Our principal rain this spring was April 28th, 29th, and 30th, and again, May 3d and 4th . . .
P. M. — To Cliffs. The causeways being flooded, I have to think before I set out on my walk how I shall get back across the river.
The earliest flowers might be called May-day flowers. A white-throated sparrow still (in woods). Viburnum Lentago and nudum are both leafing. Cress at the Boiling Spring, one flower. As I ascend Cliff Hill, the two leaves of the Solomon's-seal now spot the forest floor, pushed up amid the dry leaves. Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum leafing.
Flowers are self-registering indicators of fair weather. I remember how I waited for the hazel catkins to become relaxed and shed their pollen, but they delayed, till at last there came a pleasanter and warmer day and I took off my greatcoat while surveying in the woods, and then, when I went to dinner at noon, hazel catkins in full flower were dangling from the banks by the roadside and yellowed my clothes with their pollen. If man is thankful for the serene and warm day, much more are the flowers.
From the Cliffs I again admire the flood, — the now green hills rising out of it. It is dark-blue, clay, slate, and light-blue, as you stand with regard to the sun. With the sun high on one side it is a dirty or clayey slate; directly in front, covered with silvery sparkles far to the right or north, dark-blue; farther to the southwest, light-blue.
At sunset across the flooded meadow to Nawshawtuct. The water becoming calm. The sun just disappearing as I reach the hilltop, and the horizon's edge appears with distinctness. As the twilight approaches, the mountains assume a deeper blue.
As yet the aspect of the forest at a distance is not changed from its winter appearance, except where the maple-tops in blossom in low lands tinge it red. A spreading red maple in bloom, seen against a favorable background, as water looking down from a hillside, presenting not a dense mass of color but an open, graceful and ethereal top of light crimson or scarlet, not too obvious and staring, slightly tingeing the landscape as becomes the season.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 7, 1854
I have to think before I set out on my walk how I shall get back across the river. See April 29, 1860 ("I had to pause a moment and cipher it out in my mind")
A spreading red maple in bloom ... presenting . . .an open, graceful and ethereal top of light crimson or scarlet, . . . slightly tingeing the landscape as becomes the season. See May 1, 1856 ("It is the red maple’s reign now,. . . you see dimly defined crescents of bright brick red above and amid a maze of ash-colored branches.”); April 26, 1855 ("The blossoms of the red maple.. . . are now most generally conspicuous and handsome scarlet crescents over the swamps. “); April 28, 1855 ("The red maples, now in bloom, are quite handsome at a distance over the flooded meadow . . . The abundant wholesome gray of the trunks and stems beneath surmounted by the red or scarlet crescents.”); April 24, 1857 ("I see the now red crescents of the red maples in their prime . . . above the gray stems.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Red Maple
The sun just disappearing as I reach the hilltop . . .the horizon's edge appears with distinctness . . .the mountains assume a deeper blue. See June 2, 1852 ("Now I have reached the hill top above the fog at a quarter to five, about sunrise, and all around me is a sea of fog, level and white, reaching nearly to the top of this hill, only the tops of a few high hills appearing as distant islands in the main. It resembles nothing so much as the ocean."); August 2, 1853 ("Sundown. — To Nawshawtuct. "); December 10, 1856 (" See the sun set from the side of Nawshawtuct, and make haste to the post-office with the red sky over my shoulder.") See also March 29, 1853 ("A pleasant short voyage is that to the Leaning Hemlocks on the Assabet, just round the Island under Nawshawtuct Hill . . . This is a favorite voyage for ladies to make, down one stream and up the other, plucking the lilies by the way and landing on the Island, and concluding with a walk on Nawshawtuct Hill..")
P. M. — To Cliffs. The causeways being flooded, I have to think before I set out on my walk how I shall get back across the river.
The earliest flowers might be called May-day flowers. A white-throated sparrow still (in woods). Viburnum Lentago and nudum are both leafing. Cress at the Boiling Spring, one flower. As I ascend Cliff Hill, the two leaves of the Solomon's-seal now spot the forest floor, pushed up amid the dry leaves. Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum leafing.
Flowers are self-registering indicators of fair weather. I remember how I waited for the hazel catkins to become relaxed and shed their pollen, but they delayed, till at last there came a pleasanter and warmer day and I took off my greatcoat while surveying in the woods, and then, when I went to dinner at noon, hazel catkins in full flower were dangling from the banks by the roadside and yellowed my clothes with their pollen. If man is thankful for the serene and warm day, much more are the flowers.
From the Cliffs I again admire the flood, — the now green hills rising out of it. It is dark-blue, clay, slate, and light-blue, as you stand with regard to the sun. With the sun high on one side it is a dirty or clayey slate; directly in front, covered with silvery sparkles far to the right or north, dark-blue; farther to the southwest, light-blue.
At sunset across the flooded meadow to Nawshawtuct. The water becoming calm. The sun just disappearing as I reach the hilltop, and the horizon's edge appears with distinctness. As the twilight approaches, the mountains assume a deeper blue.
As yet the aspect of the forest at a distance is not changed from its winter appearance, except where the maple-tops in blossom in low lands tinge it red. A spreading red maple in bloom, seen against a favorable background, as water looking down from a hillside, presenting not a dense mass of color but an open, graceful and ethereal top of light crimson or scarlet, not too obvious and staring, slightly tingeing the landscape as becomes the season.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 7, 1854
I have to think before I set out on my walk how I shall get back across the river. See April 29, 1860 ("I had to pause a moment and cipher it out in my mind")
A spreading red maple in bloom ... presenting . . .an open, graceful and ethereal top of light crimson or scarlet, . . . slightly tingeing the landscape as becomes the season. See May 1, 1856 ("It is the red maple’s reign now,. . . you see dimly defined crescents of bright brick red above and amid a maze of ash-colored branches.”); April 26, 1855 ("The blossoms of the red maple.. . . are now most generally conspicuous and handsome scarlet crescents over the swamps. “); April 28, 1855 ("The red maples, now in bloom, are quite handsome at a distance over the flooded meadow . . . The abundant wholesome gray of the trunks and stems beneath surmounted by the red or scarlet crescents.”); April 24, 1857 ("I see the now red crescents of the red maples in their prime . . . above the gray stems.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Red Maple
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