Sparrows in flocks now about in garden

September 17. 

P. M. — Ride to Beaver Pond and beyond. 

I see several apple trees that were blown down yesterday and some pretty large elm limbs. The orchards are strewn with windfalls, mostly quite green. 

Paddle round Beaver Pond in a boat, which I calked with newspaper. It has a very boggy and generally inaccessible shore, now more inaccessible than usual on account of the rain and high water. A singularly muddy hole. 

See elecampane, quite out of bloom. 

Also the Solidago odora, which I see has just done. 

River rising fast, from yesterday’s rain. 

Cooler weather now for two or three days, so that I am glad to sit in the sun on the east side of the house mornings. 

Methinks, too, that there are more sparrows in flocks now about in garden, etc.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 17, 1858

I am glad to sit in the sun on the east side of the house mornings. See September 4, 1860 ("It is cooler these days and nights, and I move into an eastern chamber in the morning, that I may sit in the sun. September 18, 1852 ("In the forenoons I move into a chamber on the east side of the house, and so follow the sun round.”)