Softly Bloom The Bluebells ...

“The bluebell is the sweetest flower

That waves in summer air

Its blossoms have the mightiest power

To soothe my spirits care.”

     ~ “The Bluebell”

       ~ Emily Bronte

        ~ 1818-1848

        ~ published 1846

Sunlight dances across the beguiling bluebells blooming softly in early April near the banks of the Swabia Creek at Lock Ridge Park and Furnace Museum, Alburtis, Pennsylvania in this shot I captured on a beautiful spring afternoon.

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 Park is a park built around an historic iron ore blast furnace just outside Alburtis, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley. The park preserves portions of the former Lock Ridge Iron Works, which dates back to 1868. The 59-acre park was opened in August 1976.

 

 

Full Stop Winter ...

 “Over the winter glaciers, I see the summer glow. And through the wind-piled snowdrift, the warm rosebuds below.”

          ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

                ~ 1803 ~ 1882

The stoplight at the intersection of Cedar Crest Boulevard & Broadway reflects in the creek at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania after a fresh mid-March snowfall has blanketed the landscape in this painterly, HDR image I captured in the waning days of winter.

                 

Walkin' In A Winter Wonderland ...

“Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin’?

In the lane snow is glistenin’

A beautiful sight

We’re happy tonight

Walkin’ in a winter wonderland …”

        ~ “Winter Wonderland”

          ~ music by Felix Bernard, lyrics by

                   Richard B. Smith

               ~ 1934

“Winter Wonderland” is a winter song, popularly regarded as a Christmas song. Through the decades it has been recorded by over 200 different artists.

 

Two men walk through a winter wonderland a fresh February snowfall has created on my favorite path at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

 

Winter Gold At The Bridge ...

“There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.”

             ~ Pablo Picasso

               ~ 1881 ~ 1973

The golden hour of a beautiful late February day illuminates patches of snow and the Little Lehigh Creek to the right of a path at Lehigh Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania, that leads to the Interstate 78 bridge that drapes above the peaceful parkway in this painterly, HDR image I shot as sunset loomed.

The busy interstate that drives above the bucolic setting is an interesting juxtaposition, but the bridge does nothing to detract from the serene paths, natural scenery and the Little Lehigh Creek, seen at right, that flows through the length of the parkway.

Interstate 78 is an east-west highway running 144 miles from northeast of Harrisburg through Allentown in Pennsylvania, and western and northern New Jersey to the Holland Tunnel and Lower Manhattan in New York City.