Peering Atop The Apple Tree ...

“Don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me,

Anyone else but me, anyone else but me, no, no, no!

Don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me …”

            ~ “Don’t Sit Under The Apple Tree 
                  (With Anyone Else But Me)

    ~  Sam H. Stept, composer 
      ~ Lew Brown & Charles Tobias, writers

         ~ A popular song made famous by Glenn Miller & by The Andrews Sisters during World War II. Its lyrics are the words of two young lovers who pledge their fidelity while one of them is away serving in the war. It remained in “Your Hit Parade’s” first place from October 1942 through January 1943, the longest period for a war song to hold first place.

“Don’t sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me” ~ perhaps that’s what this Great White Egret – also known as a Great White Heron – is thinking as it almost seems to be waving while peering from atop an apple tree while on the hunt on an August evening at Cedar Creek Parkway,

Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Majestic Silence ...

"When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.”

                        ~ Ansel Adams

                           ~ 1902-1984                                           

A still and silent, majestic beauty echoes on an early August evening as I looked up to see a sliver of the moon peeking down on a portion of the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, at Lehigh Gap in this high contrast monochrome shot.

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.

Lush Summer ...

“I felt like lying down by the side of the trail and remembering it all ...”

                        ~ Jack Kerouac

                                 ~ 1922-1969

All seasons have their own special beauty, yet I have to say I’ve always been a summer person.

And what more could anyone who loves summer ask for than a quintessential summer evening – verdant, lush and warm – just before sunset on the Saucon Rail Trail, Hellertown, Pennsylvania.

It’s the perfect, sun-dappled place for dreaming and remembrance … a place that seems to paintbrush the words of Jack Kerouac, “I felt like lying down by the side of the trail and remembering it all …”