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
It is in the spring
that we observe those dark-blue
lakes on our meadows.
It is but a step
from flowers to fruit – the size
of these green berries!
And now I notice
many bubbles left on the
water in my wake.
June 7, 1857
I sit in my boat
in the twilight by the
edge of the river.
June 7, 1858
A thick fog this morning, through which at last rain falls -- the first after a considerable and first dry spell. June 7, 1854
This is a southwest-breezy day, after the rain of the last two days. June 7, 1860
It continues cloudy and is warm and muggy, the sun almost coming out. June 7, 1854
Warm weather has suddenly come, beginning yesterday. June 7, 1858
Rain. June 7, 1855
In afternoon —mizzling weather. June 7, 1855
In afternoon —mizzling weather. June 7, 1855
This is a southwest-breezy day, after the rain of the last two days. June 7, 1860
It continues cloudy and is warm and muggy, the sun almost coming out. June 7, 1854
Warm weather has suddenly come, beginning yesterday. June 7, 1858
To-day it is yet warmer, 87° at 3 P. M June 7, 1858
There is on the whole a fresh and breezy coolness in June thus far, perhaps owing to the rains and the expanded foliage. June 7, 1860
June shadows are moving over waving grass-fields, June 7, 1858
I see that a new season has arrived. June 7, 1858
You may walk out in any direction over the earth's surface, lifting your horizon, and everywhere your path, climbing the convexity of the globe, leads you between heaven and earth [toward] the light of the sun and stars and the habitations of man. June 7, 1851
You may walk out in any direction over the earth's surface, lifting your horizon, and everywhere your path, climbing the convexity of the globe, leads you between heaven and earth [toward] the light of the sun and stars and the habitations of man. June 7, 1851
It is a certain faeryland where we live. June 7, 1851
The crickets chirp uninterruptedly, June 7, 1858
I am surprised at the size of green berries, -- shad-bush, low blueberries, choke-cherries, June 7, 1854
It is but a step from flowers to fruit. June 7, 1854
I noticed rye (winter rye) just fairly begun to bloom, May 29th. June 7, 1860
The trees having leaved out, you notice their rounded tops, suggesting shade. June 7, 1858
- the whitish shoot of the white pine. June 7, 1860
- the reddish brown of the pitch pine, giving a new tinge to its tops. June 7, 1860
- the bead work of the hemlock. June 7, 1860
- the now just conspicuous bursting lighter glaucous-green buds of the black spruce in cold swamps. June 7, 1860
The conspicuous
bursting glaucous-green buds of
black spruce in cold swamps.
June 7, 1860
- the frizzly-looking glaucous-green shoots and leafets of the fir (and fragrant now or soon). June 7, 1860
- the thin and delicate foliage of the larch. June 7, 1860
- the inconspicuous and fragrant arbor-vitæ. June 7, 1860
- the bead-work of the Juniperus repens (red cedar inconspicuous). June 7, 1860
- probably the bead work of the yew. June 7, 1860
- the tented leaves of the white oak. June 7, 1860
- the crimson black and white oaks and black shrub lately, and now, in hollows, the downy grayish (at first) of black and white, etc.. June 7, 1860
- the now tender, delicate green of swamp white and chincapin. June 7, 1860
- the large and yellowish, rapildy expanding (at first), of the nut trees. June 7, 1860
- the gamboge-yellow of the birches (now as dark as most, for leaves are acquiring one shade at present). June 7, 1860
- the thick darker green of alders. June 7, 1860
- the downyish of buttonwood still small. June 7, 1860
- the soon developed and darkened and fluttering early aspens and Gileads. June 7, 1860
- the still silvery Populus grandidentata. June 7, 1860
- the small-leafeted and yellowish locust. June 7, 1860
- the early yellow of Salix alba. June 7, 1860
- the fine-leaved S.nigra. June 7, 1860
- the wreath-and-column-leaved elm. June 7, 1860
- the suddenly expanding but few-leaved ash trees, showing much stalk, or stem, and branch. June 7, 1860
- the button-bush, with shoots before leaves. June 7, 1860
- the reddish-leafed young checkerberry. June 7, 1860
- the suddenly developed and conspicuous viburnums (sweet and naked). June 7, 1860
- the unequal-leafing panicled andromeda. June 7, 1860
- the purplish-brown stipules of the Amelanchier Botryapium. June 7, 1860
- the downy stipules of the A. oblongifolia June 7, 1854
When, in a warm day after rain, the plants are tender and succulent, this is the time they work most. June 7, 1860
The grass is very green and rank, . . .the June-grass converting hillside pastures into mowing-land, and the seeds (or chaff?) of many grasses begin to fall on my shoes. June 7, 1854
Now weeds are beginning to fill the stream. June 7, 1854
Now weeds are beginning to fill the stream. June 7, 1854
It is in the spring that we observe those dark-blue lakes on our meadows. June 7, 1854
The locusts so full of pendulous white racemes five inches long, filling the air with their sweetness and resounding with the hum of humble and honey bees. These racemes are strewn along the path by children. June 7, 1854
White clover already whitens some fields and resounds with bees. June 7, 1860
A small elm in front of Pratt's which he says three years ago had flowers in flat cymes, like a cornel! June 7, 1857
