A Book of the Seasons: April 20 ( willows, warmth, hermit thrush, snakes, toads. rain, the experience of a day)

 

The year is but a succession of days,

and I see that I could assign some office to each day

which, summed up, would be the history of the year.

Henry Thoreau, August 24, 1852

April 20

On the long way home

stars shine like a winter night,

dipper upside down.

April 20, 2014

April 20, 2026

Hear and see my ruby-crowned or crested wren singing at 6 a. m. on Wheildon's pines. April 20, 1859

I find some advantage in describing the experience of a day on the day following. At this distance it is more ideal, like the landscape seen with the head inverted, or reflections in water. April 20, 1854

The Salix purpurea in prime; began, say, 18th. April 20, 1860

A willow coming out fairly, with honey-bees humming on it, in a warm nook. And now different kinds of bees and flies about them. What a sunny sight and summer sound! April 20, 1854

Arbor-vitae? apparently in full bloom. April 20, 1857

C. sees bluets and some kind of thrush to-day, size of wood thrush, — he thought probably hermit thrush. April 20, 1860

H. Mann brings me the hermit thrush. April 20, 1861

Saw a toad and a small snake. April 20, 1853

A striped snake on a warm, sunny bank. April 20, 1854

The painted tortoises are fairly out sunning to-day. April 20, 1854

A very pleasant and warm afternoon; the earth seems to be waking up. April 20, 1854

A warm day. Now begin to sit without fires more commonly, and to wear but one coat commonly. April 20, 1860

Frogs croak in the clear pools on the hillside where rocks have been taken out, and there is frog-spawn there, and little tadpoles are very lively in the sunny water. April 20, 1854

It is a warm evening, and I hear toads ring distinctly for the first time. April 20, 1860

P. M. – Rain-storm begins, with hail. April 20, 1858

Rains all day, taking out the frost and imprisoning me. You cannot set a post yet on account of frost. April 20, 1855

Rain, rain, rain, — a northeast storm. I see that it is raising the river somewhat again. Some little islets which had appeared on the meadow north west of Dodd’s are now fast being submerged again. April 20, 1856

Setting pines all day. April 20, 1859

Yesterday is like

a reflection in water.

Ideal. Inverted.

April 20, 1854

April 20, 2014

If you make the least correct 

observation of nature this year,

 you will have occasion to repeat it

 with illustrations the next, 

and the season and life itself is prolonged.

  April 7, 1853 

April 19  <<<<<April 20 >>>>>  April 21   

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, April 20

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 ©  2009-2023

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-april20

A toad and a snake

April 20.


Saw a toad and a small snake.


H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 20, 1853

See April 20, 1854 ("A striped snake on a warm, sunny bank."); April 20, 1860 ("Moore tells me that last fall his men, digging sand in that hollow just up the hill, dug up a parcel of snakes half torpid . . .The men killed them, and laid them all in a line on the ground, and they measured several hundred feet . . .It is a warm evening, and I hear toads ring distinctly for the first time.") See also April 2, 1857 (" I see a toad, which apparently hopped out from under a fence last evening, frozen quite hard in a sitting posture. Carried it into Boston in my pocket, but could not thaw it into life . .. A black snake was seen yesterday in the Quaker burying-ground "); April 5, 1857 ("This, then, is apparently the way with the toads. They very early hop out from under walls on to sidewalks in the warmer nights, long before they are heard to ring, and are often frozen and then crushed there"); April 16, 1855(" A striped snake rustles down a dry open hillside where the withered grass is long.") April 16, 1861("Horace Mann says that he killed a bullfrog which had swallowed and contained a common striped snake."); April 25, 1859 ("Toads have been observed or disturbed in gardens for a week. One saw a striped snake the 3d of April on a warm railroad sand-bank");   May 19, 1856 ("A small striped snake in the act of swallowing a Rana palustris”); September 3, 1858 ("I see a small striped snake. . . swallowing a toad.")

See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, April 20

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 ©  2009-2023

The hermit thrush.

