There is something in the darkness and the vapors that arise from the head . . .

June 23. 

June 23,2019

I am inclined to think that my hat, whose  lining is gathered in midway so as to make a shelf, is about as good a botany-box as I could have and far more convenient, and there is something in the darkness and the vapors that arise from the head - at least if you take a bath - which preserves flowers through a long walk. Flowers will frequently come fresh out of this botany- box at the end of the day, though they have had no sprinkling.

It is what I call a washing day, such as we sometimes have when buttercups first appear in the spring, an agreeably cool and clear and breezy day, when all things appear as if washed bright and shine, and, at this season especially, the sound of the wind rustling the leaves is like the rippling of a stream, and you see the light-colored under side of the still fresh foliage, and a sheeny light is reflected from the bent grass in the meadows. Haze and sultriness are far off. The air is cleared and cooled by yesterday's thunder-storms. The river too has a fine, cool, silvery sparkle or sheen on it. You can see far into the horizon, and you can hear the sound of crickets with such feelings as in the cool morning.

This grassy road now dives into the wood  as if it were entering a cellar or bulkhead, the shadow is so deep. June is the first month for shadows. How is it in July? 

And now I scent the pines. I plucked a blue geranium in a meadow near the Kibbe Place, which appeared to me remarkably fragrant, like lilies and strawberries combined \. 

The path I cut through the swamp late last fall is much more grown up than I expected. The sweet fragrance of swamp-pinks fills all the swamps.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 23, 1852

My hat, whose lining is gathered in midway so as to make a shelf, is about as good a botany-box as I could have. . . See December 4, 1856 ("About half a dozen years ago I found myself again attending to plants with more method, looking out the name of each one and remembering it. I began to bring them home in my hat, a straw one with a scaffold lining to it, which I called my botany- box. I never used any other, and when some whom I visited were evidently surprised at its dilapidated look, as I deposited it on their front entry table, I assured them it was not so much my hat as my botany-box.”)


It is an agreeably cool and clear and breezy day, when all things appear as if washed bright and shine. The river too has a fine, cool, silvery sparkle or sheen on it. You can see far into the horizon. See June 23, 1854 (“The air is beautifully clear, showing the glossy and light-reflecting greenness of the woods. It is a great relief to look into the horizon") See also  June 2, 1860 ("There is a lively and washing northwest wind after the rain. . . .The air is cleansed and clear, and the waves, as I look toward the sun, sparkle with so bright and white a light, - so peculiarly fresh and bright."); June 9, 1852 ("The weather is very clear, and the sky bright. The river shines like silver.”);; ; June 26, 1853 ("Summer returns without its haze. We see infinitely further into the horizon on every side, and the boundaries of the world are enlarged.") and also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Horizon