The year is but a succession of days,
and I see that I could assign some office to each day
which, summed up, would be the history of the year.
Henry Thoreau, August 24, 1852
The first severe frost
in the garden this morning –
ice under the pump.
 |
| September 28, 2015 |
For a week or ten days I have ceased to look for new flowers or carry my botany in my pocket. September 28, 1851
A considerable part of the last two nights and yesterday, a steady and rather warm rain, such as we have not had for a long time. This morning it is still completely overcast and drizzling a little. September 28, 1851
A warm, damp, mistling day, without much wind. September 28, 1851
A windy day. What have these high and roaring winds to do with the fall? September 28, 1852
This morning we had a very severe frost, the first to kill our vines, etc., in garden; what you may call a black frost, –– making things look black. Also ice under pump. September 28, 1860
Poke berries in the sprout-land east of the red huckleberry still fresh and abundant, perhaps a little past prime. I never saw so many . . . black or purplish-black berries , almost crowd one another, hanging around the bright-purple, now for the most part bare, stems. September 28, 1856
The arum berries are still fresh and abundant, perhaps in their prime. . . . These singular vermilion-colored berries, about a hundred of them, surmount a purple bag on a peduncle six or eight inches long. September 28, 1856
Looking down from Nawshawtuct this afternoon, the white maples on the Assabet and below have a singular light glaucous look, almost hoary, as if curled and showing the under sides of the leaves, and they contrast with the fresh green pines and hemlocks. September 28, 1857
The white pines in Hubbard's Grove have now a pretty distinct parti-colored look, –– green and yellow mottled, September 28, 1851
R. W. E.’s pines are parti-colored, preparing to fall, some of them. September 28, 1854
The fall dandelion is now very fresh and abundant in its prime. September 28, 1851
Children are now gathering barberries, — just the right time. September 28, 1852
How many fruits are scarlet now! — barberries, prinos, etc. September 28, 1856
The swamp is bordered with the red-berried alder, or prinos, and the button-bush. The balls of the last appear not half grown this season,-probably on account of the drought, and now they are killed by frost. September 28, 1851
The Eupatorium purpureum is early killed by frost and stands now all dry and brown by the sides of other herbs like the goldenrod and tansy, which are quite green and in blossom. September 28, 1851
Acalypha is killed by frost, and rhexia. September 28, 1858
Liatris done, apparently some time. September 28, 1858
Liatris done, apparently some time. September 28, 1858
The fringed gentian was out before Sunday; was (some of it) withered then, says Edith Emerson. September 28, 1853
The gentian (Andrewsii), now generally in prime, loves moist, shady banks, and its transcendent blue shows best in the shade and suggests coolness; contrasts there with the fresh green;—a splendid blue, light in the shade, turning to purple with age.September 28, 1858
They are particularly abundant under the north side of the willow-row in Merrick’s pasture. September 28, 1858
I count fifteen in a single cluster there, and afterward twenty at Gentian Lane near Flint’s Bridge, and there were other clusters below. September 28, 1858
Bluer than the bluest sky, they lurk in the moist an shady recesses of the banks. September 28, 1858
I find the hood-leaved violet quite abundant in a meadow, and the pedata in the Boulder Field. September 28, 1852
I have now seen all but the blanda, palmata, and pubescens blooming again, and bluebirds and robins, etc., are heard again in the air. September 28, 1852
This is the commencement, then, of the second spring. Violets, Potentilla Canadensis, lambkill, wild rose, yellow lily, etc., etc., begin again. September 28, 1852
I hear the barking of a red squirrel, who is alarmed at something, and a great scolding or ado among the jays, who make a great cry about nothing. September 28, 1851
Had one of those sudden cool gusts, which filled the air with dust from the road, shook the houses, and caused the elms to labor and drop many leaves, early in afternoon. No such gust since spring. September 28, 1857
The mist is so thin that it is like haze or smoke in the air, imparting a softness to the landscape. September 28, 1851
The mist has now thickened into a fine rain, and I retreat. September 28, 1851
He whose theme is moonlight will find it difficult to illustrate it with the light of the moon alone.
September 28, 2015
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Blue Jay
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Red Squirrel
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Pine Fall
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Arum Berries
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Common Barberry
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Liatris
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Violets
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Fringed Gentian
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Autumnal Dandelion
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Lambkill (Kalmia augustifolia)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, September Moods
August 12, 1858 (“Saw a Viola pedata blooming again.”)
August 29, 1858 ("Gentiana Andrewsii, one not quite shedding pollen.")
August 31, 1853 ("Viola pedata out again.")
September 4, 1856 ("Viola pedata again.")
September 9, 1858 ("Many Viola cucullata have opened again")
September 12, 1851 ("Found a violet, apparently Viola cucullata, or hood-leaved violet, in bloom in Baker's Meadow beyond Pine Hill.")
September 13, 1858 ("Fringed gentian out well, on easternmost edge of the Painted-Cup Meadows, by wall.")