April 20.

H. Mann brings me the hermit thrush.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 20, 1861

H. Mann brings me the hermit thrush. See April 20, 1860 (" C sees bluets and some kind of thrush to-day, size of wood thrush, — he thought probably hermit thrush."); see also  April 21, 1858 ("Ed. Hoar says he heard a wood thrush the 18th.");  April 24, 1856 ("Returning, in the low wood just this side the first Second Division Brook, near the meadow, see a brown bird flit, and behold my hermit thrush, with one companion, flitting silently through the birches. I saw the fox-color on his tail-coverts, as well as the brown streaks on the breast. Both kept up a constant jerking of the tail as they sat on their perches." and also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of Spring: The Arrival of the Hermit Thrush

See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, April 20

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 ©  2009-2023

The men killed them, and laid them all in a line on the ground, and they measured several hundred feet.

April 20. 

The Salix purpurea in prime; began, say, 18th. 

A warm day. Now begin to sit without fires more commonly, and to wear but one coat commonly. 

Moore tells me that last fall his men, digging sand in that hollow just up the hill, dug up a parcel of snakes half torpid. They were both striped and black together, in a place somewhat porous, he thought where a horse had been buried once. 

The men killed them, and laid them all in a line on the ground, and they measured several hundred feet. This seems to be the common practice when such collections are found; they are at once killed and stretched out in a line, and the sum of their lengths measured and related.  

It is a warm evening, and I hear toads ring distinctly for the first time. 

C. sees bluets and some kind of thrush to-day, size of wood thrush, — he thought probably hermit thrush.

H. D.. Thoreau, Journal, April 20, 1860

The Salix purpurea in prime; began, say, 18th. See April 10, 1860 ("Salix purpurea apparently will not open for four or five days");. See also April 22, 1859 ("The Salix purpurea in prime, out probably three or four days; say 19th.")

 Now begin to sit without fires more commonly, and to wear but one coat commonly. See April 16, 1855 ("A perfectly clear and very warm day, . . . and I have not got far before, for the first time, I regret that I wore my greatcoat"); April 17, 1855 ("I leave off my greatcoat, though the wind rises rather fresh before I return. It is worth the while to walk so free and light, having got off both boots and greatcoat.");. April 19, 1855 ("Warm and still and somewhat cloudy. Am without greatcoat"); April 25, 1854 (" I swelter under my greatcoat. . . . (I have not left it at home yet),. . . For some time we have done with little fire, nowadays let it go out in the afternoon."); April 26, 1854 ("It is now so warm that I go back to leave my greatcoat for the first time.");April 30, 1859 (" The warmest afternoon yet. Sat in sun without fire this forenoon."); May 2, 1858 ("Sit without fire to-day and yesterday."); May 3, 1857 ("To-day we sit without fire.")

The men killed them. See  note to April 26, 1857 ("I have the same objection to killing a snake that I have to the killing of any other animal, yet the most humane man that I know never omits to kill one.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Striped Snake

I hear toads ring distinctly for the first time.  See  April 20, 1853 ("Saw a toad and a small snake.") See also April 5, 1860 ("I hear, or think that I hear, a very faint distant ring of toads, which, though I walk and walk all the afternoon, I never come nearer to. . . .. Thus gradually and moderately the year begins. It creeps into the ears so gradually that most do not observe it, and so our ears are gradually accustomed to the sound, and perchance we do not perceive it when at length it has become very much louder and more general. ");  April 25, 1859 ("[A] new season has arrived.  . . . It begins when the first toad is heard. Methinks I hear through the wind to-day . . . a very faint, low ringing of toads, as if distant and just begun. It is an indistinct undertone, and I am far from sure that I hear anything. It may be all imagination").  Also see A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Ring of Toads.

