P. M. — Skated to Lee’s Bridge and Farrar’s Swamp -— call it Otter Swamp.
A fine snow has just begun to fall, so we make haste to improve the skating before it is too late. Our skates make tracks often nearly an inch broad in the slight snow which soon covers the ice.
All along the shores and about the islets the water broadly overflows the ice of the meadows, and frequently we have to skate through it, making it fly. The snow soon shows where the water is.
It is a pleasant time to skate, so still, and the air so thick with snowflakes that the outline of near hills is seen against it and not against the more distant and higher hills.
Single pines stand out distinctly against it in the near horizon.
The ground, which was two thirds bare before, began to gray about Fair Haven Pond, as if it were all rocks.
There were many of those grubs and caterpillars on the ice half a dozen rods from shore, some sunk deep into it.
Single pines stand out distinctly against it in the near horizon.
The ground, which was two thirds bare before, began to gray about Fair Haven Pond, as if it were all rocks.
There were many of those grubs and caterpillars on the ice half a dozen rods from shore, some sunk deep into it.
This air, thick with snowflakes, making a background, enables me to detect a very picturesque clump of trees on an islet at Pole Brook,—a red oak in midst, with birches on each side.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, January 11, 1855
The near horizon. See September 20, 1857 ("The outlines of trees are more conspicuous and interesting such a day as this, being seen distinctly against the near misty background, – distinct and dark."); August 4, 1854 ("Rain and mist contract our horizon and we notice near and small objects"); November 29, 1850 ("The trees and shrubs look larger than usual when seen through the mist...").
The near horizon. See September 20, 1857 ("The outlines of trees are more conspicuous and interesting such a day as this, being seen distinctly against the near misty background, – distinct and dark."); August 4, 1854 ("Rain and mist contract our horizon and we notice near and small objects"); November 29, 1850 ("The trees and shrubs look larger than usual when seen through the mist...").
Close objects stand out
against a near horizon,
air thick with snowflakes.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, January 11
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 © 2009-2023
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