The royal month of August

August 18.

Rudbeckia laciniata, sunflower-like tall cone-flower, behind Joe Clark's. 

As I go over the hill behind Hunt's, the North River has a glassy stillness and smoothness, seen through the smoky haze that fills the air and has the effect of a film on the water, so that it looks stagnant. No mountains can be seen.

The locust is heard.  Fruits are ripening. Ripe apples here and there scent the air.  I see those minute yellow cocoons on the grass.

There is indeed something royal about the month of August. Its is a perhaps more tropical heat than that of July. Though hot it is not so suffocating a blaze, and the evenings generally are cooler..

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 18, 1852


There is indeed something royal about the month of August. See August 10, 1853("August, royal and rich"); August 4, 1851("It is now the royal month of August.").