C. sees bluets and some kind of thrush to-day, size of wood thrush, — he thought probably hermit thrush. See April 19, 1858 ("Hear of bluets found on Saturday, the 17th; how long? ");  April 21, 1855 ("At Cliffs, I hear at a distance a wood [sic] thrush. It affects us as a part of our unfallen selves..") and note to April 24, 1856 ("Behold my hermit thrush, with one companion, flitting silently through the birches."). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of Spring: The Arrival of the Hermit Thrush

See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, April 20

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 ©  2009-2023

My ruby-crowned or crested wren

April 20

Hear and see my ruby-crowned or crested wren singing at 6 a. m. on Wheildon's pines. 

Ruby-Crowned Wren on Kalmia Angustifollia

Setting pines all day.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 20, 1859

Hear and see my ruby-crowned or crested wren singing. See April 25, 1854 (“A very interesting and active little fellow, darting about amid the tree-tops, and his song quite remarkable and rich and loud for his size. Begins with a very fine note, before its pipes are filled, not audible at a little distance, then woriter weter, etc., etc., winding up with teter teter, all clear and round. This was at 4 p. m., when most birds do not sing. I saw it yesterday, pluming itself and stretching its little wings. Our smallest bird, methinks, except the hummingbird.”); May 6, 1855 ("Hear at a distance a ruby(?)-crowned wren, so robin-like and spirited. After see one within ten or fifteen feet. Dark bill and legs, apparently dark olivaceous ashy head, a little whitish before and behind the full black eyes, ash breast, olive-yellow on primaries, with a white bar, dark tail and ends of wings, white belly and vent. Did not notice vermilion spot on hindhead. It darts off from apple tree for insects like a pewee, and returns to within ten feet of me as if curious. I think this the only Regulus I have ever seen.”);  May 7, 1855 (“Climbed to two crows’ nests . . . A ruby-crested wren is apparently attracted and eyes me.”); July 14, 1856 (“Saw apparently my little ruby(?)-crested wren(?) on the weeds there.”); April 30, 1857 (“Hear again the same bird heard at Conantum April 18th, which I think must be the ruby-crowned wren. ”); April 29, 1858  (“I Heard yesterday at Ledum Swamp the lively, sweet, yet somewhat whimsical note of the ruby crowned wren.");  April 26, 1860 ("Hear the ruby-crowned wren in the morning, near George Heywood’s.”). See also note to December 25, 1859 ("I hear a sharp fine screep from some bird,. . . I can see a brilliant crown. . . . It is evidently the golden-crested wren, which I have not made out before.”). and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau: the ruby-crowned or crested wren.

Wheildon's pines. See December 21, 1855 (“ I hear and see tree sparrows on Wheildon’s pines,”); March 21, 1859 ("I see several white pine cones in the path by Wheildon's . . . Others still hold on.”) 

Setting pines all day. See April 19, 1859 ("Began to set white pines in R.W.E.'s Wyman lot."); April 21, 1859 (" Setting pines all day. This makes two and a half days, with two men and a horse and cart to help me. We have set some four hundred trees at fifteen feet apart diamondwise, covering some two acres. I set every one with my own hand") April 22, 1859 ("When setting the pines at Walden the last three days,I was sung to by the field sparrow. . . .As I planted there, wandering thoughts visited me, which I have now forgotten.")

See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, April 20

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 ©  2009-2023

Rain and hail.

April 20. 

P. M. – Rain-storm begins, with hail.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 20, 1858

See April 17, 1856 (“I heard a thousand hailstones strike and bounce on the roof at once. . . a skirmish between the cool rear-guard of winter and the warm and earnest vanguard of summer.”); April 22, 1856 (“These rain-storms -- this is the third day of one -- characterize 'the season, and belong rather to winter than to summer.”)

See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, April 20

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 ©  2009-2023

Arbor-vitae in bloom.

April 20. 

Arbor-vitae? apparently in full bloom.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 20, 1857


See April 19, 1856 ("The arbor-vita: by riverside behind Monroe’s appears to be just now fairly in blossom."); April 21, 1858 (“The arbor-vitae is apparently effete already.”): April 26, 1855 ("Wheildon’s arbor-vitae well out, maybe for a week.")

