The pewee sings yet.

August 1

August 1, 2014

The berries of what I have called the alternate-leaved cornel [dogwood] are now ripe, a very dark blue – blue-black – and round, but dropping off prematurely, leaving handsome red cymes, which adorn the trees from a distance. 

Chelone glabra [white turtlehead] just out. 

Is not that the small-flowered hypericum?

Singing birds are scarce. I have not heard the catbird or the thrush for a long time. The pewee sings yet.

Early apples are ripe, and the sopsivine scents my handkerchief before I have perceived any odor from the orchards. 

Find a long, dense spike of the Orchis psycodes. Much later this than the great orchis. The same, only smaller and denser, not high-colored enough.

The small rough sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus) tells of August heats; also Helianthus annuus, common sunflower. May it not stand for the character of August?

H. D. Thoreau, Journal,  August 1, 1852

The berries of what I have called the alternate-leaved cornel are now ripe. See August 2, 1854 ("How interesting the small alternate cornel trees with often a flat top, a peculiar ribbed and green leaf, and pretty red stems supporting its harmless blue berries inclined to drop off.");August 3, 1856 ("Cornus alternifolia berries ripe, as I go from Holden Swamp shore to Miles Swamp. They are in open cymes, dull-blue, somewhat depressed globular, tipped with the persistent styles, yet already, as usual, mostly fallen. But handsomer far are the pretty (bare) red peduncles and pedicels, like fairy fingers spread. They make a show at a distance of a dozen rods even. Something light and open about this tree, but a sort of witch's tree nevertheless. ") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Alternate-leafed dogwood (Cornus alternifolia)

Singing birds are scarce . . .The pewee sings yet. See August 6, 1858 ("The note of the wood pewee is now more prominent, while birds generally are silent. "); August 18, 1860 ("The note of the wood pewee sounds prominent of late."); September 5, 1858 (" I hear two or more wood pewees this afternoon, but had not before for a fortnight or more. The pewee days are over for some time.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Eastern Wood-Pewee

Find a long, dense spike of the Orchis psycodes. See August 2, 1852 ("It is a new era with the flowers when the small purple fringed orchis, as now, is found in shady swamps standing along the brooks. It appears to be alone of its class. Not to be overlooked, it has so much flower, ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Purple Fringed Orchids

The small rough sunflower tells of August heats. See note to  August 1, 1855 ("Small rough sunflower a day or two"). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Helianthus

August 1. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, August 1.

No catbird or thrush.

The singing birds are scarce but

the pewee sings yet. 

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The pewee sings yet.

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

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