The Cathedral of Learning from Schenley Park, in front of Phipps Conservatory. This is not the first time Old Pa Pitt has published a picture of this view, and it will not be the last. It is a view worth seeing in many different lights and different seasons.
In 1938 and 1939, the WPA put what today would be millions of dollars’ worth of improvements into the Schenley Park trails. Seldom have improvements been carried out with such simple good taste, and they will probably last for centuries.
Acres and acres of Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) carpet the forest floor near the Squaw Run in Fox Chapel. These and many other local flowers may be found at our sister site Flora Pittsburghensis.
This waterfall is usually a gentle and friendly thing, as we see it here, but it can be a roaring cascade after a bad storm. There used to be two footbridges over the stream below, but both are mangled wrecks since a storm a few years back.
A Great White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) blooming along the Trillium Trail in Fox Chapel.
Panther Hollow Lake in early spring, with the Cathedral of Learning in the background and a pair of Canada geese floating on the water.
Tall, narrow rowhouses in South Oakland cling to the edge of Panther Hollow. Many of the houses have been converted to apartments.
As nature awakens from her winter slumber, the ferns uncurl their elegant fiddleheads in Schenley Park.
Father Pitt admits to being a sucker for waterfalls, big or small. These are small, but very relaxing to look at and listen to. They’re part of a stream along the Tom the Tinker Trail in the Kane Nature Reserve. You can hear the spring chorus of birds in the background.
The name of the trail, incidentally, is an allusion to the Whiskey Rebellion. Notes signed “Tom the Tinker” appeared everywhere threatening anyone who complied with the whiskey tax.
