And so it always is in April.

April 8. 

Cold as it is and 
has been for several weeks
in all exposed places,

I find it unexpectedly warm
in perfectly sheltered places
where the sun shines.

And so it always is in April.

In a warm and sheltered hollow in the woods, I feel the cold currents drop in from time to time, just as they are seen to ripple a small lake.

But this cold northwest wind is distinct and
separable from the air here warmed by the April sun.


The epigaea is not quite out. The earliest peculiarly woodland herbaceous flowers are epigaea, anemone, thalictrum, and — by the first of May — Viola pedata. These grow quite in the woods amid dry leaves, nor do they depend so much on water as the very earliest flowers. 

I am, perhaps, more surprised by the growth of the Viola pedata leaves, by the side of paths amid the shrub oaks and half covered with oak leaves, than by any other growth, the situation is so dry and the surrounding bushes so apparently lifeless.

The Alnus serrulata is evidently in its prime considerably later than the incana, for those of the former which I notice to-day have scarcely begun, while the latter chance to be done. The fertile flowers are an interesting bright crimson in the sun.

H.D. Thoreau, Journal, April 8, 1859

Unexpectedly warm in perfectly sheltered places where the sun shines . . .but this cold northwest wind is distinct andseparable from the air here warmed by the April sun. See March 8, 1860 ("Nowadays we separate the warmth of the sun from the cold of the wind and observe that the cold does not pervade all places, but being due to strong northwest winds, if we get into some sunny and sheltered nook where they do not penetrate, we quite forget how cold it is elsewhere."); April 13, 1855 ("A cool wind still, from the snow covered country in the northwest. It is, however, pleasant to sit in the sun in sheltered places."); April 26, 1857 ("At this season still we go seeking the sunniest, most sheltered, and warmest place. . . .There our thoughts flow and we flourish most. .”)

The epigaea is not quite out. The earliest peculiarly woodland herbaceous flowers are epigaea, anemone, thalictrum, and — by the first of May — Viola pedata. See April 8, 1855 ("As to which are the earliest flowers, it depends on the character of the season, and ground bare or not, meadows wet or dry, etc., etc., also on the variety of soils and localities within your reach."); April 10, 1859 ("I might class the twenty-two herbaceous flowers which I have known to be open before the first of May thus: . . .Woodland flowers Epigaea, anemone, and thalictrum.");  May 5, 1860 ("Anemone and Thalictrum anemonoides are apparently in prime about the 10th of May.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Epigaea

The Alnus serrulata is evidently in its prime while the incana chance to be done. See. April 8, 1852 (" I notice the alder, the A. serrulata, in blossom, its reddish-brown catkins now lengthened and loose."); April 8, 1855  (“I find also at length a single catkin of the Alnus incana, with a few stamens near the peduncle discolored and shedding a little dust when shaken; so this must have begun yesterday”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Alders