The year is but a succession of days,
and I see that I could assign some office to each day
which, summed up, would be the history of the year.
Henry Thoreau, August 24, 1852
Shad-bush in blossom
seen afar amid gray twigs
before its own leaves.
May 10, 2019
He is the richest who has most use for nature as raw material of tropes and symbols with which to describe his life. . . .I pray for such inward experience as will make nature significant. May 10, 1853
Rain about daylight makes the weather uncertain for the day. Damp, April-like mistiness in the air. I take an umbrella with me. May 10, 1854
It is a washing day. I love the wind at last. May 10, 1857
I would gladly walk far in this stormy weather, for now I see and get near to large birds. May 10, 1856
All at once a strain that sounds like old times and recalls a hundred associations. Not at once do I remember that a year has elapsed since I heard it, and then the idea of the bobolink is formed in my mind. May 10, 1853
It is remarkable that I saw this morning for the first time the bobolink, gold robin, and kingbird. May 10, 1853
I hear the warbling vireo, golden robin, catbird, and summer yellowbird. May 10, 1858
As I paddle along, hear the Maryland yellow-throat, the bobolink, the oven-bird, and the yellow-throated vireo. May 10, 1858
I heard yesterday one or two warblers. . . . Probably one or two strange warblers now. May 10, 1859
Yesterday was a quite warm day, and these new birds I hear directly after it. May 10, 1854
It is remarkable how many new birds have come all at once to-day. May 10, 1858
It is remarkable how many new birds have come all at once to-day. May 10, 1858
For some days the Salix alba have shown their yellow wreaths here and there, suggesting the coming of the yellowbird, and now they are alive with them. May 10, 1858
Salix alba flower in prime and resounding with the hum of bees on it. The sweet fragrance fills the air for a long distance. May 10, 1860
I perceive the sweetness of the willows on the causeway. May 10, 1854
I perceive the sweetness of the willows on the causeway. May 10, 1854
On the railroad causeway against Trillium Wood, I see an apparently native willow, a shrub, with greenish bark and conspicuous yellow catkins, now in full bloom, apparently a little earlier than the Salix alba, but its leafets or bracts much less advanced and conspicuous. May 10, 1856
At this season the traveller passes through a golden gate on causeways where these willows are planted, as if he were approaching the entrance to Fairyland; and there will surely be found the yellowbird, and already from a distance is heard his note, a tche tche tche tcha tchar tcha, — ah, willow, willow. May 10, 1853
New days, then, have come, ushered in by the warbling vireo, yellowbird, Maryland yellow-throat, and small pewee, and now made perfect by the twittering of the king bird and the whistle of the oriole amid the elms . . ., which are but just beginning to leaf out. May 10, 1853
The Canada plum in bloom, and a cherry tree. May 10, 1852. Canada plum opens petals to-day and leafs. Domestic plum only leafs. May 10, 1855. Mr. Prichard’s Canada plum will open as soon as it is fair weather. May 10, 1856.
Some Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum out in Cut woods; maybe a day, as it has rained steadily the last two days. It seems to bloom with or immediately after the bear-berry. May 10, 1856
The aspen leaves (P. tremuliformis), at least a few days since, were decidedly the most forward and conspicuous of any tree, and are still, I think, being more than an inch in diameter, light-green, but open and trembling and not in dense masses. . . .But the P. grandidentata which have flowered show no leaves yet; only very young ones, small downy leaves now. May 10, 1853
Young yellow birch leaf, say two days. May 10, 1855
Are those the young keys of sugar maples that I see? May 10, 1852
Young red maples are generally later to leaf than young sugar maples; hardly began before yesterday; and large white are not so forward as young sugar. May 10, 1855
The beech leaf-buds are more backward, apparently, than chestnut, but some leaves are expanding with the flower-buds, which are now opened so as to show the separate buds. May 10, 1855
Where the pitch pines were cut some years ago on Thrush Alley, I now see birches, oaks, and pitch and white pines. May 10, 1856
The rain is making the grass grow apace. It appears to stand upright, — its blades, — and you can almost see it grow. May 10, 1852
There is a strong wind, against which I push and paddle. But now at last I do not go seeking the warm, sunny, and sheltered coves; the strong wind is enlivening and agreeable. May 10, 1857
I hear the ringing sound of the toads borne on the rippling wind as I keep down the causeway. May 10, 1853
See twenty or thirty tortoises on one stump by stone bridge and more still within a rod along the bank of E. Wood's ditch. Now the Emys picta lie out in great numbers, this suddenly warm weather, and when you go along the road within a few rods they tumble in. The banks of some ditches look almost as if paved with them. May 10, 1857
In Callitriche Pool hear a bullfrog belch or dump. May 10, 1855
Thermometer at 2 P. M., 71°. May 10, 1860
The warbling vireo promised warmer days, but the oriole ushers in summer heats. May 10, 1853
It is warm rowing with a thick coat. I make haste back with a fair wind and umbrella for sail. May 10, 1854
Before night a sudden shower with some thunder and lightning; the first. May 10, 1857
The streets are full of cattle being driven up-country, See April 30, 1860 ("Cattle begin to go up-country."); May 4, 1853 ("Cattle are going up country."); May 6, 1855 ("Road full of cattle going up country.”); May 7, 1856 ("For a week the road has been full of cattle going up country. "); May 8, 1854 ("I hear the voices of farmers driving their cows past to their up-country pastures now.")
