One Little Snowdrop ...

“Snowdrops: Theirs is a fragile but hearty celebration … in the very teeth of winter.”

              ~ Louise Beebe Wilder

    ~American gardening writer & designer

      whose books are now considered classics 

                     of  their era

                  ~ 1878 ~ 1938

  

One little snowdrop sheens its hopeful beauty in the winter sunshine in this shot I captured February 18, 2023 at Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.

 

In a winter shorn of snow to this point, this snowdrop still heralds the hope of the coming spring.

 

Snowdrops are hardy perennial, winter-flowering plants that are often heralded as the first sign of spring. They bloom as early as January or February whatever the weather ~ they will even push through frozen, snow-covered ground.

 

Snowdrops are also known as Candlemas Bells, as they were gathered at Candlemas February 2 to decorate churches before the Reformation. They were symbols of purity, which was connected to the rite of purification that Mary observed by going to the temple forty days after Christmas. The festival was formerly known in the Roman Catholic Church as the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and is now known as the Presentation of the Lord. In the Anglican Church it is called the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. During Candlemas, all of the candles to be used in the church for the coming year are blessed, and the faithful are invited to bring their own candles so that they can be blessed and used in the home for prayer throughout the year.

 

Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, named the snowdrop the Galanthus nivalis, “milk flower of the snow,” in 1753.

 

The Roses Of October ...

“O, gather me the rose, the rose,

While yet in flower we find it,

For summer smiles, but summer goes,

And winter waits behind it …”

  ~ from “O, Gather Me the Rose”

  ~ William Ernest Henley

    ~ English poet

   ~ 1849 ~1903

Roses are still beauties in bloom on a gorgeous mid-October afternoon at Delaware Canal State Park, Easton, Pennsylvania.

I captured these beauties near the Forks of the Delaware Trailhead of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail).

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Where The Water Lilies Bloom ...

 “Water Lilies’ is an extension of my life. Without the water the lilies cannot live, as I am without art.”

            ~ Claude Monet

               ~ 1840 ~ 1926

   ~ One of the most famous Western painters of all time, founder of Impressionist painting, creator of the iconic Water Lilies series & a symbol of French painting

Kissed by the summer sun, the loveliness of the pink water lilies dances in the pond on a beautiful mid-July afternoon at Johnson’s Pond Wildlife Park, Schnecksville, North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania.

A blue-tailed dragonfly can be seen alighting on the bloom at left and in the foreground on the pond.

Water lilies, plants in the genus Nymphaea, are aquatic blooms that grow in ponds and water gardens and are abundant on Johnson’s Pond.

  

This wildlife park provides an environment for bird watching, nature study and trails.

 

Watercolor Bluebells ...

“Art is man’s nature; nature is God’s art.”

             ~ Philip James Bailey

                   ~ English poet

                               ~1816 ~ 1902

Beguiling bluebells bloom softly in early April as they dance in the afternoon sun near the banks of the Swabia Creek at Lock Ridge Park and Furnace Museum, Alburtis, Pennsylvania in this painterly image I captured on a beautiful spring day.

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 Park is a park built around an historic iron ore blast furnace just outside Alburtis, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley. The park preserves portions of the former Lock Ridge Iron Works, which dates back to 1868. The 59-acre park was opened in August 1976.