Autumn Falls ...

“But memory is an autumn leaf that murmurs a while in the wind and then is heard no more.”

                       ~ Kahlil Gibran

                           ~ 1883-1931

A single autumn leaf rests in the cascading waters of Resh Falls, which flows like silk in harmony with autumn along the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain. I shot this long exposure capture on a beautiful October afternoon at Lehigh Gap along the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail).

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.

Resh Falls is one of the Five Falls at East Penn along a unique area of the D&L Trail.

Railroading has a rich history in the development of lower Carbon County as three railroads went through the Lehigh Gap.

East Penn Township had two of them on its side of the river as the Lehigh Valley Railroad ran along what is now the D&L Trail. The Lehigh and New England Railroad ran parallel about 75 feet higher on the mountain on what is now the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s Bobolink Trail.

The engineering needed to build these railroads would be a wonder today, but when you consider that they were done a century ago it becomes more impressive. They built pools along the railroad to collect runoff similar to what we now have as detention basins.

These pools still collect water and they discharge the collected water at five waterfalls that can be observed year round when hiking or biking 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.

Nuzzle ...

“Bless the beasts and the children ... give them love, let it shine all around them.”

            ~ “Bless the Beasts and the Children”

                                  ~ 1971

 I feel so blessed personally and as a photographer to have witnessed this tender, precious moment as this beautiful white-tailed deer doe nuzzles her sweet fawn on a mid-March evening when winter is about to segue into spring at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Daisies After A Spring Rain ...

“Where innocent bright-eyed daisies are,

With blades of grass between,

Each daisy stands up like a star

Out of a sky of green.”

      ~ Christina Rossetti

        ~ 1830-1894                               

Raindrops linger on daisies, so beautiful and innocent, sweet and simple and the star of the show, on a late spring afternoon in early June when the sun has broken through after a rainfall at Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.