Signs of Fall

September 4.

It is cooler these days and nights, and I move into an eastern chamber in the morning, that I may sit in the sun.

The water, too, is cooler when I bathe in it, and I am reminded that this recreation has its period. I feel like a melon or other fruit laid in the sun to ripen. I grow, not gray, but yellow.

Saw flocks of pigeons the 2d and 3d. On Conantum an upland plover. The goldfinch is very busy pulling the thistle to pieces.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 4, 1860

I move into an eastern chamber in the morning, that I may sit in the sun. See August 29, 1859 ("It is so cool a morning that for the first time I move into the entry to sit in the sun"); September 17, 1858 (“Cooler weather now for two or three days, so that I am glad to sit in the sun on the east side of the house mornings.”); September 18, 1852 ("In the forenoons I move into a chamber on the east side of the house, and so follow the sun round.”)

The goldfinch is very busy pulling the thistle to pieces. See August 9, 1856 (“These are already feeding on the thistle seeds.”); September 4, 1859 ("Three kinds of thistles are commonly out now, — the pasture, lanceolate, and swamp") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Thistles
and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau the Goldfinch