The red maples now become darker and firm, or hard. June 7, 1860
Am surprised to find that in that frosty Holbrook Road Hollow . . . none of the poplars (P tremuliformis) less than ten feet high. . . have burst their buds yet,. . ., just as if they grew in a colder latitude, like the plants by the snow in Tucker man’s Ravine. June 7, 1860
The large-leafed sumachs. June 7, 1860
The Salix tristis is now generally going or gone to seed. June 7, 1858
The large-leafed sumachs. June 7, 1860
The Salix tristis is now generally going or gone to seed. June 7, 1858
The water colored or dusted with the pollen of the pitch pine. June 7, 1858
Red maple seed is still in the midst of its fall; is blown far from the trees. June 7, 1860
Pratt has got the Calla palustris, in prime, — some was withering, so it may have been out ten days,— from the bog near Bateman's Pond; June 7, 1857
Red huckleberry about same time. It is sticky like the black. June 7, 1857
I perceive the agreeable acid scent of high blueberry bushes in bloom. June 7, 1858
His geranium from Fitzwilliam is well in bloom. It seems to be herb-robert, but without any offensive odor! (?) June 7, 1857
At the cross-wall below N. Hunt's, some way from road, the red cohush, one plant only in flower, the rest going to seed. Probably, therefore, with the white. It has slender pedicels and petals shorter than the white. June 7, 1857
Garlic grows there, not yet out. June 7, 1857
The ledum is a very good plant to bloom in a pitcher, lasting a week or more. June 7, 1858
Rubus triflorus still in bloom there. June 7, 1857
Rubus triflorus still in bloom there. June 7, 1857
Utricularia vulgaris out there. June 7, 1858
Pratt has got the . . . Oxalis violacea, which he says began about last Sunday, or May 31st, larger and handsomer than the yellow, though it blossoms but sparingly. June 7, 1857
Oxalis violacea in garden. June 7, 1858
A yellowbird’s nest on a willow bough against a twig, ten feet high, four eggs. June 7, 1855
It is evidence enough against crows and hawks and owls, proving their propensity to rob birds’ nests of eggs and young, that smaller birds pursue them so often. June 7, 1858
And probably the crow pursuing the fish hawk and eagle proves that the latter sometimes devour their young. June 7, 1858
As I was wading in this Wyman meadow, looking for bullfrog-spawn, I saw a hole at the bottom [and].a pout put her head out, as if to see who was there, June 7, 1858
Pouts, then, make their nests in shallow mud-holes or bays, in masses of weedy mud, or probably in the muddy bank; and the old pout hovers over the spawn or keeps guard at the entrance. June 7, 1858
Yesterday I saw the painted and the wood tortoise out. June 7, 1854
Oxalis violacea in garden. June 7, 1858
At the base of some hellebore, in a tuft a little from under the east edge of an apple tree, below violet wood-sorrel, a nest well made outside of leaves, then grass, lined with fine grass, very deep and narrow, with thick sides, with four small somewhat cream-colored eggs with small brown and some black spots chiefly toward larger end. It was a Maryland yellow-throat. Egg fresh. She is very shy and will not return to nest while you wait, but keeps up a very faint chip in the bushes or grass at some distance. June 7, 1857
The nighthawk sparks and booms over arid hillsides and sprout-lands. June 7, 1858
Visit my nighthawk on her nest. Can hardly believe my eyes when I stand within seven feet and behold her sitting on her eggs, her head to me. June 7, 1853
With its breast toward me, and owing to its color or size no bill perceptible, it looks like the end of a brand, such as are common in a clearing, its breast mottled or alternately waved with dark brown and gray, its flat, grayish, weather-beaten crown, its eyes nearly closed, purposely, lest those bright beads should betray it, with the stony cunning of the sphinx. June 7, 1853
Another step, and it flutters down the hill close to the ground, with a wabbling motion, as if touching the ground now with the tip of one wing, now with the other, so ten rods to the water, skims close over a few rods, then rises and soars in the air above me. June 7, 1853
The sight of this creature sitting on its eggs impresses me with the venerableness of the globe. June 7, 1853
Visit my nighthawk on her nest. Can hardly believe my eyes when I stand within seven feet and behold her sitting on her eggs, her head to me. June 7, 1853
With its breast toward me, and owing to its color or size no bill perceptible, it looks like the end of a brand, such as are common in a clearing, its breast mottled or alternately waved with dark brown and gray, its flat, grayish, weather-beaten crown, its eyes nearly closed, purposely, lest those bright beads should betray it, with the stony cunning of the sphinx. June 7, 1853
Another step, and it flutters down the hill close to the ground, with a wabbling motion, as if touching the ground now with the tip of one wing, now with the other, so ten rods to the water, skims close over a few rods, then rises and soars in the air above me. June 7, 1853
The sight of this creature sitting on its eggs impresses me with the venerableness of the globe. June 7, 1853
Wonderful creature
sitting sphinxlike on its eggs,
so one with the earth.
