Now is the time to observe the leaves

June 4.

Now is the time to observe the leaves, so fair in color and so perfect in form. I stand over a sprig of choke-cherry, with fair and perfect glossy green obovate and serrate leaves, in the woods this p.m., as if it were a rare flower.  Now various forms of oak leaves in sprout-lands, wet-glossy, as if newly painted green and varnished, attract me. 

June 4 2022

In the washing breeze the lighter undersides begin to show, and a new light is flashed upon the year, lighting up and enlivening the landscape.

The surface of the still water nowadays looking like dust at a little distance. Is it the down of the leaves blown off? I distinguish the different surfaces, — here broken into waves and sparkling with light, there, where covered with this linty dust or film, merely undulating without breaking, and there quite smooth and stagnant. I see in one place a sharp and distinct line, as if there were a cobweb on the water, between the clear and ruffled water and the stagnant filmy part, as if it were a slightly raised seam. 

These warm and dry days, which put spring far behind, the sound of the cricket at noon has a new value and significance, so serene and cool. It is the iced-cream of song. It is modulated shade.

I now notice froth on the pitch and white pines.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 4, 1854

Now is the time to observe the leaves, so fair in color and so perfect in form. See June 4, 1855 (“and now the crimson velvety leafets of the black oak, showing also a crimson edge on the downy under sides, are beautiful as a flower”); May 17, 1852 ("These young leaves have the beauty of flowers. “);May 17, 1853 (" Now is the time to admire the very young and tender leaves. ") See also June 4, 1860 ("You may say that now, the leafy season has fairly commenced.")

Now various forms of oak leaves in sprout-lands, wet-glossy, as if newly painted green and varnished, attract me. See June 4, 1855 ("And now the crimson velvety leafets of the black oak, showing also a crimson edge on the downy under sides, are beautiful as a flower, and the more salmon white oak. ")

The surface of the still water nowadays looking like dust at a little distance. Is it the down of the leaves blown off? See June 4, 1855 ("Lint comes off on to clothes from the tender leaves, but it is clean dirt and all gone when you get home "); June 4, 1857 ("Each under side of a leaf you strike leaves the mark of its lint on your clothes, but it is clean dirt and soon wears off."); June 6, 1855 (“You see . . . a dust-like tint on river, apparently from the young leaves and bud-scales, covering the waters, which begin to be smooth, and imparting a sense of depth.”. See also note to June 4, 1857 (“It is an agreeable phenomenon to me, as connected with the season and suggesting warm weather. I suppose it to be the down from the new leaves which so rapidly become smooth. . . . where the water slowly circles round in that great eddy, has the appearance of having been dusted over.”)

The sound of the cricket at noon has a new value and significance, so serene and cool. See June 4, 1857 ("One thing that chiefly distinguishes this season from three weeks ago is that fine serene undertone or earth-song . . . the creak of crickets, which affects our thoughts so favorably, imparting its own serenity.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Cricket in Spring

June 4. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, June 4

Now is the time to

observe the leaves so perfect

in color and form. 

In the washing breeze

the undersides of leaves flash

new light on the year.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Now is the time to observe the 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

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-540604