Trees, stems and branches
white with snow on the storm side.
The true wintry look.
Countless snow-stars come
whirling to earth pronouncing
thus the number six.
And so the ferns in
coal remind us of summer
still longer past.
The catkins of the alders are now frozen stiff !! January 5, 1851
How much the snow reveals! January 5, 1860
To-day the trees are white with snow - I mean their stems and branches - and have the true wintry look, on the storm side. Not till this has the winter come to the forest. January 5, 1852
There is also some blueness now in the snow. The blueness is more distinct after sunset. January 5, 1854
One of the coldest mornings. Thermometer —9°, say some. It has been trying to snow all day, but has not succeeded; as if it were too cold. January 5, 1856
The thin snow now driving from the north and lodging on my coat consists of those beautiful star crystals, January 5, 1856
I should hardly admire more if real stars fell and lodged on my coat. Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.January 5, 1856
Soon the storm increases, — it was already very severe to face, —and the snow comes finer, more white and powdery. January 5, 1856
I should hardly admire more if real stars fell and lodged on my coat. Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.January 5, 1856
Soon the storm increases, — it was already very severe to face, —and the snow comes finer, more white and powdery. January 5, 1856
Who knows but this is the original form of all snowflakes. January 5, 1856
I am nearer to the source of the snow, its primal, auroral, and golden hour or infancy. January 5, 1856
*****
January 4, 1856 ("I think it is only such a day as this, when the fields on all sides are well clad with snow, over which the sun shines brightly, that you observe the blue shadows on the snow."); January 9, 1852 ("Apparently the snow absorbs the other rays and reflects the blue. . . ."); January 14, 1852 ("There is no blueness in the ruts and crevices in the snow to-day. What kind of atmosphere does this require? . . . It is one of the most interesting phenomena of the winter."); January 15, 1856 ("My shadow is a most celestial blue. This only requires a clear bright day and snow-clad earth, not great cold."); January 18, 1852 ("Perhaps the snow in the air, as well as on the ground, takes up the white rays and reflects the blue.”); January 19, 1855 ("I never saw the blue in snow so bright as this damp, dark, stormy morning at 7 A. M.”); January 20, 1856 ("I see the blue between the cakes of snow cast out in making a path, in the triangular recesses, though it is pretty cold, but the sky is completely overcast”); January 26, 1852 ("To-day I see . . . a slight blueness in the chinks, it being cloudy and melting.”); February 10, 1855 (“My shadow is blue. It is especially blue when there is a bright sunlight on pure white snow.”); Also see note to January 6, 1856 ("Now, at 4.15, the blue shadows are very distinct on the snow-banks.”)
December 23, 1851 (“There is a narrow ridge of snow, a white line, on the storm side of the stem of every exposed tree.”); December 26, 1855 (“The ice is chiefly on the upper and on the storm side of twigs”); January 14, 1856 ("You can best tell from what side the storm came by observing on which side of the trees the snow is plastered.")
January 4, 1856 ("I think it is only such a day as this, when the fields on all sides are well clad with snow, over which the sun shines brightly, that you observe the blue shadows on the snow."); January 9, 1852 ("Apparently the snow absorbs the other rays and reflects the blue. . . ."); January 14, 1852 ("There is no blueness in the ruts and crevices in the snow to-day. What kind of atmosphere does this require? . . . It is one of the most interesting phenomena of the winter."); January 15, 1856 ("My shadow is a most celestial blue. This only requires a clear bright day and snow-clad earth, not great cold."); January 18, 1852 ("Perhaps the snow in the air, as well as on the ground, takes up the white rays and reflects the blue.”); January 19, 1855 ("I never saw the blue in snow so bright as this damp, dark, stormy morning at 7 A. M.”); January 20, 1856 ("I see the blue between the cakes of snow cast out in making a path, in the triangular recesses, though it is pretty cold, but the sky is completely overcast”); January 26, 1852 ("To-day I see . . . a slight blueness in the chinks, it being cloudy and melting.”); February 10, 1855 (“My shadow is blue. It is especially blue when there is a bright sunlight on pure white snow.”); Also see note to January 6, 1856 ("Now, at 4.15, the blue shadows are very distinct on the snow-banks.”)
December 23, 1851 (“There is a narrow ridge of snow, a white line, on the storm side of the stem of every exposed tree.”); December 26, 1855 (“The ice is chiefly on the upper and on the storm side of twigs”); January 14, 1856 ("You can best tell from what side the storm came by observing on which side of the trees the snow is plastered.")
January 10, 1858 ("If you are sick and despairing, go forth in winter and see the red alder catkins dangling at the extremities of the twigs, all in the wintry air, like long, hard mulberries, promising a new spring and the fulfillment of all our hopes. . . . the sight of a mulberry-like red catkin which I know has a dormant life in it, seemingly greater than my own.”
February 16, 1854 ("For snow is a great revealer not only of tracks made in itself, but even in the earth before it fell.. . . A light snow will often reveal a faint foot or cart track in a field which was hardly discernible before, for it reprints it, as it were, in clear white type, alto-relievo.”); December 8, 1855 ("Let a snow come and clothe the ground and trees, and I shall see the tracks of many inhabitants now unsuspected"); January 4, 1860 ("Again see what the snow reveals.. .that the woods are nightly thronged with little creatures which most have never seen")
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2020
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality.”
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