A Book of the Seasons: June 17 (crickets, fog, rain, haze, turtles, pogonias, berries, thunder, more rain, fireflies)

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

June 17.

Our view is confined

horizon near, no mountains –

hazy June weather.

As white and yellow 

flowers give place to the rose

and soon red lily 

yellow sun of spring

becomes red sun of June heat –

midsummer flower.

June 17, 1854

June 17, 2016

The sound of the crickets at dawn after these first sultry nights seems like the dreaming of the earth still continued into the daylight. June 17, 1852

The earth-song of the cricket! Before Christianity was, it is. Health! health! health! is the burden of its song. June 17, 1852

Perhaps these mornings are the most memorable in the year, — after a sultry night and before a sultry day, — when, especially, the morning is the most glorious season of the day, when its coolness is most refreshing and you enjoy the glory of the summer gilded or silvered with dews, without the torrid summer's sun or the obscuring haze. June 17, 1852

At early dawn, the windows being open, I hear a steady, breathing, cricket-like sound from the chip-bird, ushering in the day. June 17, 1852

No fog this morning. June 17, 1852

Another breezy night and no fog this morning. June 17. 1853

Rain, especially heavy rain, raising the river in the night of the 17th. June 17, 1859

Quite a fog this morning. June 17, 1860

A cold fog. June 17, 1854 

Another remarkably hazy day; our view is confined, the horizon near, no mountains; as you look off only four or five miles, you see a succession of dark wooded ridges and vales filled with mist. It is dry, hazy June weather. June 17, 1854

We are more of the earth, farther from heaven, these days. We are getting deeper into the mists of earth. June 17, 1854

The season of hope and promise is past; already the season of small fruits has arrived. We are a little saddened, because we begin to see the interval between our hopes and their fulfillment. The prospect of the heavens is taken away, and we are presented only with a few small berries. June 17, 1854

Amelanchier berries begin to be red and softer and eatable, though not ripe . June 17. 1853

The birds sing well this morning, well as ever. The brown thrasher drowns the rest. Lark first, and, in the woods, the red-eye, veery, chewink, oven-bird, wood thrush. June 17, 1852

The evergreen-forest bird at old place in white pine and oak tops, top of Brister's Hill on right. I think it has black wings with white bars. Is it not the black-throated green warbler? June 17, 1854

The unmistakable tanager sits on the oaks at midday and sings with a hoarse red-eye note, pruit, prewee, prewa, prear, prea (often more notes), some of the latter notes clearer, without the r. It does not sing so continuously as the red-eye, but at short intervals repeats its half-dozen notes. June 17, 1854

One of the nighthawk's eggs is hatched. June 17. 1853 .

Was ever bird more completely protected, both by the color of its eggs and of its own body that sits on them, and of the young bird just hatched? June 17. 1853 .

It seems a singular place for a bird to begin its life, – to come out of its egg, – this little pinch of down, – and lie still on the exact spot where the egg lay, on a flat exposed shelf on the side of a bare hill, with nothing but the whole heavens, the broad universe above, to brood it when its mother was away. June 17. 1853

One [marsh hawk] egg is hatched since the 8th, and the young bird, all down, with a tinge of fawn or cinnamon, lies motionless on its breast with its head down and is already about four inches long! June 17, 1858

I see the old hawk pursue a stake-driver which was flying over this spot, darting down at him and driving him off. June 17, 1858

See a painted turtle digging at mid-afternoon. I have only to look at dry fields or banks near water to find the turtles laying there afternoons.  June 17, 1858 

The pogonias, adder's-tongue arethusas, I see nowadays, getting to be numerous, are far too pale to compete with the A. bulbosa, and then their snake-like odor is much against them. June 17. 1853

The dense fields of blue-eyed grass now blue the meadows, as if, in this fair season of the year, the clouds that envelop the earth were dispersing, and blue patches began to appear, answering to the blue sky. The eyes pass from these blue patches into the surrounding green as from the patches of clear sky into the clouds. June 17. 1853

Carex flava out, possibly a week. June 17, 1860

A small thunder-shower comes up in the south-west. The thunder sounds like moving a pile of boards in the attic.  June 17, 1852

About 1 P.M., notice thunder-clouds in west and hear the muttering. As yesterday, it splits at sight of Concord and goes south and north. June 17, 1860

