Christmas Cupcakes In Centre Square ...

 “Life is as sweet as a cupcake.”

         ~ author unknown

Patrons may sweeten their Christmas at Sweet Girlz Bakery’s wooden hut at the festive Winter Village in Centre Square November 28, 2020 in historic Easton, Pennsylvania, a Delaware River Town. The Easton Peace Candle, not seen in this shot, towers over Centre Square as wooden huts festooned for Christmas beckon shoppers to stop by.

The Winter Village welcomed everyone to shop at cozy wooden huts featuring city retailers and restaurants, stroll around the circle enjoying treats and take a spin around the ice skating rink. Filled with the Christmas spirit, people could shop at Easton’s more than 30 downtown retailers in search of treasurers to place under the Christmas tree. The event greeted visitors November 27 through December 31.

Just across the Delaware River from historic Phillipsburg, New Jersey, Easton was founded in 1752 and is located at the confluence of the Delaware River and Lehigh River.

The Easton Peace Candle is a tower-like structure erected every Christmas season in Easton. The approximately 106-foot tall structure, which resembles a giant candle, is assembled every year over the Soldier’s & Sailor’s Monument, a Civil War memorial in Centre Square. It is typically assembled in mid-November and lighted over Thanksgiving weekend and disassembled in early February each year.

The Peace Candle was first erected in 1951, and has been erected almost every year since then, having been replaced a few times due to damage or disrepair. It is dedicated to the Easton area men and women who have served or are serving in the United States armed forces.

It has been said to be the largest non-wax Christmas candle in the country. Although conceived with the hopes of restoring Easton’s pre-20^th century reputation for elaborate Christmas decorations, city officials also believed a candle would serve as a symbol of peace for all religions and denominations.

 

Trailing In The Leaves ...

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October.”

                    ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

                         ~ 1804-1864

A sunlit late October afternoon reflects in the Delaware Canal as I was trailing in the leaves along the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail).

I captured this image after starting out from the Forks of the Delaware Trailhead at Delaware Canal State Park, Easton, Pennsylvania.

The trail is positioned between the Delaware River and Delaware Canal, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978. The site possesses national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America.

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

 

It Was November ...

“It was November – the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind-songs in the pines.”

                     ~ L.M. Montgomery

                          ~ 1874-1942 

The late afternoon of a waning November day paints the scenery around a man and his dog strolling down a path at Lehigh Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania, as they are about to walk under the Interstate 78 bridge that drapes above the peaceful parkway in this painterly, HDR image I shot as sunset loomed.

The busy interstate that drives above the bucolic setting is an interesting juxtaposition, but the bridge does nothing to detract from the serene paths, natural scenery and the Little Lehigh Creek, seen at right, that flows through the length of the parkway.

Interstate 78 is an east-west highway running 144 miles from northeast of Harrisburg through Allentown in Pennsylvania, and western and northern New Jersey to the Holland Tunnel and Lower Manhattan in New York City.