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| November 15, 2013 |
Ρ . M. - To Fair Haven Hill and by boat to witch-hazel bush.
Were they not the white-in-tail birds I saw this afternoon? Cricket still.
After yesterday's clear, windy
weather we have to-day less wind and much haze. It is Indian-summer-like.
The
river has risen yet higher than last night, so that I cut across Hubbard's
meadow with ease. The flood has covered most muskrat-cabins again.
Take up a witch-hazel with still some fresh blossoms.
At sundown,
on the water, I hear come booming up the river what I suppose is the sound of
cannon fired in Lowell to celebrate the Whig victory, the voting down the new
Constitution. Perchance no one else in Concord hears them, and it is remarkable
that I hear them, who is only interested in the natural phenomenon of sound
borne far over water. The river is now so full and so high over the meadows , and at that hour was so smooth withal, that perchance the waves of sound flowed over the smooth surface of the water with less obstruction and further than in any other direction.
The tall wool-grass with its stately heads, still stands above and is reflected in the smooth water. Were those insects on the surface after the moon rose skaters or water-bugs?
After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined, and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, insensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft.
This afternoon has wanted no condition to make it a gossamer day, it seems to me, but a calm atmosphere. Plainly the spiders cannot be abroad on the water unless it is smooth. The one I witnessed this fall was at time of flood. May it be that they are driven out of their retreats like muskrats and snow-fleas, and spin these lines for their support? Yet they work on the causeway, too
I see many cranberries on the vines at the bottom making a great show. It might be worth the while, where possible, to flood a cranberry meadow as soon as they are ripe and before the frosts, and so preserve them plump and sound till spring.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, November 15, 1853
Cricket still. See November 15, 1859 (" I hear in several places a faint cricket note") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Cricket in November (Listening for the last Cricket)
The flood has covered most muskrat-cabins again. See November 15, 1859 ("The river is perfectly smooth between the uniformly tawny meadows, and I see several musquash-cabins off Hubbard Shore distinctly outlined as usual in the November light. A very pleasant Indian summer day. ")
Take up a witch-hazel with still some fresh blossoms. See November 14, 1858 ("Probably the witch-hazel and many other flowers lingered till the 11th, when it was colder. The last leaves and flowers (?) may be said to fall about the middle of November."); November 24, 1859 ("At Spanish Brook Path, the witch-hazel (one flower) lingers.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Witch-Hazel
This afternoon has wanted no condition to make it a gossamer day. See November 15, 1858 ("Gossamer, methinks, belongs to the latter part of October and first part of November");
November 15, 1859 ("A fine gossamer is streaming from every fence and tree and stubble.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Gossamer Days
November 15. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, November 15
Clear yellow light of
the western sky reflected
in the smooth water.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Clear yellow light of the western sky
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
https://tinyurl.com/hdt-531115
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