Redness on the face of the earth

September 23.

My pink azaleas which had lost their leaves in the drought are beginning to leave out again. 

Sept;mer 23, 2013

Low blackberry vines generally red. The high blueberry bushes scattered here and there, the higher islands in Beck Stow’s Swamp, begin to paint it bright-red. 

Now look out for redness on the face of the earth, such as is seen on the cheek of the sweet Viburnum, or as a frosty morning walk imparts to a man’s face.  Very brilliant and remarkable now are the prinos berries, so brilliant and fresh when most things -- flowers and berries -- have withered. 

Here is an end of its berries then. The hard frosts of the 21st and 22d have put an end to several kinds of plants, and probably berries, for this year.  After those frosts a day’s sun reveals what mischief the frost had done by the withering and blackened leaves. 

Many plants fall with the first frosts.  This is the crisis when many kinds conclude their summer.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 23, 1854