Flares Of A Mad Orange Sunset ...

“Meanwhile the sunsets are mad orange fools raging in the gloom....”

 ~ Jack Kerouac

 ~ 1922-1969

Sunflares spark an abstract beauty around a mad orange sunset on July 5, 2021 along the Ironton Rail Trail, which loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania.

Looking more like the moon than the sun and shining with a wild beauty, the sun holds court in a hazy, milky sky.

The orange haze in the evening sky is likely the result of wildlife smoke in southern Canada affecting conditions very high in the atmosphere.

The Ironton Railroad was a shortline railroad in Lehigh County. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted to carrying Portland Cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20^th century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984.

 

In 1996, Whitehall Township purchased 9.2 miles of the right-of-way from Conrail, transforming it into the Ironton Rail Trail.

 

Evening Of A Fawn ...

 “… I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief …

For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

 ~ “The Peace of Wild Things”

 ~ Wendell Berry

 ~ born 1934

 ~ American novelist, poet, environmental activist, cultural critic & farmer

I came into the peace of wild things when I spotted this honey of a summer sight – a sweet, beautiful white-tailed deer fawn – grazing on a beautiful late June evening along the Ironton Rail Trail, which loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania.

 

The Ironton Railroad was a shortline railroad in Lehigh County. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted to carrying Portland Cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20^th century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984.

 

In 1996, Whitehall Township purchased 9.2 miles of the right-of-way from Conrail, transforming it into the Ironton Rail Trail.

 

Liberty Lights Up ...

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. — I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.”

    ~ from “Had a Declaration,” letter from

 John Adams to Abigail Adams

       ~ July 3, 1776

       ~ John Adams

        ~ 1735 ~ 1826

  ~American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Father who served as the second   President of the United States of America 1797 ~ 1801

 

Liberty’s rays of ravishing light and glory light up the summer night sky during the 2021 Fourth of July Fireworks set off from J. Birney Crum Stadium, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

 

Happy 245^th Birthday America!

 

How wonderful it would be to have fireworks – and the fire of patriotism – in our hearts every day!