A sudden shower with some thunder and lightning; the first.

May 10. 

Cultivated cherry out. 

P. M. — Up river. 

Salix Babylonica behind Dodd's, how long? Say with S. alba. 

I observe that the fertile flowers of many plants are more late than the barren ones, as the sweet-gale (whose fertile are now in prime), the sweet-fern, etc. 

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. 

I went looking for snapping turtles over the meadow south of railroad. Now I see one large head like a brown stake projecting three or four inches above the water four rods off, but it is slowly withdrawn, and I paddle up and catch the fellow lying still in the dead grass there. Soon after I paddle within ten feet of one whose eyes like knobs appear on the side of the stake, and touch him with my paddle. 

This side Clamshell, strawberries and cinquefoil are abundant. Equisetum sylvaticum. 

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. 

It is a washing day. I love the wind at last. 

Before night a sudden shower with some thunder and lightning; the first.

 H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 10, 1857

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.")

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. ")

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. ")

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 10

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 ©  2009-2021