The earth has turned more
northward and the birds have fled
south after the sun.
Surprised amid these
withered thistles to see one
freshly in flower.
The jay's scream resounds –
some fallen maple leaves have
made way for his voice.
October 5, 1857
Fever-bush contrasts
showy clear lemon yellow
with scarlet berries.
I see a fish hawk
skimming low over Walden –
he well knows these fish.
October 5, 2019
A warm and bright October afternoon. [Begins now ten days of perfect Indian summer without rain; and the eleventh and twelfth days equally warm, though rainy.] October 5, 1857
8 A. M. — I go to Hubbard’s Close to see when the fringed gentians open. They begin to open in the sun about 8.30 A. M., or say 9. October 5, 1858
There are few flowers, birds, insects, or fruits now, and hence what does occur affects us as more simple and significant. October 5, 1857
Sally Cummings and Mike Murray are out on the Hill collecting apples and nuts. Do they not rather belong to such children of nature than to those who have merely bought them with their money? October 5, 1858
See a cherry-bird. October 5, 1857
The [jay] seems to scream more fitly and with more freedom now that some fallen maple leaves have made way for his voice. The jay's voice resounds through the vacancies occasioned by fallen maple leaves. October 5, 1857
Chewink note still. October 5, 1858
Many are now gathering barberries. October 5, 1857
Many are now gathering barberries. October 5, 1857
October 5, 2019
I go to Hubbard’s Close to see when the fringed gentians open. October 5, 1857
The howling of the wind about the house just before a storm to-night sounds like a loon on the pond. October 5, 1853
Long pointed reddish bulbs in the axils of the Lysimachia stricta are one of the signs of the season. October 5, 1856 .
The smooth sumach is very important for its mass of clear red or crimson. Some of it is now a very dark crimson. October 5, 1857
The fever-bush is in the height of its change and is a showy clear lemon yellow, contrasting with its scarlet berries. October 5, 1858
I amuse myself on the hilltop with pulling to pieces and letting fly the now withered and dry pasture thistle tops. They have a much coarser pappus than the milkweeds. I am surprised, amid these perfectly withered and bleached thistles, to see one just freshly in flower. October 5, 1856
White pines in low ground and swamps are the first to change. Some of these have lost many needles. Some on dry ground have so far changed as to be quite handsome, but most only so far as to make the misty glaucous (green) leaves more soft and indefinite. October 5, 1858
Phebe note of Chickadee often these days. October 5, 1858
I still see large flocks, apparently of chip birds, on the weeds and ground in the yard; without very distinct chestnut crowns, and they are divided by a light line. October 5, 1858
We come out on the east shore of Walden. The water is tolerably smooth, dark and dimpled by many rising fishes. I see a fish hawk, skimming low over it, suddenly dive for one of those little fishes. No doubt he well knows the habits of these little fishes which dimple the surface of Walden at this season, and I doubt if there is any better fishing-ground for him. October 5, 1860
We come out on the east shore of Walden. The water is tolerably smooth. The smooth parts are dark and dimpled by many rising fishes. October 5, 1860
I see a fish hawk, skimming low over it, suddenly dive for one of those little fishes that rise to the surface . . . He can easily find a perch overlooking the lake and discern his prey in the clear water. No doubt he well knows the habits of these little fishes which dimple the surface of Walden at this season, and I doubt if there is any better fishing-ground for him. October 5, 1860
he red maples are generally past their prime ( of color ) . They are duller or faded . Their first fires , like those of genius , are brightest . In some places on the edges of swamps many of their tops are bare and smoky . October 5, 1858
P. M. – To Yellow Birch Swamp . . .The yellow birch is somewhat yellowed. October 5, 1857
The yellow birch is apparently at the height of its change, clear yellow like the black. October 5, 1858
The pigeon woodpecker utters his whimsical ah-week ah-week, etc., as in spring. October 5, 1857
It is evident that some phenomena which belong only to spring and autumn here, lasted through the summer in that latitude. . . in that fresher and cooler atmosphere, — the calla for instance. To say nothing of the myrtle-bird and F. hyemalis which breed there, but only transiently visit us in spring and fall. October 5, 1857
The nights now are very still, for there is hardly any noise of birds or of insects. October 5, 1851
No sound comes up from the woods. The earth has gradually turned more northward; the birds have fled south after the sun, and this impresses me as a deserted country. October 5, 1851
The howling of the wind about the house just before a storm to-night sounds like a loon on the pond. October 5, 1853
