Light and Shade II

July 5

As we come over Hubbard's Bridge between 5 and 6 P.M., the sun getting low, a cool wind blowing up the valley, we sit a while on the rails that are destined for the new railing.

The light on the Indian hills very soft and glorious gives the idea of wonderful fertility, - hills gilded like waving grain-fields. The cliffs and woods up the stream are nearer and have more shadow and actuality about them. What a paradise to sail by! 

July 5, 2015

This retired bridge is a favorite spot with me. I have witnessed many a fair sunset from it.

H. D. Thoreau,  Journal, July 5, 1851

We sit a while on the rails that are destined for the new railing. See August 8, 1851 ("The planks and railing of Hubbard's Bridge are removed. I walk over on the string-pieces, resting in the middle until the moon comes out of a cloud, that I may see my path"); August 12, 1851 ("Sitting on the sleepers of Hubbard’s Bridge, which is being repaired, now, 3 o’clock A. M., I hear a cock crow."); August 17, 1851 ("When I saw the carpenters the other day repairing Hubbard's Bridge, their bench on the new planking they had laid over the water in the sun and air, with no railing yet to obstruct the view, I was almost ready to resolve that I would be a carpenter and work on bridges, to secure a pleasant place to work.")

The sun getting low

cool wind blows up the valley

    and we sit a while.