Mid-June: clover, srtawberries and the wild rose

June 15, 2013

June 15. 

Clover now in its prime.  What more luxuriant than a clover-field? 

Painters are wont, in their pictures of Paradise, to strew the ground too thickly with flowers. There should be moderation in all things. Though we love flowers, we do not want them so thick under our feet that we cannot walls without treading on them. But a clover-field in bloom is some excuse for them.  

This is perhaps the most characteristic feature of June, resounding with the hum of insects.  It is so massive, such a blush on the fields. The rude health of the sorrel cheek has given place to the blush of clover. 

Strawberries in the meadow now ready for the picker. They lie deep at the roots of the grass in the shade. You spread aside the tall grass, and deep down in little cavities by the roots of the grass you find this rich fruit.

Here are many wild roses northeast of Trillium Woods. It is the pride of June.  I bring home the buds ready to expand, put them in a pitcher of water, and the next morning they open and fill my chamber with fragrance.

June 15, 2013

H. D. Thoreau,  Journal, June 15, 1853

Clover now in its prime. What more luxuriant than a clover-field? See June 15, 1851 (“the clover gives whole fields a rich appearance, -- the rich red and the sweet-scented white. The fields are blushing with the red species as the western sky at evening.”); June 12, 1854 (“Clover now reddens the fields.”); June 18, 1860 (“I see very distinctly the redness of a luxuriant field of clover on the top of Fair Haven Hill.”)

Here are many wild roses northeast of Trillium Woods. See June 15, 1851 (“See the first wild rose to-day on the west side of the railroad causeway”);  June 15, 1852 ("he common, early cultivated red roses are certainly very handsome, so rich a color and so full of blossoms; you see why even blunderers have introduced them into their gardens") See also note to June 14, 1852 ("Saw a wild rose from the cars in Weston. The early red roses are out in gardens at home.")

Strawberries in the meadow now ready for the picker. . . . deep down in little cavities by the roots of the grass you find this rich fruit. See June 14, 1859 ("Early strawberries begin to be common. The lower leaves of the plant are red, concealing the fruit.”)