We see the increasing outline of the slate-colored falling rain from the black cloud. It passes mainly to the south. We feel only the wind of it at first, but after it appears to back up and we get some rain.  June 17, 1852

About 3 P. M. begins a steady gentle rain here for several hours, and in the night again, the thunder, as yesterday, mostly forerunning or superficial to the shower. June 17, 1860

This the third day of thunder-showers in afternoon, though the 14th it did not rain here. June 17, 1860

We see the increasing outline of the slate-colored falling rain from the black cloud. It passes mainly to the south. We feel only the wind of it at first, but after it appears to back up and we get some rain. June 17, 1852

Before sundown I reach Fair Haven Hill and gather strawberries. I find beds of large and lusty strawberry plants in sprout-lands, but they appear to run to leaves and bear very little fruit. June 17, 1854

The sun goes down red again, like a high-colored flower of summer. As the white and yellow flowers of spring are giving place to the rose, and will soon to the red lily, etc., so the yellow sun of spring has become a red sun of June drought, round and red like a midsummer flower, production of torrid heats. June 17, 1854

In the damp, warm evening after the rain, the fireflies appear to be more numerous than ever. June 17, 1852

*****

See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau:

Blue-eyed grass

The Snakemouth Orchid

The Cricket in Spring

 First fireflies in June

 The Painted Turtle

The Black-throated Green Warbler

 The Scarlet Tanager

The Nighthawk

the Marsh Hawk (Northern Harrier)

*****

The earth-song of the cricket! See June 13, 1851 ("I listen to the ancient, familiar, immortal, dear cricket sound under all others, and as these cease I become aware of the general earth-song.”); May 18, 1860 ("The creak of the cricket has been common on all warm, dry hills, banks, etc., for a week, - inaugurating the summer."); July 14, 1851 (“It is a sound from within, not without.You cannot dispose of it by listening to it. In proportion as I am stilled I hear it. It reminds me that I am a denizen of the earth.”); and note to June 4, 1857 ("One thing that chiefly distinguishes this season from three weeks ago is that fine serene undertone or earth-song as we go by sunny banks and hillsides, the creak of crickets, which affects our thoughts so favorably, imparting its own serenity.")

Perhaps these mornings are the most memorable in the year . . . when, especially, the morning is the most glorious season of the day. See Walden (“The morning is the most memorable season of the day, the awakening hour. ”)

its coolness is most refreshing and you enjoy the glory of the summer gilded or silvered with dews, without the torrid summer's sun or the obscuring haze. See June 23, 1854 (“. . . the air is beautifully clear, showing the glossy and light-reflecting greenness of the woods. It is a great relief to look into the horizon. There is more room under the heavens”); See Also June 26, 1853 (" Summer returns without its haze. We see infinitely further into the horizon on every side, and the boundaries of the world are enlarged."); June 23, 1852 (“ It is an agreeably cool and clear and breezy day, when all things appear as if washed bright and shine . . . You can see far into the horizon.”)

The season of hope and promise is past; already the season of small fruits has arrived. Compare August 9, 1853 ("This is the season of small fruits. I trust, too, that I am maturing some small fruit as palatable in these months, which will communicate my flavor to my kind.");August 18, 1853 (“The season of flowers or of promise may be said to be over, and now is the season of fruits; but where is our fruit ? The night of the year is approaching. What have we done with our talent?”)

Heavy rain, raising the river in the night. See June 14, 1858 ("The river is raised surprisingly by the rain of the 12th. The Mill Brook has been over the Turnpike."); June 15, 1858 ("Rains steadily again, and we have had no clear weather since the 11th. The river is remarkably high, far higher than before, this year, and is rising.")

The unmistakable tanager sits on the oaks at midday . . .The evergreen-forest bird at old place. See June 16, 1856 ("Heard around, from within the Purgatory, not only Wilson’s thrush, but evergreen forest note and tanager; and saw chip-squirrels within it ")

One of the nighthawk's eggs is hatched. See June 1, 1853 ("Walking up this side-hill, I disturb a nighthawk eight or ten feet from me, which goes down the hill, half fluttering, half hopping, as far as I can see. . . .Without moving, I look about and see its two eggs on the bare ground”); June 7, 1853 ("Visit my nighthawk on her nest.”); June 16, 1854 ("The nighthawk in full blast. "); June 18, 1853 (" I see a nighthawk in the twilight , flitting near the ground.")

