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
First summer Sunday –
warmth, falling apple blossoms
and the wood pewee.
Turning round I am
surprised one more time by the
beauty of the world.
Springing foliage
lights up the landscape like a
sunlight on the woods.
Another cold and wet day, requiring fire. The principal rain was during last night, and was quite considerable. Ceases to rain at midday, but continues foul. May 22, 1860
The crickets now first are generally heard. May 22, 1853
First observe the creak of crickets. May 22, 1854
The deciduous trees leafing begin to clothe or invest the evergreens. May 22, 1855
The tender yellow leafets now generally conspicuous, and contrasting with the almost black evergreens which they have begun to invest. May 22, 1859
The foliage is never more conspicuously a tender yellow than now. May 22, 1859
Now the springing foliage is like a sunlight on the woods. May 22, 1854
The grass so short and fresh, the tender yellowish-green and silvery foliage of the deciduous trees lighting up the landscape, the birds now most musical, the sorrel beginning to redden the fields with ruddy health, — all these things make earth now a paradise. May 22, 1854
How many times I have been surprised thus, on turning about on this very spot, at the fairness of the earth! May 22, 1854
Already the falling apple blossoms fill the air and spot the roads and fields. May 22, 1853
Hear the hoarse note of the tanager and the sweet pe-a-wai, May 22, 1853
The wood pewee’s warm note is heard. May 22, 1853
This is the first truly lively summer Sunday, what with lilacs, warm weather, waving rye, . . . falling apple blossoms, . . .and the wood pewee. May 22, 1853
I hear also pe-a-wee pe-a-wee, and then occasionally pee-yu, the first syllable in a different and higher key emphasized, — all very sweet and naive and innocent. May 22, 1854
A summer yellowbird close by sounded we we we tchea tchea teche wiss wiss wiss. May 22, 1854
The red and cream-colored cone-shaped staminate buds of the black spruce will apparently shed pollen in one to three days? They are nearly half an inch long. May 22, 1856
A pitch pine sheds pollen on Cliffs. May 22, 1854
Polygonatum pubescens at rock. May 22, 1852
Polygonatum pubescens at rock. May 22, 1852
Found an abundance of the Viola Muhlenbergii (debilis of Bigelow), a stalked violet, pale blue and bearded. May 22, 1853
To Viola Muhlenbergii, which is abundantly out; how long? A small pale-blue flower growing in dense bunches, May 22, 1856
I noticed a cobweb the other day, between the thole-pins of my boat, which was perfectly black with those little fuzzy gnats which fly at that height and take shelter from wind in boats and the like. May 22, 1856
When the May storm is over, then the summer is fairly begun. May 22, 1857
Something like this annually occurs. After this May storm the sun bursts forth and we seem to have taken a long stride into summer. May 22, 1858
I rest in the orchard, doubtful whether to sit in shade or sun. May 22, 1854
Is it not summer when we do not go seeking sunny and sheltered places, but also love the wind and shade? May 22, 1857
To Viola Muhlenbergii, which is abundantly out; how long? A small pale-blue flower growing in dense bunches, May 22, 1856
I noticed a cobweb the other day, between the thole-pins of my boat, which was perfectly black with those little fuzzy gnats which fly at that height and take shelter from wind in boats and the like. May 22, 1856
When the May storm is over, then the summer is fairly begun. May 22, 1857
Something like this annually occurs. After this May storm the sun bursts forth and we seem to have taken a long stride into summer. May 22, 1858
I rest in the orchard, doubtful whether to sit in shade or sun. May 22, 1854
Is it not summer when we do not go seeking sunny and sheltered places, but also love the wind and shade? May 22, 1857
So was it also in a former geological age, when water and water-plants prevailed and before man was here to behold them. The sun was then reflected from the lily pad after the May storm as brightly as now. May 22, 1858
May 22, 2015
*****
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Reminiscence and Prompting
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Spring Leaf-out
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Apple Blossom Time
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Violet
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Birds of May
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Arrival of the Eastern Wood Pewee
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Scarlet Tanager
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Summer Yellowbird
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Fuzzy Gnats (tipulidæ)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The world can never be more beautiful than now.
*****
May 22, 2023
March 18, 1858 ("When I get two thirds up the hill, I look round and am for the hundredth time surprised by the landscape of the river valley and the horizon with its distant blue scalloped rim.”)
April 26, 1857 ("By and by we shall seek the shadiest and coolest place. “)
May 10, 1857 ("But now at last I do not go seeking the warm, sunny, and sheltered coves; the strong wind is enlivening and agreeable.”)
May 11, 1854 (" I suspect that summer weather may be always ushered in in a similar manner, — thunder-shower, rainbow, smooth water, and warm night.")
May 12, 1855 ("Cold enough for a fire this many a day. “)
May 14, 1852 ("The deciduous trees are rapidly investing the evergreens, making the woods rich and bosky by degrees. )
May 17, 1852 (“The sun comes out and lights up the tender expanding leaves, and all nature is full of light and fragrance, and the birds sing without ceasing, and the earth is a fairyland. ”)
May 17, 1853 ("I hear the wood pewee, — pe-a-wai. The heat of yesterday has brought him on.")
May 17, 1853 ("I was surprised, on turning round, to behold the serene and everlasting beauty of the world.”)
May 17, 1853 ("The air filled with the sweetness of apple blossoms ( this is blossom week )")
May 17, 1853 ("Does not summer begin after the May storm?”)
May 17, 1854 ("Hear the wood pewee, the warm weather sound.")
May 18, 1851("The landscape has a new life and light infused into it. And to the eye the forest presents the tenderest green.”)
May 18, 1852 (“This tender foliage, putting so much light and life into the landscape, is the remarkable feature at this date.”)
May 18, 1852 ("They are now being invested with the light, sunny, yellowish-green of the deciduous trees.")
May 20, 1854 ("Methinks we always have at this time those washing winds as now, when the choke-berry is in bloom, — bright and breezy days blowing off some apple blossoms”);
May 21, 1860 (“Cold, at 11 A.M. 50°; and sit by a fire”)
May 21, 1855 (“[C]old weather, indeed, from the 20th to 23d inclusive. Sit by fires, and sometimes wear a greatcoat and expect frosts.”)
May 25, 1852 ("It is blossom week with the apples.”)
May 27, 1860 ("Fire in house again")
October 7, 1857 ("When I turn round half-way up Fair Haven Hill, by the orchard wall, and look northwest, I am surprised for the thousandth time at the beauty of the landscape”)
May 22, 2022
If you make the least correctobservation of nature this year,you will have occasion to repeat itwith illustrations the next,and the season and life itself is prolonged.
May 22, 2024
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 22A 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
tinyurl.com/HDT22May
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