This morning the ground is again covered with snow, and the storm still continues. This afternoon the woods and walls and the whole face of the country wear once more a wintry aspect, though there is more moisture in the snow and the trunks of the trees are whitened now on a more southerly or southeast side.
These slight falls of snow which come and go again so soon when the ground is partly open in the spring, perhaps helping to open and crumble and prepare it for the seed, are called "the poor man's manure."
There is more rain than snow now falling, and the lichens, especially the Parmelia conspersa, appear to be full of fresh fruit, though they are nearly buried in snow. The Evernia jubata might now be called even a very dark olive-green. I feel a certain sympathy with the pine or oak fringed with lichens in a wet day. They remind me of the dewy and ambrosial vigor of nature and of man's prime.
The pond is still very little melted around the shore.
There is more rain than snow now falling, and the lichens, especially the Parmelia conspersa, appear to be full of fresh fruit, though they are nearly buried in snow. The Evernia jubata might now be called even a very dark olive-green. I feel a certain sympathy with the pine or oak fringed with lichens in a wet day. They remind me of the dewy and ambrosial vigor of nature and of man's prime.
The pond is still very little melted around the shore.
As I go by a pile of red oak recently split in the woods and now wet with rain, I perceive its strong urine-like scent. I see within the trunks solid masses of worm or ant borings, turned to a black or very dark brown mould, purest of virgin mould, six inches in diameter and some feet long, within the tree, - the tree turned to mould again before its fall.
But this snow has not driven back the birds. I hear the song sparrow's simple strain, most genuine herald of the spring, and see flocks of chubby northern birds with the habit of snowbirds, passing north.
But this snow has not driven back the birds. I hear the song sparrow's simple strain, most genuine herald of the spring, and see flocks of chubby northern birds with the habit of snowbirds, passing north.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 18, 1852
These slight falls of snow which come and go again so soon when the ground is partly open in the spring are called "the poor man's manure." See March 12, 1857 ("Snowed again last night, as it has done once or twice before within ten days without my recording it, — robin snows, which last but a day or two.")
But this snow has not driven back the birds. See January11 & 12, 1853 ("A "robin snow," as it is called, i. e. a snow which does not drive off the robins")
But this snow has not driven back the birds. See January11 & 12, 1853 ("A "robin snow," as it is called, i. e. a snow which does not drive off the robins")
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