Another remarkably hazy day; our view is confined, the horizon near, no mountains. Compare June 23, 1854 (“. . . the air is beautifully clear, showing the glossy and light-reflecting greenness of the woods. It is a great relief to look into the horizon. There is more room under the heavens”); See Also June 26, 1853 (" Summer returns without its haze. We see infinitely further into the horizon on every side, and the boundaries of the world are enlarged."); June 23, 1852 (“ It is an agreeably cool and clear and breezy day, when all things appear as if washed bright and shine . . . You can see far into the horizon.”)

I have only to look at dry fields or banks near water to find the turtles laying. See June 16, 1855 (“ A painted tortoise just burying three flesh-colored eggs in the dry, sandy plain. . .Find near by four more about this business. ”) 

The dense fields of blue-eyed grass now blue the meadows. See June 6, 1855 (“Blue-eyed grass maybe several days in some places.”); June 15, 1851 (“The blue-eyed grass, well named, looks up to heaven.”); June 15, 1852 ("The fields are blued with blue-eyed grass, — a slaty blue. "); June 15, 1859 ("Blue-eyed grass at height."); June 19, 1853 ("I see large patches of blue-eyed grass in the meadow across the river from my window")

One egg is hatched since the 8th. See June 8, 1858 (“The marsh hawk's eggs are not yet hatched. ”)

See a painted turtle digging at mid-afternoon. See  June 16, 1855 ("A painted tortoise just burying three flesh-colored eggs in the dry, sandy plain near the thrasher’s nest.. . . Find near by four more about this business. ");June 18, 1855 (" I see a painted tortoise just beginning its hole; then another a dozen rods from the river on the bare barren field near some pitch pines.")

The pogonias, adder's-tongue arethusas. See June 21, 1852 ("The adder's-tongue arethusa smells exactly like a snake.");.July 7, 1852 ("The Arethusa bulbosa, "crystalline purple;" Pogonia ophioglossoides, snake-mouthed arethusa, "pale purple;" and the Calopogon pulchellus, grass pink, "pink purple," make one family in my mind, — next to the purple orchis, or with it, — being flowers par excellence, all flower, all color, with inconspicuous leaves, naked flowers, . . .the pogonia has a strong snaky odor."); July 2, 1857 (“Pogonia ophioglossoides apparently in a day or two.”); July 8, 1857 (“Find a Pogonia ophioglossoides with a third leaf and second flower an inch above the first flower.”); August 1, 1856 ("Snake-head arethusa still in the meadow”) See also Reports on the herbaceous plants and on the quadrupeds of Massachusetts 199 (1840) ("(Pogonia ophioglossoides.) Snake-mouthed Arethusa, from which genus it was taken; stem nearly a foot high, with a single flower, nodding and pale-purple, and one oval-lanceolate leaf, and a leafy bract near the flower; lip fimbriate; swamps; July. The flower resembles a snake's head, whence its specific name.")

A marsh hawk egg hatched ... I see the old hawk pursue a stake-driver darting down at him and driving him off. See June 16, 1860 ("A marsh hawk's nest on the Great Meadows this afternoon, with three eggs considerably developed."); August 5, 1854 (“Near Lee's (returning), see a large bittern, pursued by small birds.”)

The thunder, as yesterday, mostly forerunning or superficial to the shower. See  June 15, 1860 (“A thunder-shower in the north goes down the Merrimack.”); June 16, 1860 ("Thunder-showers show themselves about 2 P.M. in the west, but split at sight of Concord and go east on each side.”); June 16, 1854 ("Three days in succession, — the 13th, 14th, and 15th, — thunder-clouds, with thunder and lightning, have risen high in the east, threatening instant rain, and yet each time it has failed to reach us.”)

The fireflies appear to be more numerous than ever. See June 16, 1860 (" The meadows full of lightning-bugs to-night; first seen the 14th.") Compare July 20, 1852 ("The stars are few and distant; the fireflies fewer still.”)

June 17, 2019

If you make the least correct 

observation of nature this year,

 you will have occasion to repeat it

 with illustrations the next, 

and the season and life itself is prolonged.

April 7, 1853 

June 16  <<<<<  June 17 >>>>>  June 18

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, June 17

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 ©  2009-2023

 https://tinyurl.com/HDT17June