The drying of the earth goes on in the cold night as well as the warm day.

March 6.

A cool morning. The bare water here and there on the meadow begins to look smooth, and I look to see it rippled by a muskrat. The earth has to some extent frozen dry, for the drying of the earth goes on in the cold night as well as the warm day.

P. M. — To Goose Pond. I see the skunk- cabbage started about the spring at head of Hubbard's Close, amid the green grass, and what looks like the first probing of the skunk. The snow is now all off on meadow ground, in thick evergreen woods, and on the south sides of hills, but it is still deep in sprout-lands, on the north sides of hills, and generally in deciduous woods. The ponds are hard enough for skating again.

Hear and see the first blackbird, flying east over the Deep Cut, with a tchuck, tchuck, and finally a split whistle.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 6, 1854

I see the skunk- cabbage started about the spring at head of Hubbard's Close See March 8, 1855 ("As the ice melts in the swamps I see the horn-shaped buds of the skunk-cabbage, green with a bluish bloom, standing uninjured, ready to feel the influence of the sun, - the most prepared for spring—to look at— of any plant.")

See also: A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, I Have Seen Signs of the Spring:

• the Skunk Cabbage
• The Red-wing Arrives