Hope Springs Eternal ...

"Hope springs eternal ..."
                          ~ Alexander Pope
                                ~ 1688-1744

Hope springs eternal, just as surely as
the daffodils bloom in the early spring.

I always fill with happiness like a child
when I see spring's first blooms.

This is the first daffodil bud I've seen this season, 
captured in mid-March a little more than 
a week before the official beginning of
spring, a time of hope, beauty and fresh possibilities.

Daffodil, Jonquil, Narcissus ... whatever 
name you choose, this bud says spring
is awakening at Trexler Memorial Park,
Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Hope, like spring, is ever near.     
                                    

Dancing In The Mirror ...

"There are two ways of spreading light:
to be the candle or the mirror 
that reflects it."
                    ~ Edith Wharton
                                   ~ 1862-1937 

The light of a waning winter sunset
dances as it is mirrored in the waters
spilling over a crest of the 
Little Lehigh Creek in Lehigh Parkway,
Allentown, Pennsylvania.   

Sweetness In The Grass ...

"Listen easy, you can hear God calling
Walking barefoot by the stream ...
And the time will be our time
And the grass won't pay no mind ...
The moment we're living is now
Now now now now now now now ...
And the time will be our time
And the grass won't pay no mind
No the grass won't pay no mind."

       ~"And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind"
            ~ Words & Music by Neil Diamond
           ~ Recorded by the great Elvis Presley
                                         ~ 1969   

And the grass won't pay no mind
as these adorable Canadian Geese goslings
paint a picture of sweetness in the grass
in the light of a May sunset at
Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.   
 

                        
                        

The Spring Seeker ...

“It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want – oh you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”

                          ~ Mark Twain

                                      (Samuel Clemens)

                                       ~ 1835-1910  

The rays of a waning winter sunset

brush this sweet robin perched atop

the highest branch of a tree at

Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania

as it dreams of the nearby spring

just around the corner.  

                                                                                                                                                                         

Come October ...

"There is no season when such pleasant
and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce
so pleasant an effect on the feelings, 
as now in October."
                    ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
                                      ~ 1804-1864

Shades of a looming October sunset
dance on a picturesque scene at the historic
Hopewell Farm.

The farm is part of Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site in southeastern Berks County near Elverson, Pennsylvania, an example of an American 19th century rural "iron plantaation."
The buildings include a blast furnace, the
ironmaster's house and auxiliary structures
including a blacksmith's shop, a company store
and several worker's houses.

Hopewell Furnace was founded in 1771 by 
ironmaster Mark Bird for whom Birdsboro was named. The site's most prosperious time was 
during the 1820-1840 period with a brief boom in production during the American Civil War.
In the mid-19th century changes in ron making, including a shift from charcoal to anthracite
rendered smaller furnaces like Hopewell obsolete.
The site discontinued operations in 1883. 

Today, Hopewell Furnace consists of 14 restored 
structures in the core historic area, 52 features on
the List of Classified Structures, and a total of 848 mostly wooded areas. Hopewell Furnace National
Historic Site is located in the Hopewell Big Woods and surrounded by French Creek State Park on three sides and the State Game Lands
to the south which preserves the lands the furnace
utilized for its natural resources.   

  
 

Cycle Of The Road ...

"Nothing behind me,
everything ahead of me,
As is ever so on the road."
                    ~ Jack Kerouac
                                ~ 1922-1969
                          ~ "On The Road"
                                   ~ 1957

With a Pennsylvania sundown behind him
and a Jersey road ahead, this motorcyclist
crosses the Riverton-Belvidere Toll Supported
Bridge, which spans the Delaware River.

I shot this on an unusually warm February
evening, the spring like air breathing hope into all of life's possibilities.

The bridge, which opened in 1904, links
Belvidere, New Jersey and Riverton,
Pennsylvania.

Belvidere, one of my very favorite places, is a charming Victorian town located on the banks of
the Pequest and Delaware Rivers.  

 
   

  

The Vanishing Winter ...

"Roll forth, my song,
like the rushing river."
                      ~ James Clarence Mangan
                                        ~ 1803-1849

Spring rushes its joyful song on the
Delaware River in Belvidere, New Jersey as
a seagull flies in the distance on a rare and warm February breeze.

Chunks of ice are the only trace of the 
vanishing winter in my abstract view of the
beautiful scene I shot standing on the Jersey side beneath the Riverton-Belvidere Toll Supported Bridge. 

The bridge, which opened in 1904, links
Belvidere, New Jersey and Riverton, Pennsylvania.

Belvidere, one of my very favorite places, is
a charming Victorian town located on the banks
of the Pequest and Delaware Rivers.     

 

Fire Frost ...

"It is the life of the crystal,
the architect of the flake,
the fire of the frost,
the soul of the sunbeam,
This crisp winter air is full of it."
                       ~ John Burroughs
                                    ~1837-1921
                             ~ "Winter Sunshine"
                                           ~ 1875

The fire of the frost and the soul of the sunbeam
kiss at sunset, painting a fiery frozen beauty
at one of the highest elevations at
Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville,
Pennsylvania.

This is my abstract view of a snowy scene I shot
soon after the historic January Blizzard of 2016.
In a winter shorn of snow until the blizzard,
the storm plonked 31 inches of snow on nearby
Allentown in a 24 hour period.  

Autumn Cascade ...

"The music of the far-away summer
flutters around the autumn 
seeking its former nest."
                       ~ Rabindranath Tagore
                                ~ 1861-1941

Autumn cascades like a capricious
melody over a small waterfall on the Pequest River on a picturesque Indian Summer day in 
Belvidere, New Jersey.

The Pequest - Native American for "open land," -
tumbles down to Belvidere in a series of falls,
where it meets the mighty Delaware River,
of which it is a tributary.

Belvidere, one of my very favorite places,
is a charming Victorian town on the banks
of the Pequest and Delaware Rivers.         

The Doe From Snowy Creek ...

"It is the sweet, simple things of
life which are the real ones after all."
                        ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder
                                ~ 1867-1957

My favorite white-tailed deer doe
spots me on the bank and crosses the 
snowy creek to say hello as sunset draws near
on a winter's day in the park.

I've been blessed to photograph this doe
and her fawns since 2012, and it's a 
true joy to me personally and as a photographer.