Full moon setting while a dove takes in the welcome warmth of the January morning sun atop the old corn crib.

 
Hex sign decoration on a shed near Fogelsville - this one is a bit unusual as the teardrop shapes, unlike a previous example third photo before this one), are repeated in such a way that is line symmetric both horizontally and vertically and opposite quadrants are mirror-imaged. The scalloped edge in the outer circle is a common feature of hex signs used with any number of central themes. I will comment on the meanings of the various elements when I have a more extensive collection of examples and completed more research.

 
Real estate development has slowed to a crawl here as in most of the country. There is some activity in townhouse condo construction as we see here at Washington Crossing near Coopersburg, PA. But the construction of new single family residences ia almost at a standstill.

 
Gas prices have inched down a bit lately, so maybe the exuberance of this 7-11 store sign is justified. On the other hand, for someone who remembers buying gas for less than a quarter a gallon, prices above $3.00 will always seem a bit high.

 
Founder's name and the date form a part of one of the hex signs on this barn in Lehigh County. Someone has obviously refreshed the paint on the lettering but left the rest of what were once colorful hex signs unrestored. While names and dates appear on a few barns, this is the only one I recall seeing where a formal hex sign was included within the same circular design.

 
Hex signs on this barn are of the minimalist variety, monochrome and highly stylized. The solid heart standing alone is sometimes found without any circular hex signs, but hearts are a common element in more elaborate hex designs. The painted arches over doors and windows are a fairly common decorative element on wood3n barns.

 
Tank cars lined up on a siding at a factory in Fogelsville made an interesting composition with the utility line alongside. This is one of those shots that presented itself and in an instant it was gone as I rode by on a scouting trip looking for 5,000+ yards of clean fill for building a new firehouse in the Allentown suburbs.

 

The Maiden Creek has lately been totally frozen over above the old mill dam at Lenhartsville. This view is looking upstream from the old bridge on East Penn Street.

 
Rabbit tracks in the snow on a frozen pond give proof, if any was required, that it has been quite frigid here of late. This scene caught my attention while riding with a friend who was plowing snow from the parking lot at St. Paul's "Smoke" Church. It is a curious fact that a number of churches in this area have nicknames. The origin of this one is somewhat doubtful.

 
Spring? No, this crow was flying low over a hay field clad in the faded tones of winter, but I goosed the color saturation to give the scene a semblance of the time of year I would prefer it to be right now - a time when the only thing faded is the memory of snow.

 
Power lines often interest me for their geometry. The fact that these massive utility poles are wood and not metal made them irresistible to my eye.

 
Hex signs like the three decorating this billboard promoting local tourism are a common decorative feature on barns and other outbuildings on farms in this part of the country. Usually circular in shape, they range from monochrome geometric designs to colorful stylized representations of certain birds, plants and other design elements. Now viewed as mere ornamentation, the custom arose in a more superstitious time when the symbols were intended to solicit blessings like fertility, wealth, love, and peace.

 
Pinnacle Ridge Winery is in Greenwich Township, only about six miles from where I live, but I've never tried its product. My own taste runs more to Chilean or Australian Merlot. Pennsylvania has in recent years bowed to pressure to reduce regulation of alcohol to allow wineries to sell their product direct to the public and to allow customers to taste the wine on premises. Otherwise, we are mostly stuck in the Depression era quagmire of socialized alcohol sales. This system of limited state-run retail outlets for wine and liquor persists through an unholy alliance of unionized state employees in the stores protecting their jobs and socially conservative church leaders who would rather it wasn't sold at all. The latter are right about one thing, if you want to make something widely available, don't entrust it to the government. As Jefferson once wrote, "If we look to the government to tell us when to plant and when to reap, we will soon want for bread." As succinct an indictment of our farm policy as I have ever seen and written long before that policy began.

 
Dietrich's Meats is something of a local landmark located in the tiny community of Krumsville in Greenwich Township. I met a couple a few years ago who told me they stop at Dietrich's every trip on their way south to visit their daughter in Roanoke and take along some Pennsylvania German specialties that you won't find in the South or in New England. They stop again on the return trip to take some home to Connecticut.

 
Lehigh Valley Farms was once the co-op to which my landlords belonged to market their milk. It was bought out about 20 years ago by Joanna Farms, a subsidiary of the Canadian firm that makes Labatt's Beer. A rather odd combination - beer and milk - although they both ultimately come from grains and both satisfy very basic human needs and desires. In my youth I consumed a lot of beer, now I most often drink milk.

 
Murder is an odd name for a gathering of birds, but that's what they call a gathering of crows, and crows aren't even known for being predators. If field mice were doing the naming, murder might be used to refer to a gathering of eagles, hawks, or even owls. Who ever thought the word should apply to crows?

 
STOP? Who would want to put a stop to that smile or the face that goes with it? Actually, this is just a corner of billboard advertising a dental practice juxtaposed to a stop sign on S. 4th St. in Hamburg.

 
Bridge and branches struck me as an interesting composition. This is another view of the PA Route 100 bridge over the Schuylkill River at West Hamburg which I have shown before from the State Street bridge. This particular view is only available from the roadway of the old US 22, called State St. in Hamburg and Hex Highway here in Tilden Township. These graceful arched bridges are out of fashion nowadays in highway construction. Modern materials and methods are cheaper, and maybe better, but seldom so pleasing to the eye as the older way of doing things.

 
Silhouetted against the sky, bare trees in winter tell a story that is hidden by their leaves most of the year. Sort of like people, I think. With clothing, cosmetics and hairpieces, surgery, jewelry, and even habits and mannerisms, people attempt to conceal or alter or distract attention from the evidence of the lives they have lived. The trees in winter, through no fault of their own, are more honest.

 
Canada Geese - Branta canadensis - part of a group of about 30 stragglers that decided to fly over my house a second time at 8:30 on the morning of 8 January. I was outside when I heard the honking of perhaps a hundred geese. I headed into the house for the camera without much hope of getting a shot, but then the stragglers quit trying to keep up with the larger flock and made a lazy circuit over the farm. This was one of the better shots from about 30 I got before they disappeared to the southeast as the others had already done.

 

Innocuous contrails or intimidating chemtrails - who cares? Unlike some of my online friends, I am not losing any sleep over suspicions that the global elite are trying to poison us by emissions from jet airliners. I just included this color-altered view of a sunset because I liked it.

 

Architectural details like those shown here can be found on many otherwise unpretentious houses in Hamburg, Pennsylvania. Although much of the town, especially its commercial property, has suffered from modernizing the appearance of facades, most of the older downtown residences and a few of the businesses preserve interesting decorative touches to eaves, lintels, porches, etc. To bring out the contrast in the dark-painted decorations which were in shadow, I altered the contrast to the point where the walls all but disappear.

 
Gray Tiger Kitten in an uncharac- teristic pose - standing still in adequate light and without its head thrust in the feed bowl.

 
Dark-eyed (Slate-colored) Junco - Junco hyemalis - not exactly tack sharp focus, but if you click on the image for the full-screen view, you will see that it is still moving in the air and has just folded its wings to land on a branch. Also note the white feathers on the edge of the tail, these are usually not obvious when the Junco is perched in a tree or foraging on the ground.

 
Mourning Dove - Zenaida macroura - perched on an icy bough of a pine tree. In another shot in this series, not quite so clear as this one, I captured four of them in a single frame. These are year-round residents here and nest in this stand of evergreens, but they don't seem to mix with the Rock Dove flock at the dairy a block away.