Just Across The Delaware ...

“A good photograph is knowing where to stand.”

                                ~ Ansel Adams

                                            ~ 1902-1984

As sunset looms on a gorgeous October day, the historic Northampton Street Bridge, commonly called The Free Bridge, can be seen across the Delaware River looking toward Phillipsburg, New Jersey from Delaware Canal State Park, Easton, Pennsylvania near the Forks of the Delaware Trailhead of the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail).

The Delaware River Toll Bridge can be seen at left, and at right the iconic Jimmy’s Doggie Stand.

The Free Bridge that spans the two states was completed in 1896 and survived massive flooding from Hurricane Diane in 1955. It underwent a thorough restoration in 1990 and is one of my very favorite places to photograph.

Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

Looming At The Lowcountry Lagoon ...

“It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.”

                   ~ Aesop

                       ~ born 620 B.C., died 564 B.C.

A Juvenile Little Blue Heron looms over the lagoon as sunset approaches on a late October evening in the beautiful Lowcountry of Beaufort County, South Carolina.

I Hear The Cottonwoods ...

“I hear the cottonwoods whisperin’ above

Tammy, Tammy, Tammy’s in love

The old hootie owl hootie-hoo’s to the dove

Tammy, Tammy, Tammy’s in love

Does my lover feel what I feel

When he comes near?

My heart beats so joyfully

You’d think he could hear

Wish I knew if he knew what I’m dreaming of

Tammy, Tammy, Tammy’s in love.

Whippoorwill, whippoorwill, you and I know

Tammy, Tammy, can’t let him go

The breeze from the bayou keeps murmuring low

Tammy, Tammy, you love him so

When the night is warm, soft and warm

I long for his charms

I’d sing like a violin

If I were in his arms

Wish I knew if he knew what I’m dreaming of

Tammy, Tammy, Tammy’s in love."

            ~    “Tammy”

    ~ recorded by Debbie Reynolds
 for the 1957 film “Tammy and the Bachelor”

   ~ music by Jay Livingston, lyrics by Ray Evans

I heard the cottonwoods whisperin’ above as a soft late October breeze and golden hour sunlight whisper through the balls of cotton-like fluff and seeds of an Eastern Cottonwood Tree as sunset approaches along the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail) at Lehigh Gap.

And, of course, it reminded me of the “Tammy” song!

The Eastern Cottonwood, also called a necklace poplar, is a cottonwood poplar native to North America.

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.