Monday, February 3, 2020

Kissed By Nostalgia ...


“Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.”
           ~ Khalil Gibran
               ~ 1883-1931
I saw these X’s & O’s – symbols of hugs and kisses – etched on a tree a few weeks before Valentine’s Day 2020 at Lehigh Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania and presented the image in sepia to enhance a nostalgic feel.

I’m not sure how long they’ve been there, but I first photographed them in October 2014, just before Sweetest Day – that image was posted on this blog as “X’s & O’s” on October 15, 2014.

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Side By Side ...


“Oh we ain’t got a barrel of money
Maybe we’re ragged and funny
But we’ll travel along singing a song
Side by side …

Through all kinds of weather
What if the sky should fall
As long as we’re together
It doesn’t matter at all…”
              ~ “Side by Side”
                  ~1927
          ~ popular song by Harry M. Woods (1896-1970), now considered a standard. It has been recorded by many artists, but is probably best known in a 1953 recording by Kay Star. Woods was a Tin Pan Alley songwriter & pianist. He composed his songs on piano, despite the fact that he was born without fingers on his left hand.

A sweet white-tailed deer doe and her yearling pose for a spring portrait on a beautiful early April evening at Lehigh Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Monday, January 27, 2020

The Lonesome Road ...


“Look down, look down that lonesome road
Before you travel on
Look up, look up and greet your maker
For Gabriel blows his horn

Weary, totin’ such a load
Tredgin’ down that lonesome road
Look down, look down that lonesome road
Before you travel on

Through love, through love, what have I done?
That you should treat me so
You cause me to walk and talk
Like I never done before

Weary, totin’ such a load
Tredgin’ down that lonesome road
Weary, totin’ such a load
Tredgin’ down that lonesome road.”
 ~ “The Lonesome Road”
         ~ 1927
~ music by Nathaniel Shilkret, lyrics by Gene Austin, written in the style of an African-American folk song & alternately titled “Lonesome Road,” “Look Down that Lonesome Road,” & “Lonesome Road Blues.”

~ initially recorded by Gene Austin September 16, 1927, other artists performing the song include Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong & Bing Crosby. Jack Prince sang the song in the television series” The Andy Griffith Show” in the episode “Rafe Hollister Sings” which originally aired February 11, 1963.

A man travels the snow sugared trail of the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail) that hugs the Kittatinny Ridge at Lehigh Gap in serene winter solitude on a January afternoon in this monochrome shot.

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.