Dance With The August Moon ...

“Well it’s a marvelous night for a moondance …

Can I just have one more moondance with you, my love? …”

      ~ “Moondance”

       ~ Van Morrison

         ~ 1970

Clouds tinged pink with the color of sunset dance around the moon and sweep down to the landscape in the beautiful surreal.

I shot this first quarter moon and clouds at the moment of sunset on August 15, 2021 on a warm and beautiful evening along the Ironton Rail Trail, which loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania.

Background texture by Jai Johnson added for artistic effect.

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.

 

Great White's Evening Hunt ...

“Knowledge is life with wings.”

   ~ William Blake

    ~ 1757 ~ 1827

Showing off its wingspan, a Great White Egret – also called a Great White Heron – reflects in the Jordan Creek as it dips its long, sharp bill under the water to spear its prey while hunting for supper on a warm and beautiful mid-August evening as sunset approaches at Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.

 

Summer Dances Across Leaser Lake ...

“In summer, the song sings itself.”

      ~ William Carlos Williams

           ~ 1883 ~ 1963

Summer, my most favorite of seasons, dances across Leaser Lake in the shadow of the Blue Mountain Ridge, New Tripoli, Pennsylvania.

I shot this from the Leaser Lake Loop Trail on a beautiful mid-July afternoon.

Leaser Lake’s namesake is Frederick Leaser, an American patriot who in September 1777 with his farm team hauled The Liberty Bell from Philadelphia to Allentown where it was concealed in Zion Reformed Church for protection during the Revolutionary War. His homestead is located one mile north of the lake.

Leaser Lake was built by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission for water-oriented recreation and opened for public use in 1971. Lehigh County leases this area from the state and operates and maintains the park. The land north of the lake was purchased by the county in the early 1970s. It is entirely wooded and is used for nature study and as an addition to the State Game Lands No. 217.