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.")
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
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