A yellowbird’s nest on a willow bough against a twig, ten feet high, four eggs. June 7, 1855
Yellowbird’s nest on
willow bough against a twig
ten feet high, four eggs.
What does it signify, the kingbird, blackbird, swallow, etc., etc., pursuing a crow? June 7, 1858
It is evidence enough against crows and hawks and owls, proving their propensity to rob birds’ nests of eggs and young, that smaller birds pursue them so often. June 7, 1858
And probably the crow pursuing the fish hawk and eagle proves that the latter sometimes devour their young. June 7, 1858
Standing at Holbrook’s barrel spring, a female chestnut-sided warbler hops within four feet of me, inquisitively holding its head down one side to me and peeping at me. June 7, 1860
As I was wading in this Wyman meadow, looking for bullfrog-spawn, I saw a hole at the bottom [and].a pout put her head out, as if to see who was there, June 7, 1858
Pouts, then, make their nests in shallow mud-holes or bays, in masses of weedy mud, or probably in the muddy bank; and the old pout hovers over the spawn or keeps guard at the entrance. June 7, 1858
Yesterday I saw the painted and the wood tortoise out. June 7, 1854
A painted turtle beginning her hole for eggs at 4 P.M. June 7, 1860
Now I see a snapping turtle, its shell about a foot long, out here on the damp sand, with its head out, disturbed by me. It had just been excavating, and its shell — especially the fore part and sides — and especially its snout, were deeply covered with earth. June 7, 1854
It appears to use its shell as a kind of spade whose handle is within, tilting it now this way, now that, and perhaps using its head and claws as a pick. June 7, 1854
It was in a little cloud of mosquitoes, which were continually settling on its head and flippers, but which it did not mind. June 7, 1854
Now I see a snapping turtle, its shell about a foot long, out here on the damp sand, with its head out, disturbed by me. It had just been excavating, and its shell — especially the fore part and sides — and especially its snout, were deeply covered with earth. June 7, 1854
It appears to use its shell as a kind of spade whose handle is within, tilting it now this way, now that, and perhaps using its head and claws as a pick. June 7, 1854
It was in a little cloud of mosquitoes, which were continually settling on its head and flippers, but which it did not mind. June 7, 1854
The birds sing now more than ever, as in the morning, and mosquitoes are very troublesome in the woods. June 7, 1854
I have heard no musical gurgle-ee from blackbirds for a fortnight. They are now busy breeding. June 7, 1855
This muggy evening I see fireflies, the first I have seen or heard of at least. June 7, 1854
Fireflies pretty numerous over the river, though we have had no thunder-showers of late. June 7, 1858
River summer width.
Muggy evening -- fireflies!
(The first I have seen.)
Mosquitoes quite troublesome here. June 7, 1858
Yellow bugs have come by thousands this clear and rather warm day after the rain; also squash-bugs have come. June 7, 1860
Dor-bugs come humming by my head to-night. June 7, 1860
Dor-bugs come humming by my head to-night. June 7, 1860
I see toads copulating and toad-spawn freshly laid in the Wyman meadow at Walden. June 7, 1858
To-night the toads ring loudly and generally, as do hylodes also, the thermometer being at 62 at 9 P.M. June 7, 1860
Toads are now in full blast along the river. Some . . . hold up their heads so high when they ring, and make such a large bubble, that they look as if they would tumble over backward. June 7, 1858
Bullfrogs now are in full blast. . . .Some of these great males are yellow or quite yellowish over the whole back. Are not the females oftenest white-throated? June 7, 1858
Seeing a large head, with its prominent eyes, projecting above the middle of the river, I found it was a bullfrog coming across. Probably they prefer the night for such excursions, for fear of large pickerel, etc. June 7, 1858
At length I hear the faint stertoration of a Rana palustris (if not halecina). June 7, 1858
At length I hear the
faint stertoration of a
Rana palustris
This louring day has been a regular fisherman's day, and I have seen many on the river, a general turnout. June 7, 1854
One of those gentle, straight-down rainy days, when the rain begins by spotting the cultivated fields as if shaken from a pepper-box; a fishing day, when I see one neighbor after another, having donned his oil-cloth suit, walking or riding past with a fish-pole, having struck work, - a day and an employment to make philosophers of them all. June 7, 1851
I wonder that I ever get five miles on my way, the walk is so crowded with events and phenomena. June 7, 1851
Now I notice many bubbles left on the water in my wake. . .Far behind me they rest without bursting. June 7, 1857
I sit in my boat in the twilight by the edge of the river. June 7, 1858
*****
See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau:Spring Leaf-out
Week of June 1
there is that time about the first of June
June.