The aspen leaves (P. tremuliformis), at least a few days since, were decidedly the most forward and conspicuous of any tree, and are still, I think, being more than an inch in diameter, light-green, but open and trembling and not in dense masses. . . .But the P. grandidentata which have flowered show no leaves yet; only very young ones, small downy leaves now. May 10, 1853
Young yellow birch leaf, say two days. May 10, 1855
Are those the young keys of sugar maples that I see? May 10, 1852
Young red maples are generally later to leaf than young sugar maples; hardly began before yesterday; and large white are not so forward as young sugar. May 10, 1855
The beech leaf-buds are more backward, apparently, than chestnut, but some leaves are expanding with the flower-buds, which are now opened so as to show the separate buds. May 10, 1855
Some very young oaks — white oak, etc. — in woods begin to leaf. May 10, 1860
The spring growth of the larch is the most conspicuous of evergreens], though its buds have not pushed out so far as the white pines. May 10, 1853
Pitch pines started for two or three days in some places, the largest shoots now four inches. May 10, 1854.
The shad-bush in blossom is the first to show like a fruit tree . . . on the hill sides, seen afar amid gray twigs . . . before even its own leaves are much expanded. May 10, 1854
The spring growth of the larch is the most conspicuous of evergreens], though its buds have not pushed out so far as the white pines. May 10, 1853
Pitch pines started for two or three days in some places, the largest shoots now four inches. May 10, 1854.
The glaucous green of Carex stricta tufts, and the light yellowish green of the very coarse sedges of the meadow. May 10, 1860
Some beds of clover wave. May 10, 1852
How closely the flower follows upon, if it does not precede, the leaf! The leaves are but calyx and escort to the flower. May 10, 1852
I see there, just above the edge of the Pool in Hubbard’s Wood Path, the Viola blanda passing into the V. lanceolate, which last also is now in bloom, probably earlier there than in wetter places. May have been as early as the blanda. May 10, 1856
How much expression there is in the Viola pedata! I do not know on the whole but it is the handsomest of them all, it is so large and grows in such large masses. May 10, 1858
Above the railroad bridge I see a kingfisher twice sustain himself in one place, about forty feet above the meadow, by a rapid motion of his wings, somewhat like a devil's-needle, not progressing an inch, apparently over a fish. May 10, 1854
A yellow redpoll still. May 10, 1855
The oven-bird, and note loud and unmistakable, making the hollow woods ring. . . . sits on a low twig quite within the wood. May 10, 1854
The hollow-sounding note of the oven-bird is heard from the depth of the wood. … Toward night wood thrush ennobles the wood and the world with his strain. May 10, 1858
And, in the woods, the veery note. May 10, 1853 . . . in various woods the yorrick note of the veery. May 10, 1858
Hear the snipe over the meadows this evening. May 10, 1851
Some beds of clover wave. May 10, 1852
How closely the flower follows upon, if it does not precede, the leaf! The leaves are but calyx and escort to the flower. May 10, 1852
I see there, just above the edge of the Pool in Hubbard’s Wood Path, the Viola blanda passing into the V. lanceolate, which last also is now in bloom, probably earlier there than in wetter places. May have been as early as the blanda. May 10, 1856
How much expression there is in the Viola pedata! I do not know on the whole but it is the handsomest of them all, it is so large and grows in such large masses. May 10, 1858
Above the railroad bridge I see a kingfisher twice sustain himself in one place, about forty feet above the meadow, by a rapid motion of his wings, somewhat like a devil's-needle, not progressing an inch, apparently over a fish. May 10, 1854
A yellow redpoll still. May 10, 1855
The oven-bird, and note loud and unmistakable, making the hollow woods ring. . . . sits on a low twig quite within the wood. May 10, 1854
The hollow-sounding note of the oven-bird is heard from the depth of the wood. … Toward night wood thrush ennobles the wood and the world with his strain. May 10, 1858
And, in the woods, the veery note. May 10, 1853 . . . in various woods the yorrick note of the veery. May 10, 1858
Hear the snipe over the meadows this evening. May 10, 1851
