Sunday, May 16, 2021

It Is All A Great Strange Dream ...

 “Happiness consists in knowing it is all a great strange dream.”

                       ~ Jack Kerouac

                            ~1922-1969

A man walks his dog (hidden by grass) on a path that traipses through a field of infrared on a beautiful mid-June evening along the Jordan Creek Greenway at Covered Bridge Park, Orefield, Pennsylvania, as spring prepares to segue to summer in this abstract image.

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Steakin' Out The South Side ...

“I love the nostalgic myself. I hope we never lose some of the things of the past.”

      ~ Walt Disney

       ~ 1901-1966

“Family Owned Since 1940” is declared on the distinctive flatiron-shaped building that is home to Zandy’s Steak Shop, a staple on the South Side of Allentown, Pennsylvania that has been serving up tasty steak sandwiches, cheesesteaks, sausage sandwiches, french fries, pierogies and so much more for 81 years.

I captured this HDR shot of this mainstay at 813 St. John Street on an early May afternoon and presented the image in sepia to enhance the nostalgic mood. Prior to housing Zandy’s, the building used to be a movie theatre.


 

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Button Buck On The Bloomin' Range ...

“The wildlife and its habitat cannot speak, so we must and we will.”

             ~ Theodore Roosevelt

                  ~ 1858-1919

            ~ Naturalist & Conservationist

    ~26th President of 

            The United States of America

                        ~ 1901-1909

 

With the late afternoon air perfumed with the scent of honeysuckle and the early May landscape brightened with bloomin’ wild yellow mustard, this beautiful white-tailed button buck pauses from grazing ~ with his mama doe nearby ~ on a hillside of the Central Range of the 1,100-acre Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.

When the late General Harry C. 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.


 

Monday, May 10, 2021

A Cut Above ...

“I dream of Jeanie with the light brown hair

Borne, like a vapor, on the summer air

I see her tripping where the bright streams play

Happy as the daisies that dance on her way …”

          ~ “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”

             ~ 1854 parlor song by

                Stephen Foster

                   ~ 1826-1864

           ~popular song performed by

                 Barbershop Quartets

      ~ the opening line was notably used as the basis for the title of the 1960s TV series “I Dream of Jeannie”

As the oldest barber shop in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Woody’s Barber Shop is a cut above for sure! I shot this image of this mainstay in the West End of the city on an early May afternoon.

Woody’s Barber Shop has been in business for 91 years. Services include high and tights, flat tops, kids cuts, and old-fashioned regular haircuts.

 The barber’s pole is a type of sign used by barbers to signify the place or shop where they perform their craft. The trade sign is, by a tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, a staff or pole with a helix of colored stripes (often red and white in many countries, but usually red, white and blue in the United States).

 For more information visit https://www.woodysbarbershopatown.com/.