The birth of shadow.

May 28.

The trees now begin to shade the streets. When the sun gets high in the sky the trees give shade. With oppressive heats come refreshing shadows.

The buttercups spot the churchyard.


H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 28, 1851

The trees now begin to shade the streets. See June 2, 1854 ("These virgin shades of the year, when everything is tender, fresh and green, — how full of promise! I would fain be present at the birth of shadow. It takes place with the first expansion of the leaves."); June 6, 1855 ("The dark eye and shade of June”) See also ("I got to-day and yesterday the first decided impression of greenness beginning to prevail, summer-like. . . .It reminds you of the time, not far off, when you will see the dark shadows of the trees there and buttercups spotting the grass.") May 28, 1858 (“These various shades of grass remind me of June.”); May 30, 1852 (Now is the summer come. . . . A day for shadows, even of moving clouds, over fields in which the grass is beginning to wave.”)

The buttercups spot the churchyard. See May 27, 1853 ("A new season has commenced - summer - leafy June. . . . The buttercups in the church-yard and on some hillsides are now looking more glossy and bright than ever after the rain."); May 30, 1857 ("Buttercups thickly spot the churchyard.")

May 28. SeeA Book of the Seasons,, by Henry Thoreau, May 28

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