There is a strong wind, against which I push and paddle. But now at last I do not go seeking the warm, sunny, and sheltered coves; the strong wind is enlivening and agreeable. May 10, 1857
I hear the ringing sound of the toads borne on the rippling wind as I keep down the causeway. May 10, 1853
See twenty or thirty tortoises on one stump by stone bridge and more still within a rod along the bank of E. Wood's ditch. Now the Emys picta lie out in great numbers, this suddenly warm weather, and when you go along the road within a few rods they tumble in. The banks of some ditches look almost as if paved with them. May 10, 1857
I hear a snoring, praying sound from frogs in the river, baser and less ringing and sonorous than the dreamers. May 10, 1852
I hear from some far meadow bay, across the Great Meadows, the half-sounded trump of a bullfrog this warm morning. . . .It reminds me that summer is now in earnest mustering her forces. May 10, 1858
I hear from some far meadow bay, across the Great Meadows, the half-sounded trump of a bullfrog this warm morning. . . .It reminds me that summer is now in earnest mustering her forces. May 10, 1858
The warbling vireo promised warmer days, but the oriole ushers in summer heats. May 10, 1853
It is warm rowing with a thick coat. I make haste back with a fair wind and umbrella for sail. May 10, 1854
*****
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Shad-bush, Juneberry, or Service-berry
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Willows on the Causeway
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Aspens
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Birches.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Red Maple
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Violets
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Golden Robin
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Robin in Spring
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Oven-bird
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Pickerel frog (Rana palustris)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Rana Halecina in Spring
The streets are full of cattle being driven up-country, See April 30, 1860 ("Cattle begin to go up-country."); May 4, 1853 ("Cattle are going up country."); May 6, 1855 ("Road full of cattle going up country.”); May 7, 1856 ("For a week the road has been full of cattle going up country. "); May 8, 1854 ("I hear the voices of farmers driving their cows past to their up-country pastures now.")
I pray for such inward experience as will make nature significant: See June 30, 1852 ("Nature must be viewed humanly to be viewed at all; her scenes must be associated with humane affections... She is most significant to a lover."); August 7, 1853( "The objects I behold correspond to my mood"); May 6, 1854 ("Your observation, to be interesting, i. e. to be significant, must be subjective. "); May 23,1854 ("We soon get through with nature.")
It is a washing day. I love the wind at last. May 12, 1856 ("It is suddenly very warm. A washing day, with a slight haze accompanying the strong, warm wind. ")
I would gladly walk far in this stormy weather, . . . See also May 13, 1852 ("They who do not walk in the woods in the rain never behold them in their freshest, most radiant and blooming beauty.").
How closely the flower follows upon, if it does not precede, the leaf! See April 28, 1852 ("The spring flowers wait not to perfect their leaves before they expand their blossoms. The blossom in so many cases precedes the leaf; so with poetry? They flash out.")
Just above the edge of the Pool in Hubbard’s Wood Path, the Viola blanda. . .. See May 6, 1852 ("The first Viola blanda (sweet-scented white), in the moist ground . . .by this spring."). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau the Violets
The shad-bush in blossom is the first to show like a fruit tree on the hill sides, . . . See May 9, 1852 ("The first shad-bush, Juneberry, or service-berry (Amclanchier canadensis), in blossom."); May 12, 1855 ("I now begin to distinguish where at a distance the Amelanchier Botryapium, with its white against the russet, is waving in the wind."); May 13, 1852 ("The amelanchiers are now the prevailing flowers in the woods and swamps and sprout-lands, a very beautiful flower, with its purplish stipules and delicate drooping white blossoms. The shad-blossom days in the woods.")