September 14, 1856 ("Fringed gentian well out.")
September 15, 1851 ("Ice in the pail under the pump, and quite a frost.").. . .
September 16. 1857 ("Barberries very handsome now. See boys gathering them in good season.")
September 16, 1852 (“Some birds, like some flowers, begin to sing again in the fall.”)
September 18, 1854 ("Fringed gentian near Peter’s out a short time, . . ., it may after all be earlier than the hazel.”)
September 18, 1856 ("The gentian is now far more generally out here than the hazel.")
September 18, 1859 ("From the observation of this year I should say that the fringed gentian opened before the witch-hazel")
September 18, 1856 ("I get a full peck from about three bushes.”)
September 19, 1856 (“Gather just half a bushel of barberries on hill in less than two hours, or three pecks to-day and yesterday in less than three hours.”)
September 20, 1851 ("On Monday of the present week water was frozen in a pail under the pump")
September 21, 1854 ("With this bright, clear, but rather cool air the bright yellow of the autumnal dandelion is in harmony and the heads of the dilapidated goldenrods.")
September 21, 1854 ("I hear many jays since the frosts began.”)
September 24, 1857 ("A red squirrel chiding you from his concealment in some pine-top. It is the sound most native to the locality.")
September 25, 1851 ("In these cooler, windier, crystal days the note of the jay sounds a little more native.")
September 25, 1855 ("Carry Aunt and Sophia a-barberrying to Conantum . . . We get about three pecks of barberries from four or five bushes.")
September 25, 1857 ("Stopping in my boat under the Hemlocks, I hear singular bird-like chirruping from two red squirrels.")
September 25, 1858 ("The Gentiana Andrewsii are now in prime at Gentian Shore. Some are turned dark or reddish-purple with age.")
September 26, 1859 ("So it is with flowers, birds, and frogs a renewal of spring.")
September 27, 1852 ("The arum berries are now in perfection, cone-shaped spikes an inch and a half long, of scarlet or vermilion- colored, irregular, somewhat pear-shaped berries springing from a purplish core.")
The fringed gentian
was out before Sunday says
Edith Emerson.
Emerson's pines are
parti-colored preparing
to fall -- some of them.
Black or purplish-black
poke berries hanging around
bare bright-purple stems.
September 29, 1853 ("Barberry ripe. ")
September 29, 1853 ("Viola cucullata.")
September 29, 1854 ("Now is the time to gather barberries.")
September 29, 1857 ("Pines have begun to be parti-colored with yellow leaves.")
September 29, 1857 ("I hear that some have gathered fringed gentian.")
October 1, 1853 ("A-barberrying by boat to Conantum, carrying Ellen, Edith, and Eddie . . . Got three pecks of barberries.")
October 1, 1857 ("The pines now half turned yellow, the needles of this year are so much the greener by contrast.")
October 1, 1858 ("The fringed gentians are now in prime.")
October 3, 1852 ("The pine fall, i.e. change, is commenced, and the trees are mottled green and yellowish.")
October 3, 1856 ("The white pines are now getting to be pretty generally parti-colored, the lower yellowing needles ready to fall.")
October 5, 1857 ("I hear the alarum of a small red squirrel.")
October 10, 1851 ("There are many things to indicate the renewing of spring at this season")
October 10, 1853 ("The faint suppressed warbling of the robins sounds like a reminiscence of the spring.")
October 10, 1856 ("Indian summer itself is a similar renewal of the year, with the faint warbling of birds and second blossoming of flowers.")
October 15, 1853 ("Last night the first smart frost that I have witnessed. Ice formed under the pump, and the ground was white long after sunrise.")
October 16, 1856 ("I notice these flowers on the way by the roadside, which survive the frost, i.e. a few of them: hedge-mustard, mayweed, tall crowfoot, autumnal dandelion, yarrow, some Aster Tradescanti, and some red clover.")
October 19, 1852 ("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.”)
October 22, 1859 ("In the wood-path below the Cliffs I see perfectly fresh and fair Viola pedata flowers, as in the spring, though but few together. No flower by its second blooming more perfectly brings back the spring to us.”)
October 23, 1853 ("Many phenomena re mind me that now is to some extent a second spring, — not only the new-springing and blossoming of flowers, but the peeping of the hylodes for some time, and the faint warbling of their spring notes by many birds.")
October 23, 1853 ("The Viola pedata looking up from so low in the wood-path makes a singular impression.")
November 8, 1851 ("Like Viola pedata, I shall be ready to bloom again . . .ever springing, never dying, with perennial root I stand; for the winter of the land is warm to me.")
November 9, 1850("I found many fresh violets (Viola pedata) to-day (November 9th) in the woods.”)
September 28, 2018 If you make the least correct observation of nature this year, you will have occasion to repeat it with illustrations the next, and the season and life itself is prolonged. 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 © 2009-2022 tinyurl.com/HDT28Sept |
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