The Beguiling Bluebell ...

“I do not think I have ever seen anything more beautiful than the bluebell I have been looking at. I know the beauty of our Lord by it.”

     ~ Gerard Manley Hopkins

     ~ English poet & Jesuit priest

       ~ 1844 ~ 1889

 

A beguiling bluebell softly blooms near the banks of the Swabia Creek at Lock Ridge Park and Furnace Museum, Alburtis, Pennsylvania on a beautiful mid-April afternoon when temperatures soared into the 80s and the chorus of spring peepers floated through the air.

The blooming of the multitude of Lock Ridge bluebells ~ also called grape hyacinth ~ is a clarion call of spring in the Lehigh Valley, drawing many people to photograph and glimpse their beauty in the span of the few weeks they bloom.

 

Lock Ridge is uniquely beautiful when the bluebells are in bloom. Bluebells are actually muscari, or grape hyacinth, a plant that produces spikes of blue flowers that resemble bunches of grapes in the spring.

 

The 59-acre park was opened in August 1976.

 

Lock Ridge Park is a park built around an historic iron ore blast furnace just outside Alburtis. The park preserves portions of the former Lock Ridge Iron Works, which dates back to 1868 and operated as an iron mill until 1921.

 

Acquired by Lehigh County in 1972, the Lock Ridge Furnace Museum was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 and is operated by the Lehigh County Historical Society.

Nuzzle Under The Evening Sun ...

“When you look a wild animal in the eye, it's like catching a glimpse into the soul of nature itself.”

     ~ Paul Oxton

    ~ founder & director of 

            Wild Heart Wildlife Foundation

My favorite white-tailed deer button buck ~ Buttons, as I call him, at right ~ gets a sweet nuzzle from his twin sister under the early evening sun on beautiful late April day at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

I began photographing Buttons as a precious white-spotted fawn, then a sweet button buck and then a beautiful yearling, until he migrated away in January 2020. Along the way I tossed him many apples, which he loved eating. It’s a true joy and blessing to me personally and as a photographer to have watched this white-tailed deer grow.

 

Daisy Maze Of A May Morning ...

“… I got daisies in green pastures, I got my man, who could ask for anything more?...”

               ~ “I Got Rhythm”

           ~ composed by George Gershwin,

               lyrics by Ira Gershwin

                        ~ 1930

A maze of wild daisies ~ simple, joyful flowers that are my very favorite ~ dance in the morning sun on a beautiful late May day at Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.

I shot this the morning of May 31, 2022 after taking sunrise photos at the preserve. I spent several hours walking through the preserve’s beautiful spring scenery with the air soft and warm in the low 70s before temperatures soared into the 90s.