Just above the edge of the Pool in Hubbard’s Wood Path, the Viola blanda. . .. See May 6, 1852 ("The first Viola blanda (sweet-scented white), in the moist ground . . .by this spring."). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau the Violets
The shad-bush in blossom is the first to show like a fruit tree on the hill sides, . . . See May 9, 1852 ("The first shad-bush, Juneberry, or service-berry (Amclanchier canadensis), in blossom."); May 12, 1855 ("I now begin to distinguish where at a distance the Amelanchier Botryapium, with its white against the russet, is waving in the wind."); May 13, 1852 ("The amelanchiers are now the prevailing flowers in the woods and swamps and sprout-lands, a very beautiful flower, with its purplish stipules and delicate drooping white blossoms. The shad-blossom days in the woods.")
On the railroad causeway . . . an apparently native willow,. . . now in full bloom, See June 6, 1856 ("That willow, male and female, opposite to Trillium Woods on the railroad, I find to be the Salix rostrata, or long-beaked willow, one of the ochre-flowered . . . willows . . .")
The shad-bush in blossom before even its own leaves are much expanded. See May 10, 1852 ("How closely the flower follows upon, if it does not precede, the leaf! The leaves are but calyx and escort to the flower. ")
I perceive the sweetness of the willows on the causeway.. .. See May 9, 1852 ("I smell the blossoms of the willows, . . . a quarter of a mile to windward."); May 12, 1855 ("I perceive the fragrance of the Salix alba, now in bloom, more than an eighth of a mile distant. They now adorn the causeways with their yellow blossoms and resound with the hum of bumblebees, . . ."); May 14, 1852 ("Going over the Corner causeway, the willow blossoms fill the air with a sweet fragrance, and I am ready to sing,")
But now at last I do not go seeking the warm, sunny, and sheltered coves. See April 26, 1857 ("By and by we shall seek the shadiest and coolest place. ")
See twenty or thirty tortoises on one stump . . . Compare May 14, 1856 ("Yesterday and to-day I see half a dqzen tortoises on a rail, — their first appearance in numbers.")
How closely the flower follows upon, if it does not precede, the leaf! See April 28, 1852 ("The spring flowers wait not to perfect their leaves before they expand their blossoms. The blossom in so many cases precedes the leaf; so with poetry? They flash out.")
The shad-bush in blossom before even its own leaves are much expanded. See May 10, 1852 ("How closely the flower follows upon, if it does not precede, the leaf! The leaves are but calyx and escort to the flower. ")
I perceive the sweetness of the willows on the causeway.. .. See May 9, 1852 ("I smell the blossoms of the willows, . . . a quarter of a mile to windward."); May 12, 1855 ("I perceive the fragrance of the Salix alba, now in bloom, more than an eighth of a mile distant. They now adorn the causeways with their yellow blossoms and resound with the hum of bumblebees, . . ."); May 14, 1852 ("Going over the Corner causeway, the willow blossoms fill the air with a sweet fragrance, and I am ready to sing,")
Salix alba flower in prime and resounding with the hum of bees. See May 3, 1853 ('The willows (Salix alba) where I keep my boat resound with the hum of bees and other insects"); May 11, 1854 ("The willows on the Turnpike now resound with the hum of bees,"); May 12, 1855 ("They now adorn the causeways with their yellow blossoms and resound with the hum of bumblebees,");
The Salix alba and the coming of the yellowbird. See May 10, 1853 ("At this season the traveller passes through a golden gate on causeways where these willows are planted, as if he were approaching the entrance to Fairyland; and there will surely be found the yellowbird, and already from a distance is heard his note, a tche tche tche tcha tchar tcha, — ah, willow, willow."); May 11, 1854 ("The willows on the Turnpike now resound with the hum of bees, and i hear the yellowbird and Maryland yellow-throat amid them. These yellow birds are concealed by the yellow of the willows.") May 11, 1856(" At a distance I hear the first yellow-bird."); May 12, 1853 ("The yellowbird has another note, tchut tchut tchar te tchit e war."); May 14, 1852 (" Going over the Corner causeway, the willow blossoms fill the air with a sweet fragrance, and I am ready to sing, Ah! willow, willow! These willows have yellow bark, bear yellow flowers and yellowish-green leaves, and are now haunted by the summer yellowbird and Maryland yellow-throat.")
The glaucous green of Carex stricta tufts, and the light yellowish green of the very coarse sedges of the meadow. By the brook beyond, a sedge darker than the stricta and not in tufts, quite short. See May 10, 1858 ("That early glaucous, sharp-pointed, erect sedge, grass like, by the riverside is now apparently in prime.") See also June 19, 1859 ("The prevailing sedge of Heywood Meadow by Bartlett Hill-side, that which showed yellow tops in the spring, is the Carex stricta.")
