I can hardly get under the stone bridge without striking my boat.

August 24

3 p. m. — Up river to Clamshell. 

Polygonum tenue abundant and in bloom, on side of Money-Diggers' Hill, especially at south base, near apple tree. 

The choke-cherry by fence beyond spring, being dead ripe and a little wilted, is at length tolerable eating, much better than I ever tasted, but the stones are much in the way. 

I was surprised to hear Peter Flood mention it as an objection to a certain peat meadow that he would have to dry the peat on the adjacent upland. But he explained that peat dried thus was apt to crumble, and so was not so good as that dried gradually and all alike on damper ground; so an apparent disadvantage is a real advantage, according to this. 

It rained a little last night, and the river at 3 p. m. is at the same height as last night. It is not remembered when it was so high at this season. 

I have not seen a white lily nor a yellow one in the river for a fortnight. The river meadows probably will not be mown this year. I can hardly get under the stone bridge without striking my boat. Cardinal-flowers, etc., etc., are drowned before they are fairly in bloom. 

River at same height as yesterday.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 24, 1856

The choke-cherry. . . much better than I ever tasted, but the stones are much in the way. See August 5, 1856 ("Choke-cherries . . . begin to be ripe, though still red. They are scarcely edible, but their beauty atones for it.  See those handsome racemes of ten or twelve cherries each, dark glossy red.");  September 4, 1853 (" The black choke-berries, as also choke-cherries, are stale."); December 19, 1850 ("The dried choke-cherries so abundant in the swamp are now quite sweet."); See also August 28, 1856 ("The bushes are weighed down with choke-berries, which no creature appears to gather . . . They have a sweet and pleasant taste enough, but leave a mass of dry pulp in the mouth.") and note to July 25, 1853 ("Cerasus Virginiana, — choke-cherry, — just ripe.")

I have not seen a white lily nor a yellow one in the river for a fortnight. Compare August 24, 1854 ("The bright crimson-red under sides of the great white lily pads, turned up by the wind in broad fields on the sides of the stream, are a great ornament to the stream. It is not till August, methinks, that they are turned up conspicuously.")

I can hardly get under the stone bridge without striking my boat.  See April 8, 1856 ("River had risen so since yesterday I could not get under the bridge, but was obliged to find a round stick and roll my boat over the road.")

It is not remembered when it was so high at this season. See August 23, 1856 ("The river has risen four inches since last night and now is one inch above the wall.")

The ripe choke-cherry,

tolerable eating but

 stones much in the way.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Under the stone bridge 

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 © 2009-2026

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