A sense of preparedness for the winter.

December 13

This morning it is snowing, and the ground is whitened. 

The countless flakes, seen against the dark evergreens like a web that is woven in the air, impart a cheerful and busy aspect to nature. It is like a grain that is sown, or like leaves that have come to clothe the bare trees. 

Now, by 9 o’clock, it comes down in larger flakes, and I apprehend that it will soon stop.

It does. 

How pleasant a sense of preparedness for the winter, — plenty of wood in the shed and potatoes and apples, etc., in the cellar, and the house banked up! 

Now it will be a cheerful sight to see the snows descend and hear the blast howl.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, December 13, 1855

The countless flakes, seen against the dark evergreens like a web that is woven in the air, impart a cheerful and busy aspect to nature. December 14, 1859 ("Snow-storms might be classified . . .That of the 11th was a still storm, of large flakes falling gently in the quiet air, like so many white feathers descending in different directions when seen against a wood-side . . .A myriad falling flakes weaving a coarse garment by which the eye is amused."); December 15. 1855 ("This morning it has begun to snow apparently in earnest. The air is quite thick and the view confined. It is quite still, yet some flakes come down from one side and some from another, crossing each other like woof and warp apparently, as they are falling in different eddies and currents of air.")

How pleasant a sense of preparedness for the winter . . .Now it will be a cheerful sight to see the snows descend and hear the blast howl. See December 25, 1856 ("Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary."); January 12, 1852 ("I sometimes think that I may go forth and walk hard . . . be much abroad in heat and cold, day and night; live more, expend more atmospheres, be weary often, etc., etc.” ); February 28, 1852 (“To get the value of the storm we must be out a long time and travel far in it, so that it may fairly penetrate our skin.");  March 8, 1859 ("If there is a good chance to be cold and wet and uncomfortable, in other words to feel weather-beaten, you may consume the afternoon to advantage.").

Decembeer 13.  See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, December 13

Prepared for winter –

cheerful to see snows descend

and hear the blast howl.

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, A sense of preparedness for the winter.

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

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