One or two strange warblers now. See April 19, 1854 ("Within a few days the warblers have begun to come."); April 30, 1859 ("This first off-coat warmth just preceding the advent of the swamp warblers (parti-colored, red start, etc.) brings them out."); May 7, 1852 ("For now, before the leaves, they begin to people the trees in this warm weather."); May 15, 1859 (“Now, when the warblers begin to come in numbers with the leafing of the trees, the woods are so open that you can easily see them. ”);May 15, 1860 ("Deciduous woods now swarm with migrating warblers, especially about swamps.”);May 18, 1856 ("The swamp is all alive with warblers about the hoary expanding buds of oaks, maples, etc., and amid the pine and spruce."); May 23, 1857("This is the time and place to hear the new-arriving warblers, the first fine days after the May storm. When the leaves generally are just fairly expanding,")
We remember autumn to best advantage in the spring; the finest aroma of it reaches us then. See May 7, 1852 ("How full of reminiscence is any fragrance!"). Compare July 1, 1856 ("The air filled with a decaying musty scent and the z-ing of small locusts, I hear the distant sound of a flail, and thoughts of autumn occupy my mind, and the memory of past years.") July 19, 1851 ("Yesterday it was spring, and to-morrow it will be autumn. Where is the summer then?"); October 26, 1853 ("It is surprising how any reminiscence of a different season of the year affects us.");
Are those the young keys of sugar maples that I see? See May 1, 1860 ("The sugar maple keys (or buds?) hang down one inch, quite."); May 29, 1854 (“The white maple keys have begun to fall and float down the stream like the wings of great insects.”)
The glaucous green of Carex stricta tufts, and the light yellowish green of the very coarse sedges of the meadow. By the brook beyond, a sedge darker than the stricta and not in tufts, quite short. See May 10, 1858 ("That early glaucous, sharp-pointed, erect sedge, grass like, by the riverside is now apparently in prime.") See also June 19, 1859 ("The prevailing sedge of Heywood Meadow by Bartlett Hill-side, that which showed yellow tops in the spring, is the Carex stricta.")
One or two strange warblers now. See April 19, 1854 ("Within a few days the warblers have begun to come."); April 30, 1859 ("This first off-coat warmth just preceding the advent of the swamp warblers (parti-colored, red start, etc.) brings them out."); May 7, 1852 ("For now, before the leaves, they begin to people the trees in this warm weather."); May 15, 1859 (“Now, when the warblers begin to come in numbers with the leafing of the trees, the woods are so open that you can easily see them. ”);May 15, 1860 ("Deciduous woods now swarm with migrating warblers, especially about swamps.”);May 18, 1856 ("The swamp is all alive with warblers about the hoary expanding buds of oaks, maples, etc., and amid the pine and spruce."); May 23, 1857("This is the time and place to hear the new-arriving warblers, the first fine days after the May storm. When the leaves generally are just fairly expanding,")
We remember autumn to best advantage in the spring; the finest aroma of it reaches us then. See May 7, 1852 ("How full of reminiscence is any fragrance!"). Compare July 1, 1856 ("The air filled with a decaying musty scent and the z-ing of small locusts, I hear the distant sound of a flail, and thoughts of autumn occupy my mind, and the memory of past years.") July 19, 1851 ("Yesterday it was spring, and to-morrow it will be autumn. Where is the summer then?"); October 26, 1853 ("It is surprising how any reminiscence of a different season of the year affects us.");
Are those the young keys of sugar maples that I see? See May 1, 1860 ("The sugar maple keys (or buds?) hang down one inch, quite."); May 29, 1854 (“The white maple keys have begun to fall and float down the stream like the wings of great insects.”)
Mr. Prichard’s Canada plum will open as soon as it is fair weather. See May 5, 1855 ("Canada plum and cultivated cherry and Missouri currant look as if they would bloom to-morrow.”); May 7, 1860 ("Canada plum in full bloom, or say in prime. Also common plum in full bloom?"); May 8, 1858 ("Broke off a twig of Prichard's Canada plum in the evening, from which I judge that it may have opened to-day."); May 10, 1855 ("Canada plum opens petals to-day and leafs. Domestic plum only leafs.”); May 12, 1856 ("Prichard’s Canada plum will probably bloom to-morrow.”); May 14, 1855 (“Domestic plums open; some maybe yesterday.”)
The Canada plum in bloom, and a cherry tree. See May 10, 1857 ("Cultivated cherry out. "); May 10, 1858 ("The northern wild red cherry by Everett's, apparently to-morrow.")
