A Lowcountry Morning ...

“Let us cross over the river, and rest in the shade of the trees.”

            ~ Stonewall Jackson

               ~  1824-1863

The last words of Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson, who served as a Confederate general (1861-1863) during the Civil War, and became arguably the best-known Confederate commander after General Robert E. Lee. Jackson played a prominent role in nearly all military engagements in the Eastern Theater of the war until his death, and had an important part in winning many significant battles.

A Great Blue Heron peers through the marsh in the still beauty of a southern fall morning in the Lowcountry just before the fog burns off along the Colleton River in Beaufort County, South Carolina on the first day of November in Dixie.

Peek Of Blue ...

“The reason birds can fly and we can’t is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.”

               ~ J.M. Barrie

                     ~ 1860-1937

                 from “The Little White Bird”

                           ~ 1902

    ~  Barrie is the creator of Peter Pan, who first  appeared in “The Little White Bird”

A beautiful tree swallow – known for its iridescent blue-green color upper parts – peeks out of its nesting box on a May evening at Lehigh Gap Nature Center.

While there are young or eggs in the nest, adult tree swallows frequently dive bomb intruders, including curious humans, and attempt to drive them from the area – I personally know this to be true, and so does my camera!

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 Delaware and Lehigh Heritage Corridor Trail (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.