I see the mountains in sunshine

October 20. 

Canada snapdragon, tansy, white goldenrod, blue-stemmed goldenrod. Aster undulatus, autumnal dandelion, tall buttercup, yarrow, mayweed. 

Picking chestnuts on Pine Hill. A rather cold and wind, somewhat wintry afternoon, the heavens overcast. Tlre clouds have lifted in the northwest.  I see the mountains in sunshine, all the more attractive from the cold I feel here, with a tinge of purple on them. A cold but memorable and glorious outline. This is an advantage of mountains in the horizon: they show you fair weather from the midst of foul.

The small red Solomon's-seal berries spot the ground here and there amid the dry leaves. 

The witch-hazel is bare of all but flowers.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, October 20, 1852

Aster undulatus .  See September 19, 1856 ("Observed an Aster undulatus behind oak at foot of hill on Assabet . . ."); October 2, 1859 ("The A. undulatus looks fairer than ever, now that flowers are more scarce."); October 4, 1853 ("Bumblebees are on the Aster undulatus"); October 6, 1858 ("the Aster undulatus is now very fair and interesting. Generally a tall and slender plant with a very long panicle of middle-sized lilac or paler purple flowers, bent over to one side the path. "); October 19, 1856 ("The A. undulatus is, perhaps, the only [aster]of which you can find a respectable specimen. I see one so fresh that there is a bumblebee on it."); October 25, 1858 ("The Aster undulatus is now a dark purple (its leaves), with brighter purple or crimson under sides.");November 7, 1858 ("Aster undulatus and several goldenrods, at least, may be found yet.")

Autumnal dandelion, . . . yarrow, mayweed. See October 16, 1856 ("I notice these flowers on the way by the roadside, which survive the frost, . . . mayweed, tall crowfoot, autumnal dandelion, yarrow, ...”); November 23, 1852 (" Among the flowers which may be put down as lasting thus far, as I remember, in the order of their hardiness: yarrow, tansy (these very fresh and common), cerastium, autumnal dandelion, dandelion, and perhaps tall buttercup, etc"); December 6, 1852 ("Tansy still fresh, and I saw autumnal dandelion a few days since.")

This is an advantage of mountains in the horizon... see May 24, 1860 (“ This is one of the values of mountains in the horizon, that they indicate the state of the atmosphere.”)