Kittatinny Ridge at Lehigh Gap.

In the shadow of the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, The Lehigh Gap in Slatington, Pennsylvania, 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.

Falling Into Winter ...

“November comes And November goes

With the last red berries and the first white snows.

With night coming early,

And dawn coming late,

And ice in the bucket

And frost by the gate.

The fires burn

And the kettles sing,

And earth to sinks to rest

Until next spring.”

        ~ “November Comes and November Goes”

            ~ Elizabeth Coatsworth

                 ~ 1893-1986

           ~ Winner of the Newberry Medal, 1931

Autumn meets winter as fall foliage reflects in the path wetted by melted snow on the afternoon of November 16, 2018 – a day after the season’s first snowfall – at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania. The pre-Thanksgiving snowfall blanketed the region with eight inches of snow.