Where the pitch pines were cut some years ago on Thrush Alley . . . See April 28, 1856 ("Let me look at the site of some thick pine woods. . .and see what has sprung up. . .")
But now at last I do not go seeking the warm, sunny, and sheltered coves. See April 26, 1857 ("By and by we shall seek the shadiest and coolest place. ")
See twenty or thirty tortoises on one stump . . . Compare May 14, 1856 ("Yesterday and to-day I see half a dqzen tortoises on a rail, — their first appearance in numbers.")
How closely the flower follows upon, if it does not precede, the leaf! See April 28, 1852 ("The spring flowers wait not to perfect their leaves before they expand their blossoms. The blossom in so many cases precedes the leaf; so with poetry? They flash out.")
In Callitriche Pool hear a bullfrog belch. . . See April 16, 1856 ("Frogs sit round Callitriche Pool, where the tin is cast. We have waste places — pools and brooks, etc., -— where to cast tin, iron, slag, crockery, etc."); April 16, 1855 ("This pool dries up in summer. The very pools, the receptacles of all kinds of rubbish, now, soon after the ice has melted, so transparent and of glassy smoothness and full of animal and vegetable life, are interesting and beautiful objects.”)
I hear a snoring, praying sound from frogs in the river, baser and less ringing and sonorous than the dreamers. See May 25, 1851 (“Now, at 8.30 o'clock P.M., I hear the dreaming of the frogs.”); June 13, 1851 ("The different frogs mark the seasons pretty well,- the peeping hyla, the dreaming frog, and the bullfrog." Also April 3, 1858 (“Sometimes the meadow will be almost still; then they will begin in earnest, and plainly excite one an other into a general snoring or eructation over a quarter of a mile of meadow.”); April 11, 1854 (“Hear a slight snoring of frogs on the bared meadows. Is it not the R. palustris? ”); April 15, 1855 ("That general tut tut tut tut, or snoring, of frogs on the shallow meadow heard first slightly the 5th.."); May 8, 1857 ("It is an evening for the soft-snoring, purring frogs (which I suspect to be Rana palustris)."); May 6, 1858 ("About 9 P. M. I went to the edge of the river to hear the frogs. It was a warm and moist, rather foggy evening, and the air full of the ring of the toad, the peep of the hylodes, and the low growling croak or stertoration of the Rana palustris. . . . There was a universal snoring of the R. palustris all up and down the river on each side, . . . It is a hard, dry, unmusical, fine watchman’s-rattle-like stertoration, swelling to a speedy conclusion.”)
Hear in various woods the yorrick note of the veery. See May 10, 1853 ("[I]n the woods, the veery note.")
A sudden shower with some thunder and lightning. See May 13, 1860 ("The third sultry evening in my chamber. A faint lightning is seen in the north horizon.")
I hear a snoring, praying sound from frogs in the river, baser and less ringing and sonorous than the dreamers. See May 25, 1851 (“Now, at 8.30 o'clock P.M., I hear the dreaming of the frogs.”); June 13, 1851 ("The different frogs mark the seasons pretty well,- the peeping hyla, the dreaming frog, and the bullfrog." Also April 3, 1858 (“Sometimes the meadow will be almost still; then they will begin in earnest, and plainly excite one an other into a general snoring or eructation over a quarter of a mile of meadow.”); April 11, 1854 (“Hear a slight snoring of frogs on the bared meadows. Is it not the R. palustris? ”); April 15, 1855 ("That general tut tut tut tut, or snoring, of frogs on the shallow meadow heard first slightly the 5th.."); May 8, 1857 ("It is an evening for the soft-snoring, purring frogs (which I suspect to be Rana palustris)."); May 6, 1858 ("About 9 P. M. I went to the edge of the river to hear the frogs. It was a warm and moist, rather foggy evening, and the air full of the ring of the toad, the peep of the hylodes, and the low growling croak or stertoration of the Rana palustris. . . . There was a universal snoring of the R. palustris all up and down the river on each side, . . . It is a hard, dry, unmusical, fine watchman’s-rattle-like stertoration, swelling to a speedy conclusion.”)
Hear in various woods the yorrick note of the veery. See May 10, 1853 ("[I]n the woods, the veery note.")
A sudden shower with some thunder and lightning. See May 13, 1860 ("The third sultry evening in my chamber. A faint lightning is seen in the north horizon.")
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 10A 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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