To Tall's Island, taking boat at Cliffs.
May 10, 2023
Rain about daylight makes the weather uncertain for the day. Damp, April-like mistiness in the air. I take an umbrella with me.
The wind is southwest, and I have to row or paddle up. The shad-bush in blossom is the first to show like a fruit tree on the hill sides, seen afar amid gray twigs, before even its own leaves are much expanded.
I drag and push my boat over the road at Deacon Farrar's brook, carrying a roller with me. It is warm rowing with a thick coat.
I make haste back with a fair wind and umbrella for sail.
A sprinkling rain ceases when I reach Bittern Cliff, and the water smooths somewhat. I see many red maple blossoms on the surface. Their keys now droop gracefully about the stems.
A fresh, growing scent comes from the moistened earth and vegetation, and I perceive the sweetness of the willows on the causeway.
Above the railroad bridge I see a kingfisher twice sustain himself in one place, about forty feet above the meadow, by a rapid motion of his wings, somewhat like a devil's-needle, not progressing an inch, apparently over a fish.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 10, 1854
The shad-bush in blossom is the first to show like a fruit tree on the hillsides. See May 9, 1852 ("The first shad-bush, Juneberry, or service-berry (Amclanchier canadensis), in blossom."); May 12, 1855 ("I now begin to distinguish where at a distance the Amelanchier Botryapium, with its white against the russet, is waving in the wind."); May 13, 1852 ("The amelanchiers are now the prevailing flowers in the woods and swamps and sprout-lands, a very beautiful flower, with its purplish stipules and delicate drooping white blossoms. The shad-blossom days in the woods."); May 19, 1854 ("With what unobserved secure dispatch nature advances! The amelanchiers have bloomed, and already both kinds have shed their blossoms and show minute green fruit. There is not an instant's pause!") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Shad-bush, Juneberry, or Service-berry
I perceive the sweetness of the willows on the causeway.. See May 12, 1855 ("I perceive the fragrance of the Salix alba, now in bloom, more than an eighth of a mile distant. They now adorn the causeways with their yellow blossoms and resound with the hum of bumblebees, . . ."); May 14, 1852 ("Going over the Corner causeway, the willow blossoms fill the air with a sweet fragrance, and I am ready to sing,")
May 10. A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 10
Shad-bush in blossom
seen afar amid gray twigs
before its own leaves.
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
tinyurl.com/hdt-540510
No comments:
Post a Comment