The road is white with the apple blossoms fallen off, as with snowflakes.

May 27.

A wet day. The veery sings nevertheless. 

The road is white with the apple blossoms fallen off, as with snowflakes. 

The dogwood is coming out.

Ladies'-slippers out. They perfume the air. 

May 27

Ranunculus recurvatus, hooked crowfoot, by the spring.

I hear but few toads and peepers now. Methinks the tree-toad croaks more this wet weather. The tall crowfoot out. 

The fringed polygala near the Corner Spring is a delicate flower, with very fresh tender green leaves and red-purple blossoms; beautiful from the contrast of its clear red-purple flowers with its clear green leaves.

  Catch a wood frog (Rana sylvatica), the color of a dead leaf. He croaks as I hold him, perfectly frog-like. 

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H. D. Thoreau,  Journal, May 27, 1852

Ladies'-slippers out.  See May 26, 1857 (“A lady's-slipper. At Cliffs, no doubt, before. ”)

A wood frog  the color of a dead leaf. See June 29, 1852 ("The mud turtle is the color of the mud, the wood frog and the hylodes of the dead leaves, the bullfrogs of the pads, the toad of the earth, the tree-toad of the bark."); May 30, 1854 ("Wood frogs skipping over the dead leaves, whose color they resemble."). Compare September 12, 1857 ("I brought it close to my eye and examined it. It was very beautiful seen thus nearly, not the dull dead-leaf color which I had imagined. . .")

The road is white with

the apple blossoms fallen off

as with snowflakes.

 A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The road is white with apple blossoms

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 © 2009-2024