A Book of the Seasons: September 29.

September 29.


Cool breezy evening with a 
prolonged white twilight,

quite Septemberish.

September 29, 1854

I am late for grapes.
Dark-purple, very acid,
hard. Most have fallen.
September 29, 1856

All sorts of men come
to the Cattle-Show. I see
one with a blue hat.
September 29, 1857

What astronomer
can calculate the orbit 
of my thistle-down?
September 29, 1858

September 29, 2013

The poet writes the history of his body.  September 29, 1851

One or two myrtle-birds in their fall dress, with brown head and shoulders, two whitish bars on wings, and bright-yellow rump. September 29, 1858

The intense brilliancy of the red-ripe maples scattered here and there in the midst of the green oaks and hickories on its hilly shore.September 29, 1851

alternating with yellow birches and poplars and green oaks, they remind me of a line of soldiers, redcoats and riflemen in green mixed together. .  September 29, 1851

Again we have smooth waters, yellow foliage, and faint warbling birds, etc., as in spring. The year thus repeats itself. September 29, 1858

Astronomers can calculate the orbit of that thistle-down called the comet, now in the northwest sky, conveying its nucleus, which may not be so solid as a thistle’s seed, some whither, but what astronomer can calculate the orbit of my thistle-down and tell where it will deposit its precious freight at last? It may still be travelling when I am sleeping.    September 29, 1858

All sorts of men come to Cattle-Show. I see one with a blue hat. September 29, 1857

I hear that some have gathered fringed gentian. September 29, 1857

Pines have begun to be parti-colored with yellow leaves. September 29, 1857

September 29, 2018

 September 28, 1854 ("R. W. E.’s pines are parti-colored, preparing to fall, some of them.”):October 3, 1852 ("The pine fall, i.e. change, is commenced, and the trees are mottled green and yellowish.”)

  October 18, 1857 ("The fringed gentian closes every night and opens every morning in my pitcher.”); October 19, 1852 ("At 5 p. m. I found the fringed gentian now some what stale and touched by frost, being in the meadow toward Peter's. (Gentiana crinita in September, Bigelow and Gray.) ...  They are now, at 8 a. m., opening a little in a pitcher. It is too remarkable a flower not to be sought out and admired each year, however rare.. . .It is a very singular and agreeable surprise to come upon this conspicuous and handsome and withal blue flower at this season, when flowers have passed out of our minds and memories; the latest of all to begin to bloom.”) See also  A Book of the Seasons by Henry Thoreau, The Fringed Gentian 

 September 23, 1855 (“A little wren-like (or female goldfinch) bird on a.willow at Hubbard’s Causeway, eating a miller: with bright-yellow rump when wings open, and white on tail. Could it have been a yellow-rump warbler?”); October 14, 1855 ("Black bill and feet, yellow rump, brown above, yellowish-brown on head, cream-colored chin, two white bars on wings, tail black, edged with white, — the yellow-rump warbler or myrtle-bird without doubt.”)

 May 5, 1860 ("It takes us many years to find out that Nature repeats herself annually”)



 September 23 , 1858 ("saw the comet very bright in the northwest. "); October 5, 1858 ("The comet makes a great show these nights.")

October 3, 1856 (" Especially the hillsides about Walden begin to wear these autumnal tints in the cooler air. These lit leaves, this glowing, bright-tinted shrubbery, is in singular harmony with the dry, stony shore of this cool and deep well.")

See August 19, 1851 ("The poet must be continually watching the moods of his mind,"); April 8, 1854 ("The poet deals with his privatest experience."); October 21, 1857 ("Is not the poet bound to write his own biography?")

September 29, 2017

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 © 2009-2019