A myriad sparkles

May 24. 

How perfectly new and fresh the world is seen to be, when we behold a myriad sparkles of brilliant white sunlight on a rippled stream!

Looking into the northwest horizon, I see that Wachusett is partially concealed by a haze. This is one of the values of mountains in the horizon, that they indicate the state of the atmosphere. I should not have noticed this haze if I had not looked toward the mountains .

I notice the first shadows of hickories, - not dense and dark shade, but open-latticed, a network of sun and shadow on the north sides of the trees.

As I sit just above the northwest end of the Cliff, I see a tanager perched on one of the topmost twigs of a hickory, evidently come to spy after me, peeping behind a leafet . He is between me and the sun, and his plumage is incredibly brilliant, all aglow. It a deep scarlet (with a yellower reflection when the sun strikes him), in the midst of which his pure-black wings look high-colored also. You can hardly believe that a living creature can wear such colors. 

A hickory, too, is the fittest perch for him.

Hear a wood pewee.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 24, 1860

How perfectly new and fresh the world is seen to be, when we behold a myriad sparkles of brilliant white sunlight on a rippled stream. See May 17, 1852 ("Now the sun has come out after the May storm, how bright, how full of freshness and tender promise and fragrance is the new world!")

I notice  the first shadows of hickories , — not dense and dark shade, but open-latticed, a network of sun and shadow on the north sides of the trees. See May 17, 1852 ("The birch leaves are so small that you see the landscape through the tree,”); May 21, 1860 ("Noticed the shadows of apple trees yesterday”); May 26, 1857 ("The very sudden expansion of the great hickory buds, umbrella-wise."); May 29, 1857 (“Those great hickory buds, how much they contained! You see now the large reddish scales turned back at the base of the new twigs. Suddenly the buds burst, and those large pinnate leaves stretched forth in various directions.”)

He is between me and the sun, and his plumage is incredibly brilliant, all aglow. It a deep scarlet (with a yellower reflection when the sun strikes him). . . You can hardly believe that a living creature can wear such colors. See May 23, 1853 ("How he enhances the wildness and wealth of the woods! That contrast of a red bird with the green pines and the blue sky! Even when I have heard his note and look for him and find the fellow sitting on a dead twig of a pine, I am always startled. . . . That incredible red, with the green and blue.I am transported; these are not the woods I ordinarily walk in.”)

Hear a wood pewee. See:
May 17. I hear the wood pewee, — pe-a-wai. The heat of yesterday has brought him on. May 17, 1853
May 17. Hear the wood pewee, the warm weather sound. May 17, 1854
May 19. Wood pewee. May 19, 1856
May 24. Hear the wood pewee. May 24, 1859
May 25. Wood pewee. May 25, 1855.
May 26. I hear the pea-wai, the tender note. May 26, 1852
May 26. Wood pewee. May 26, 1857
May 28. Hear the wood pewee. May 28, 1858

See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Eastern Wood-Pewee

***

May 24 . 6 A . M . — Water fallen about one inch . 

P . M . – To Cliffs . 

I see in a ditch a painted turtle nibbling the edge of a frost - bitten yellow lily pad ( in the water ) , which has turned white . Other pads have evidently been nibbled by him , having many scallops or notches in their edges , just the form of his jaws . 

That earliest little slender - leaved panic grass will bloom , say in a day ( if not now ) .

 About a rod from the west spring on Fair Haven Hill , by the wall , stands an English cherry tree three feet high . I think that this was planted there by a bird which came to the spring for water after feeding on cherries in the town ( ? ) , for I frequently find the stones dropped in the springs . 

Those red cedars now ten feet high or more on Fair Haven Hill have all the regular form of the leaf , except a small bunch or two in their midst , yet I remember that when four or five feet high they had only the ace tate [ sic ; = acicular ? ] form . It seems , then , that you will see small trees which have only leaves of the acetate [ sic ] form , but when they get larger they have leaves of the usual form . 

Looking into the northwest horizon , I see that Wachusett is partially concealed by a haze . It is suddenly quite a cool southeast wind . ( When I started , at two , it was also southeast , and thermometer 69 . ) This is one of the values of mountains in the horizon , that they in dicate the state of the atmosphere . I should not have noticed this haze if I had not looked toward the mountains . 

How perfectly new and fresh the world is seen to be , when we behold a myriad sparkles of brilliant white sunlight on a rippled stream ! So remote from dust and decay , more bright than the flash of an eye . 

I noticed the first shadows of hickories , — not dense and dark shade , but open - latticed , a network of sun and shadow . Just begun to describe their semicircles on the north sides of the trees . The first demonstrations that it will shade the ground , unobserved as yet by the cows in the pasture . 

I saw yesterday a herd of cows standing in the water of the river , though it was rather cold water . They begin their bathing about the same time that we do . They splash about till they get into a convenient place , about up to their bellies , and chew the cud there .

As I sit just above the northwest end of the Cliff , I see a tanager perched on one of the topmost twigs of a hickory , holding by the tender leafets , now five inches long , and evidently come to spy after me , peeping behind a leafet . He is between me and the sun , and his plumage is incredibly brilliant , all aglow . It is our highest - colored bird , — a deep scarlet ( with a yellower reflection when the sun strikes him ) , in the midst of which his pure - black wings look high - colored also . You can hardly believe that a living creature can wear such colors . A hickory , too , is the fittest perch for him .

 Hear a wood pewee .

 A pincushion gall on a black shrub oak ( not yet crimson - spotted ) . Yesterday saw oak - apples ( now yel low ) on a black shrub oak , two - thirds grown .

May 24. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 24 

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality.”

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2021