Ain't Nothin' Like A Summer Morning ...

“Many a forenoon have I stolen away, preferring to spend thus the most valued part of the day; for I was rich, if not in money, in sunny hours and summer days, and spent them lavishly; nor do I regret that I did not waste more of them in the workshop or the teacher’s desk.”

       ~ Henry David Thoreau

         ~ 1817~1862

       ~ “Walden”

       ~ originally published August 9, 1854

 

To me, there’s nothing so beautiful in nature as a summer morning, and Thoreau’s words

seamlessly flow through this image of milkweed basking in the morning sun that I shot on a brilliant early July day at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

 

If we all had more sunny hours and summer days, how much richer ~ and happier ~ we’d all be.

 

Fording The Early Morning ...

“An early morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”

               ~ Henry David Thoreau

                        ~ 1817 ~ 1862

A vehicle crosses the spring waters at the Ford of the Jordan Creek, one of my very favorite places to be and to photograph, at Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.

I shot this in the early 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.

For more than 50 years visitors have enjoyed driving through the Jordan Creek. Kids and kids at heart cite “Crossing the Water” as one of their fondest memories.

 

The Elk's Winter Nap ...

“All good things are wild and free.”

       ~ Henry David Thoreau

          ~ 1817-1862

The elk take a winter’s nap in the snow on a beautiful early March afternoon at Trexler Nature

Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.

 

The elk live as a herd on the hillsides of the 1,100-acre preserve’s Central Range.

When the late General Harry Clay Trexler established the preserve in the early 1900s, he did it to save the American bison, elk and white-tailed deer from extinction and assure the species’ survival.

A conservationist along the lines of Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir, General Trexler understood the importance of nature and preserving wildlife in its natural habitat.

A successful businessman who amassed a fortune in the timber and cement industries and founded the Pennsylvania Power and Light Company, General Trexler began purchasing small farms in the low hills of Lehigh County in 1906. By 1913, he had transported eight bison and 20 Virginia white-tailed deer to the preserve. The elk followed soon after.

When General Trexler died in 1933, he bequeathed the property to the residents of Lehigh County. Today, the Trexler Nature Preserve is open to the public for passive recreation and nature watching.