A peculiarly fine September day,

September 21. 

September 21, 2019

Heard in the night a snapping sound and the fall of some small body on the floor from time to time. In the morning I found that it was produced by the witch-hazel nuts on my desk springing open and casting their seeds quite across the chamber, hard and stony as these nuts are. 

It is overcast, like yesterday, and yet more rain-promising. Methinks the 19th was such a day (the second after rain) as the 18th in '58, — a peculiarly fine September day, looking toward the fall, warm and bright, with yellow butterflies in the washed road, and early-changed maples and shrubs adorning the low grounds. The red nesaea blazing along the Assabet above the powder-mills. The apple crop, red and yellow, more conspicuous than ever amid the washed leaves. 

The farmers on all sides are digging their potatoes, so prone to their work that they do not see me going across lots. 

I sat near Coombs's pigeon-place by White Pond. The pigeons sat motionless on his bare perches, from time to time dropping down into the bed and uttering a quivet or two. Some stood on the perch; others squatted flat. I could see their dove-colored breasts. Then all at once, being alarmed, would take flight, but ere long return in straggling parties. 

He tells me that he has fifteen dozen baited, but does not intend to catch any more at present, or for two or three weeks, hoping to attract others. Rice says that white oak acorns pounded up, shells and all, make the best bait for them. 

I see now in the wood-paths where small birds and partridges, etc., have been destroyed, — only their feathers left, — probably by hawks. Do they not take their prey often to a smooth path in the woods? 

White Pond is being dimpled here and there all over, perhaps by fishes; and so is the river. It is an overcast day. Has that anything to do with it? 

I see some of the rainbow girdle reflected around its edge. Looking with the proper intention of the eye, I see it is ribbed with the dark prolonged reflections of the pines almost across. But why are they bent one side? Is it the effect of the wind? 

We are having our dog-days now and of late, methinks, having had none to speak of in August; and now at last I see a few toadstools, — the election-cake (the yellowish, glazed over) and the taller, brighter-yellow above. Those shell-less slugs which eat apples eat these also. 

Jays are more frequently heard of late, maybe because other birds are more silent. 

Considerable many acorns are fallen (black oak chiefly) in the path under the south edge of Conant's Wood, this side of White Pond. Acorns have been falling very sparingly ever since September 1, but are mostly wormy. They are as interesting now on the shrub oak (green) as ever. 

I suspect that it is not when the witch-hazel nut first gapes open that the seeds fly out, for I see many (if not most of them) open first with the seeds in them; but when I release a seed (it being still held by its base), it flies as I have said. I think that its slippery base is compressed by the unyielding shell, which at length expels it, just as I can make one fly by pressing it and letting it slip from between my thumb and finger. It appears to fit close to the shell at its base, even after the shell gapes. 

The ex-plenipotentiary refers in after [-dinner] speeches with complacency to the time he spent abroad and the various lords and distinguished men he met, as to a deed done and an ever-memorable occasion! Of what account are titles and offices and opportunities, if you do no memorable deed? 

I perceive that a spike of arum berries which I gathered quite green September 1 is now turned completely scarlet, and though it has lain on my desk in a dry and warm chamber all the while, the berries are still perfectly plump and fresh (as well as glossy) to look at, — as much so as any. 

The greater part [of], almost all, the mikania was killed by the frost of the 15th and 16th. Only that little which was protected by its position escaped and is still in bloom. And the button-bush too is generally browned above by the same cause. This has given a considerably brown look to the side of the river. 

Saw baeomyces (lately opened, probably with the rain of the 17th) by roadside. 

Yesterday was a still, overcast, rain-promising day, and I saw this morning (perhaps it was yesterday) the ground about the back door all marked with worm-piles. Had they not come out for water after the dry weather? 

See a St. Domingo cuckoo (black-billed) still.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 21, 1859

The witch-hazel nuts on my desk springing open and casting their seeds quite across the chamber. September 18, 1859 ("The double-fruited stone splits and reveals the two shining black oblong seeds. It has a peculiarly formed nut, in pretty clusters, clothed, as it were, in close-fitting buckskin.")

A peculiarly fine September day, looking toward the fall, warm and bright, with yellow butterflies.  See September 21, 1854  ("With this bright, clear, but rather cool air the bright yellow of the autumnal dandelion is in harmony "); September 21, 1857 ("The warmth of the sun is just beginning to be appreciated again on the advent of cooler days.") See also September 18, 1858 ("It is a wonderful day."); September 18, 1860 ("This is a beautiful day, warm but not too warm, a harvest day . . ."If you are not happy to-day you will hardly be so to-morrow.”)

Yellow butterflies in the washed road. See note to September 19, 1859 ("See many yellow butterflies in the road this very pleasant day after the rain of yesterday.")

The red nesaea blazing along the Assabet above the powder-mills. See July 21, 1859 ("The nesaea grows commonly along the river near the powder-mills, one very dense bed of it at the mouth of the powder-mill canal.")

The farmers on all sides are digging their potatoes, so prone to their work that they do not see me going across lots. Compare September 27, 1858 ("The farmers digging potatoes on shore pause a moment to watch my sail and bending mast."); November 18, 1851 ("The man who is bent upon his work is frequently in the best attitude to observe what is irrelevant to his work. "); April 12, 1854 ("It is from out the shadow of my toil that I look into the light."); April 30, 1856 (“ Again, it is with the side of the ear that you hear. The music or the beauty belong not to your work. . . but you will hear more of it if you devote yourself to your work.”)

At last I see a few toadstools, — the election-cake (the yellowish, glazed over). See October 2, 1859 ("Nowadays I see most of the election-cake fungi, with crickets and slugs eating them"); October 4, 1858 ("See crickets eating the election-cake toadstools."); October 10, 1858 ("I find the under sides of the election-cake fungi there covered with pink-colored fleas"); October 20, 1856 (“I notice, as elsewhere of late, a great many brownish-yellow (and some pink) election-cake fungi, eaten by crickets; about three inches in diameter."); October 16, 1859 ("That election-cake fungus which is still growing (as for some months) appears to be a Boletus"); October 20, 1857 ("I see the yellowish election-cake fungi."); October 29, 1855 ("There are many fresh election-cake toadstools amid the pitch pine”); See also Concord: A Sense of Place, October 20, 2015, Election-cake Fungus Mystery.

Jays are more frequently heard of late. See September 21, 1854 (“I hear many jays since the frosts began”)