Summer.
the Aspens
Wood Sorrel (Oxalis)
The Summer Yellowbird
the Chestnut-sided Warbler
the Nighthawk
The Red Maple
The Maple Keys
Bees
Fireflies
The Cricket in Spring
The Ring of Toads
The Bullfrog in Spring
the Wood Turtle (Emys insculpta)
the Painted Turtle (Emys picta)
Nature is genial to man (the anthropic principle)
Reminiscence and Prompting
Fireflies pretty numerous over the river, though we have had no thunder-showers of late. Mosquitoes quite troublesome here. . . .[M]osquitoes are very troublesome in the woods. . . .This muggy evening I see fireflies, the first I have seen See June 16, 1860 ("It appears to me that these phenomena occur simultaneously, say June 12th, viz.: -
• Heat about. 85° at 2 P.M.
• Hylodes cease to peep.
• Purring frogs (Rana palustris) cease.
• Lightning-bugs first seen.
• Bullfrogs trump generally.
• Mosquitoes begin to be really troublesome.
• Afternoon thunder-showers almost regular.
• Sleep with open window.
• Turtles fairly and generally begun to lay.")
Bullfrogs now are in full blast. See . June 15, 1860 ("The bullfrogs now commonly trump at night, and the mosquitoes are now really troublesome. . . A new season begun")
These racemes are strewn along the path by children. See June 5, 1854 ("Children have been to the Cliffs and woven wreaths or chaplets of oak leaves, which they have left, for they were unconsciously attracted by the beauty of the leaves now.")
I am surprised at the size of green berries. It is but a step from flowers to fruit. See June 6, 1852 ("The earliest blueberries are now forming as greenberries.”); see also 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”); 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 ?”)
I am surprised at the size of green berries. It is but a step from flowers to fruit. See June 6, 1852 ("The earliest blueberries are now forming as greenberries.”); see also 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”); 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 ?”)
Now I notice many bubbles left on the water in my wake. See September 14, 1854("Now our oars leave a broad wake of large bubbles, which are slow to burst.”)
Visit my nighthawk on her nest. 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")
Red maple seed is still in the midst of its fall; is blown far from the trees. See June 3, 1860 ("The roads now strewn with red maple seed."); August 1, 1860 ("If you look carefully through a dense red maple swamp now, you find many little maples a couple of inches high")
Red maple seed is still in the midst of its fall; is blown far from the trees. See June 3, 1860 ("The roads now strewn with red maple seed."); August 1, 1860 ("If you look carefully through a dense red maple swamp now, you find many little maples a couple of inches high")
Found piece of an Indian soapstone pot. See March 20, 1858 (“I had noticed from the Cliff by Lee's road an elevated sandy point above Pole Brook which I said must be Indian ground, and, walking there, I found a piece of a soapstone pot.”); March 28, 1859 (“[I]f the knolls in the meadows are washed by a freshet where they have been plowed the previous fall, the soil will be taken away lower down and the stones left, — the arrow heads, etc., and soapstone pottery amid them”); See also March 28, 1859 (“I have not decided whether I had better publish my experience in searching for arrowheads in three volumes, with plates and an index, or try to compress it into one. ”); August 22, 1860 ("I never find a remarkable Indian relic but I have first divined its existence, and planned the discovery of it. Frequently I have told myself distinctly what it was to be before I found it. “); and Tahatowan’s Scarab
This louring day has been a regular fisherman's day, a day and an employment to make philosophers of them all. See January 12, 1855 ("On Flint’s Pond I find Nat Rice fishing. He has not caught one. I asked him what he thought the best time to fish. He said, “When the wind first comes south after a cold spell, on a bright morning.”"); June 26, 1853 ("Many of my fellow-citizens might go fishing a thousand times, perchance, before the sediment of fishing would sink to the bottom and leave their purpose pure, -- before they began to angle for the pond itself.”); December 28, 1856 ("if not catching many fish, still getting what they went for, though they may not be aware of it, i. e. a wilder experience than the town affords.")
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.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, June 7
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
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