The turning-point between winter and summer is reached.

May 18.

MAY 18, 2013

Sunday.

Lady’s-slipper almost fully blossomed.

The log of a canoe birch on Fair Haven, cut down the last winter, more than a foot in diameter at the stump; one foot in diameter at ten feet from the ground. I observed that all parts of the epidermis exposed to the air and light were white, but the inner surfaces  freshly exposed, were a buff or salmon-color. Sinclair says that in winter it is white throughout. But this was cut before the sap flowed? ? ! Was there any sap in the log? I counted about fifty rings.

The shrub oaks are now blossoming.

The scarlet tanagers are come.

The oak leaves of all colors are just expanding, and are more beautiful than most flowers.

The hickory buds are almost leaves.

The landscape has a new life and light infused into it.

The deciduous trees are springing, to countenance the pines, which are evergreen.

It seems to take but one summer day to fetch the summer in. The turning-point between winter and summer is reached.

The birds are in full blast.

There is a peculiar freshness about the landscape; you scent the fragrance of new leaves, of hickory and sassafras, etc. And to the eye the forest presents the tenderest green.

The blooming of the apple trees is becoming general.

I think that I have made out two kinds of poplar, the Populus tremuloides, or American aspen, and the P. grandidentata, or large American aspen , whose young leaves are downy. 

H.D. Thoreau, Journal, May 18, 1851

There is a peculiar freshness about the landscape. Lady's-slipper almost fully blossomed. The scarlet tanagers are come. The oak leaves of all colors are just expanding, and are more beautiful than most flowers. The hickory buds are almost leaves. The birds are in full blast. The blooming of the apple trees is becoming general. You scent the fragrance of new leaves.The turning-point between winter and summer is reached. The landscape has a new life and light infused into it. And to the eye the forest presents the tenderest green

The turning-point between winter and summer is reached. Compare March 30, 1860 ("[Y]ou seem to be crossing the threshold between winter and summer. As I walk the street I realize that a new season has arrived.”)

The landscape has a new life and light infused into it. And to the eye the forest presents the tenderest green. See May 18, 1852 ("This tender foliage, putting so much light and life into the landscape, is the remarkable feature at this date. The week when the deciduous trees are generally and conspicuously expanding their leaves.”); May 17, 1854 (“The wooded shore is all lit up with the tender, bright green of birches fluttering in the wind and shining in the light”); see also  May 19, 1860 (“See a green snake, a very vivid yellow green, of the same color with the tender foliage at present, and as if his colors had been heightened by the rain.”);

The scarlet tanagers are come. See A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Scarlet Tanager