Early Fall Colored Leaves

This past Labor Day weekend, and early Sept, I saw the first hints of color in our area. We are near the Poconos in NE PA, and people from other states/areas come here to see the Fall Leaves changing color.
Here are a few early views, all within approximately 1/2 hour drive of my mountain.

 Below is a pond with an early fallen leave floating among the drops of rain falling from an overhanging branch just after a late-afternoon thunderstorm.

 Below is a sunny view at Nesbitt Park, across the river from Wilkes-Barre, on the west side.

Here's a link that gives more information about PA and Fall foliage. http://www.visitpa.com/season/fall

 Mountains and late-Summer flowers, approximately 1/2 hour away. 

I visitt this way often and love the sunsets from this viewpoint as well. AHHHHH!

full moon overhead & interesting clouds

the last moon was spectacular... here's a few shots that evening.

The first one looks like an eyeball, doesn't it?

 The clouds were moving pretty quickly...

 ... and changing shape...

...growing.  

COOL! 

the 4th of July

I LOVE the excitement of the celebration, and the sense of community when everyone gathers to listen to the philharmonic perform, usually climaxing with  Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture,  just as the first rockets shoot up into the air.
 I started taking MANY photos on Independence Day, from my window. (It was much to hot and humid to be walking around outside, especially since I'd hurt my ankle, but I knew with my view of "da valley" I'd see multiple celebrations.  I kept missing them, tried different settings on my camera... didn't like the looooong "fireworks" setting. WOW, so many photos!!! I edited out quite a few.

    But first: here's the lovely evening sky. I set my chair at the window 

      and started shooting around 8:40pm.

then zooming in a little towards the right.

a panorama after the sun dropped beyond the mountain ridge

And here are some of the shots of fireworks in different spots across the Susquehanna River,

on the West Side of the Wyoming Valley.

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The main local fireworks that evening were at Kirby Park, across the river in Kingston, PA,

a little over 2 miles away, south of my location - to the LEFT of my mountain view.

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I turned left & zoomed in when I started hearing all the blasts, and here are some of the higher ones I saw, just over the treetops:

The grand finale starts:

This is my favorite:

I call it " Fire Art"

(available at http://christina-verdgeline.artistwebsites.com/ )