Friday, September 12, 2014

Red oak acorns fall first.

September 12.

A cool, overcast day threatening a storm. Methinks these cool cloudy days are important to show the colors of some flowers, —that with an absence of light their own colors are more conspicuous and grateful against the cool, moist, dark-green earth.

The river has at length risen perceptibly, and bathing I find it colder again than on the 2d, so that I stay in but a moment. I fear that it will not again be warm.

A sprinkling drives me back for an umbrella. and I start again for Smith’s Hill 'via Hubbard’s Close. I see plump young bluebirds in small flocks along the fences, with only the primaries and tail a bright blue, the other feathers above dusky ashy-brown, tipped with white. 

How much more the crickets are heard a cool, cloudy day like this! 

I see the Epilobium molle in Hubbard’s Close still out, but I cannot find a trace of the fringed gentian.

White oak acorns have many of them fallen. They are small and very neat light-green acorns, with small cups, commonly arranged two by two close together, often with a leaf growing between them; but frequently three, forming a little star with three rays, looking very artificial. Some black scrub oak acorns have fallen, and a few black oak acorns also have fallen. The red oak began to fall first.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 12, 1854

Bathing I find it colder again than on the 2d, so that I stay in but a moment. See September 2, 1854 ("Bathe at Hubbard’s. The water is surprisingly cold on account of the cool weather and rain, but especially since the rain of yesterday morning. It is a very important and remarkable autumnal change. It will not be warm again probably" ); September 6, 1854 ("The water is again warmer than I should have believed; "); September 24, 1854 ("It is now too cold to bathe with comfort") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Luxury of Bathing

Small and very neat light-green acorns, with small cups, commonly arranged two by two.  See September 30, 1854 ("The conventional acorn of art is of course of no particular species, but the artist might find it worth his while to study Nature’s varieties again.")


Septemeber 12. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, September 12

These cool cloudy days 
show the colors of flowers
against dark-green earth.
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-540912 

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