Driving snow fast whitening the ground

December 25

Snow driving almost horizontally from the northeast and fast whitening the ground, and with it the first tree sparrows I have noticed in the yard. 

December  25, 2015

It turns partly to rain and hail at midday.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, December 25, 1855

Snow driving almost horizontally. See December 14, 1859 ("Snow-storms might be classified. This is a fine, dry snow, drifting nearly horizontally from the north, so that it is quite blinding to face."); December 23, 1851 ("This morning, when I woke, I found it snowing, the snow fine and driving almost horizontally, as if it had set in for a long storm."); December 29, 1853 ("Wind from the north blows the snow almost horizontally, and, beside freezing you, almost takes your breath away. The driving snow blinds you."); January 5, 1856 (" It is quite cold, and the driving storm is bitter to face. . . It comes almost horizontally from the north."); January 19, 1857 ("A snow-storm with very high wind all last night and to-day . . .  A fine dry snow, intolerable to face")  See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Snow-storms might be classified

The first tree sparrows I have noticed in the yard. See December 27, 1857 ("A clear, pleasant day. Tree sparrows about the weeds in the yard."); December 28, 1853 ("I hear and see tree sparrows about the weeds in the garden. They seem to visit the gardens with the earliest snow."); December 29, 1853 ("All day a driving snow-storm. . . yet in midst of all I see a bird, probably a tree sparrow, partly blown, partly flying, over the house to alight in a field. ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Tree Sparrow and January 16, 1860:

The tree sparrow comes

from the north in the winter

to get its dinner.

It turns partly to rain and hail.  See  December 26, 1855 ("After snow, rain, and hail yesterday and last night, we have this morning quite a glaze, there being at last an inch or two of crusted snow on the ground, the most we have had."); See also January 1, 1853 ("A fine snowy hail and rain is falling. . . I return at last in a rain, and am coated with a glaze, like the fields."); January 21, 1855  ("The snow is turning to rain through a fine hail."); January 25, 1860 ("I will call the weather fair, if it does not threaten rain or snow or hail; foul, if it rains or snows or hails, or is so overcast that we expect one or the other from hour to hour.")

December 25.  See  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, December 25

Snow fast whitening 

the ground turns partly to rain 

and hail at midday.

 A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Driving snow fast whitening the ground 

 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 © 2009-2025

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