ZtonePhruit: A Book of the Seasons: March 12.

Saturday, March 12, 2016

A Book of the Seasons: March 12.

March 12.

The earth just bare and
beginning to dry, snow lies
on north sides of hills.

Now is the time to
hear birds sing in the sunny
hour after sunrise.
March 12, 1854

Two ducks on river

before I have launched my boat.

First open water.
March 12, 1855

That raw northwest wind —
the wind of March makes it seem
colder than it is.
March 12, 1860

March 12, 2021

The crow has been a common bird in our street and about our house the past winter. March 12, 1856

Snowed again last night, as it has done once or twice before within ten days without my recording it, — robin snows, which last but a day or two. March 12, 1857

Comes out pleasant after a raw forenoon with a ﬂurry of snow, already gone. March 12, 1855

Memorable is the warm light of the spring sun on russet fields in the morning. March 12, 1854

It is a beautiful spring morning. March 12, 1854

This is the blackbird morning. March 12, 1854

Their sprayey notes and conqueree ring with the song sparrows' jingle all along the river. March 12, 1854

Thus gradually they acquire confidence to sing. March 12, 1854

I hear my first robin peep distinctly at a distance. No singing yet. March 12, 1854

Lesser redpolls still. March 12, 1855

Elbridge Hayden saw a bluebird yesterday. March 12, 1855

I hear from an apple tree a faint cricket like chirp, and a sparrow darts away, flying far, dashing from side to side. March 12, 1854

I hear a jay loudly screaming phe-phay phe-phay, — a loud, shrill chickadee's phebe. March 12, 1854

Now I see and hear the lark sitting with head erect, neck outstretched, in the middle of a pasture, and I hear another far off singing. Sing when they first come. March 12, 1854

All these birds do their warbling especially in the still, sunny hour after sunrise, as rivers twinkle at their sources.March 12, 1854

Now is the time to be abroad and hear them, as you detect the slightest ripple in smooth water. March 12, 1854

As with tinkling sounds the sources of streams burst their icy fetters, so the rills of music begin to flow and swell the general quire of spring. March 12, 1854

Sleet, turning soon to considerable rain, - a rainy day. March 12, 1860

Thermometer about 40, yet it seems a warm rain to walk in, it being still. March 12, 1860

While yesterday, of the same temperature, with that raw northwest wind, was cold and blustering. March 12, 1860

It is the wind of March that makes it . . . seem much colder than it is. March 12, 1860

The whistling of the wind, which makes one melancholy, inspires another. March 12, 1852

Going up the railroad in this rain, with a south wind. March 12, 1859

It is a regular spring rain, such as I remember walking in, — windy but warm. March 12, 1859

It alternately rains hard and then holds up a little. March 12, 1859

Now you walk in a comparative lull, anticipating fair weather, with but a slight drizzling, and anon the wind blows and the rain drives down harder than ever. March 12, 1859

I look across the meadows to Bedford, and see that peculiar scenery of March, in which I have taken so many rambles, the earth just bare and beginning to be dry, the snow lying on the north sides of hills, the gray deciduous trees and the green pines soughing in the March wind March 12, 1854

This kind of light, the air being full of rain and all vegetation dripping with it, brings out the browns wonderfully. and anon the wind blows and the rain drives down harder than ever. March 12, 1859

The scenery is like, yet unlike, November; you have the same barren russet, but now, instead of a dry, hard, cold wind, a peculiarly soft, moist air, or else a raw wind. March 12, 1854

To see the first dust fly is a pleasant sight. I saw it on the east side of the Deep Cut. March 12, 1852

A new feature is being added to the landscape, and that is expanses and reaches of blue water. This great expanse of deep-blue water, deeper than the sky. March 12, 1854

Now is the reign of water. March 12, 1854

When you walk over bare lichen-clad hills, just beginning to be dry, and look afar over the blue water on the meadows, you are beginning to break up your winter quarters and plan adventures for the new year. March 12, 1854

It is a very barren, exhausted soil, where the cladonia lichens abound, . . . the very visible green of the cladonias thirty rods off, and the rich brown fringes where the broken sod hung over the edge of the sand-bank.. . .methinks these terrestrial lichens were never more fair and prominent. On some knolls these vivid and rampant lichens as it were dwarf the oaks. March 12, 1859

I see the Populus (apparently tremuloides, not grandidentata) at the end of the railroad causeway, showing the down of its ament. March 12, 1852

Both the common largest and the very smallest hypericums (Sarothra) and the pinweeds were very rich browns at a little distance, coloring whole fields March 12, 1859

See two ducks flying over Ministerial Swamp. March 12, 1859

Two ducks in river, good size, white beneath with black heads, as they go over. March 12, 1855

They ﬁrst rise some distance down-stream, and ﬂy by on high, reconnoitering me, and I ﬁrst see them on wing; then settle a quarter of a mile above by a long slanting ﬂight, at last opposite the swimming-elm below Flint’s. March 12, 1855

I come on up the bank with the sun in my face; start them again. March 12, 1855

Again they ﬂy down-stream by me on high, turn and come round back by me again with outstretched heads, and go up to the Battle-Ground before they alight. March 12, 1855

Thus the river is no sooner fairly open than they are back again, — before I have got my boat launched, and long before the river has worn through Fair Haven Pond. March 12, 1855

I think I hear a quack or two. March 12, 1855

Men are eager to launch their boats and paddle over the meadows. March 12, 1854

Toward night the water becomes smooth and beautiful. March 12, 1854

*****