No sound comes up from the woods. The earth has gradually turned more northward; the birds have fled south after the sun, and this impresses me as a deserted country. October 5, 1851
The howling of the wind about the house just before a storm to-night sounds like a loon on the pond. October 5, 1853
Moon three-quarters full. October 5, 1851
There is a down-like mist over the river and pond, and there are no bright reflections of the moon, all the light being absorbed by the low fog. October 5, 1851
The moon gives not a creamy but white, cold light. October 5, 1851
The moon gives not a creamy but white, cold light. October 5, 1851
October 5, 2020
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Blue Jay
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Chewink (Rufous-sided Towhee)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Chipping Sparrow
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Cherry-bird (cedar waxwing)
A Book of the Seasons by Henry Thoreau, the Dark-eyed Junco (Fringilla hyemalis)
A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Osprey (Fish Hawk)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Pigeon Woodpecker (flicker)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Chickadee in Winter
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Winter Birds
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Myrtle-bird
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau: The Fringed Gentian
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Common Barberry
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Thistles
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Red Maple
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau the Yellow Birch
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Pine Fall
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The world can never be more beautiful than now.
*****
September 28, 1859 ("Children are now gathering barberries, — just the right time")
September 29, 1854 ("Now is the time to gather barberries")
September 29, 1858 ("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.")
October 1, 1853 (" Got three pecks of barberries.")
October 1, 1858 ("The fringed gentians are now in prime. . . .They who see them closed, or in the afternoon only, do not suspect their beauty.”)
October 2, 1853 ("The gentian in Hubbard's Close is frost-bitten extensively");
October 2, 1857 ("The fringed gentian at Hubbard's Close has been out some time, and most of it already withered")
October 2, 1857 ("The chickadees of late have winter ways, flocking after you.")
October 3, 1859 ("I see on a wall a myrtle-bird in its October dress, looking very much like a small sparrow.")
October 3, 1852 ("Hear the loud laughing of a loon . . .A wild sound, heard far and suited to the wildest lake.");
October 4, 1857 ("Hear a catbird and chewink, both faint.")
October 4, 1857 (“Fever-bush has begun to yellow.”)
October 4, 1859 ("I hear. . . the sweet phe-be of the chickadee")
October 6, 1856 ("The common notes of the chickadee, so rarely heard for a long time, and also one phebe strain from it, amid the Leaning Hemlocks, remind me of pleasant winter days, when they are more commonly seen.")
October 6, 1856 ("The jay's shrill note is more distinct of late about the edges of the woods, when so many birds have left us")
October 7, 1860 ("Now and for a week the chip-birds in flocks; the withered grass and weeds, etc., alive with them.")
October 8, 1852 ("As I was paddling along the north shore, after having looked in vain over the pond for a loon, suddenly a loon, sailing toward the middle, a few rods in front, set up his wild laugh and betrayed himself")
October 10, 1851 ("The chickadee, sounding all alone, now that birds are getting scarce, reminds me of the winter, in which it almost alone is heard.")
October 10, 1856 ("The phebe note of the chickadee is now often heard in the yards, and the very Indian summer itself is a similar renewal of the year, with the faint warbling of birds and second blossoming of flowers.")
October 10, 1859 ("White-throated sparrows in yard and close up to house, together with myrtle-birds (which fly up against side of house and alight on window-sills)")
October 11, 1856 ("A pasture thistle with many fresh flowers and bees on it. ")
October 11, 1856 (“In the woods I hear the note of the jay, a metallic, clanging sound, some times a mew. Refer any strange note to him.”)
October 11, 1859 ("The note of the chickadee, heard now in cooler weather and above many fallen leaves, has a new significance.")
October 20, 1856 ("Thus, of late, when the season is declining, many birds have departed, and our thoughts are turned towards winter. . .we hear the jay again more frequently,")
October 23, 1857 ("Sal Cummings, a thorough countrywoman, conversant with nuts and berries, calls the soapwort gentian “blue vengeance,” mistaking the word. A masculine wild eyed woman of the fields. Somebody has her daguerreotype..")
October 5, 2021
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2018
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."
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