The ease of winter walking

February 8

Night before last, our first rain for a long time; this afternoon, the first crust to walk on. It is pleasant to walk over fields raised a foot or more above their summer level, and the prospect is altogether new. 

In this winter often no apparent difference between rivers, ponds and fields.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 8, 1852

Night before last,

our first rain 

          for a long time;

Night before last, our first rain for a long time. See  February 8, 1853 ("The warm rains have melted off the surface snow or white ice on Walden, down to the dark ice"); February 8, 1854 ("Rain, rain, rain, carrying off the snow and leaving a foundation of ice"); February 8, 1856 ("But yesterday’s snow turning to rain, which froze as it fell, there is now a glaze on the trees,  . . .and thin crust over all the snow. At this hour the crust sparkles with a myriad brilliant points . . .The snow is soft, and the eaves begin to run as not for many weeks."); February 8, 1857 ("The snow is gone off very rapidly in the night, and much of the earth is bare, and the ground partially thawed.") February 8, 1858 ("The ground is so completely bare this winter, and therefore the leaves in the woods so dry, that on the 5th there was a fire in the woods by Walden . . .Such a burning as commonly occurs in the spring."); February 8, 1860 ("40° and upward may be called a warm day in the winter. We have had much of this weather for a month past, reminding us of spring. ")

this afternoon,

     the first crust 

       to walk on.

The first crust to walk on. It is pleasant to walk over the fields raised a foot or more above their summer level, and the prospect is altogether new. See January 24, 1856 ("When the snow raises us one foot higher than we have been accustomed to walk, we are surprised at our elevation! So we soar."); January 27, 1860 ("After the January thaw we have more or less of crusted snow, i. e. more consolidated and crispy. When the thermometer is not above 32 this snow for the most part bears"); February 13, 1856 (" A very firm and thick, uneven crust, on which I go in any direction across the fields, stepping over the fences."); February17, 1854 ("In the early part of winter there was no walking on the snow, but after January. . . you could walk on the snow-crust pretty well.") 

February 8. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, February 8

First crust to walk on.

Now no difference between

rivers ponds and fields.

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The ease of winter walking

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 ©  2009-2023

Night before last, our first rain for a long time; this afternoon, the first crust to walk on.

 It is pleasant to walk over the fields raised a foot or more above their summer level, and the prospect is altogether new. 

Is not all music a hum more or less divine? I hear something new at every telegraph - post.

I have not got out of hearing of one before I hear a new harp. 

Thoughts of different dates will not cohere. 

Carried a new cloak to Johnny Riordan.

I found that the shanty was warmed by the simple social relations of the Irish.

On Sunday they come from the town and stand in the doorway and so keep out the cold.

One is not cold among his brothers and sisters.

What if there is less fire on the hearth, if there is more in the heart! 

These Irish are not succeeding so ill after all.

The little boy goes to the primary school and proves a forward boy there, and the mother's brother, whohas let himself in the village, tells me that he takes the Flag of our Union (if that is the paper edited by an Irish man).

It is musical news to hear that Johnny does not love to be kept at home from school in deep snows. 

In this winter often no apparent difference between rivers, ponds  and fields.

The French respected the Indians as a separate and independent people , and speak of them and contrast themselves with them , as the English have never done . They not only went to war with them , but they lived at home with them . There was a much less interval between them/