See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, April 20

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 ©  2009-2023

A Book of the Seasons: April 20.

April 20.

 A very pleasant

warm afternoon -- the earth seems

to be waking up.

April 20, 1854

Yesterday is like
a reflection in water.
Ideal. Inverted.
April 20, 1854

On the long way home

stars shine like a winter night,

dipper upside down.

April 20, 2014

April 20, 2026

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 © 2009-2017

April rain.

April 20

Rain, rain, rain, — a northeast storm. I see that it is raising the river somewhat again. Some little islets which had appeared on the meadow north west of Dodd’s are now fast being submerged again.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 20, 1856

Rain, rain, rain. See April 22, 1856 (“These rain-storms -- this is the third day of one – characterize 'the season, and belong rather to winter than to summer.”) See also April 20, 1855 ("Rains all day, taking out the frost and imprisoning me.”);  See also April 17, 1857 ("Rain. It rains about every other day now for a fortnight past.”)

April 20, 2026

 

See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, April 20

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

Confined by the rain.

April 20

Rains all day, taking out the frost and imprisoning me. You cannot set a post yet on account of frost.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 20, 1855


Rains all day, . . . imprisoning me. See April 20, 1856 (“ Rain, rain, rain, a northeast storm.") See also  April 17, 1857 ("Rain. It rains about every other day now for a fortnight past.”);April 22, 1856 (“These rain-storms -- this is the third day of one -- characterize 'the season, and belong rather to winter than to summer.”)

See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, April 20

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 ©  2009-2023

Yesterday is like a refllection

April 20.

yesterday

A willow coming out fairly, with honey-bees humming on it, in a warm nook. And now different kinds of bees and flies about them. What a sunny sight and summer sound! 

A striped snake on a warm, sunny bank. 

The painted tortoises are fairly out sunning to-day. 

A very pleasant and warm afternoon; the earth seems to be waking up. 

Frogs croak in the clear pools on the hillside where rocks have been taken out, and there is frog-spawn there, and little tadpoles are very lively in the sunny water. 

I find some advantage in describing the experience of a day on the day following. At this distance it is more ideal, like the landscape seen with the head inverted, or reflections in water.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, April 20, 1854

A willow coming out fairly, with honey-bees humming on it, in a warm nook. See April 17, 1852 ("We hear but little music in the world which charms us more than this sound produced by the vibration of an insect's wing and in some still and sunny nook in spring"); April 17, 1855 ("The second sallow catkin (or any willow) I have seen in blossom —there are three or four catkins on the twig partly open —I am about to clutch, but find already a bee curved close on each half-opened catkin, intoxicated with its early sweet."); April 18, 1852 (" The most interesting fact, perhaps, at present is these few tender yellow blossoms, these half-expanded sterile aments of the willow, seen through the rain and cold, — signs of the advancing year, pledges of the sun's return.") 

Quickly and surely

the bee finds the first flower

before the poet.

April 17, 1855

See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Bees

A striped snake on a warm, sunny bank. See April 25, 1859 ("One saw a striped snake the 3d of April on a warm railroad sand-bank, — a similar place to the others I heard of.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Striped Snake

The painted tortoises are fairly out sunning to-day. See March 29, 1858 ("They seem to come out into the sun about the time the phoebe is heard over the water"); May 1, 1859 ("All up and down our river meadows their backs are shining in the sun to-day. It is a turtle day. ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,the Painted Turtle (Emys picta)

Describing the experience of the day. See July 23, 1851 ("Put an interval between the impression and the expression, - wait till the seed germinates naturally.”); May 5, 1852 ("I succeed best when I recur to my experience not too late, but within a day or two; when there is some distance, but enough of freshness."); January 10, 1854 ("What you can recall of a walk on the second day will differ from what you remember on the first day . . . as any view changes to one who is journeying amid mountains when he has increased the distance.");  March 27, 1857 ("The men and things of to-day are wont to lie fairer and truer in to-morrow’s memory."); March 28, 1857 ("Often I can give the truest and most interesting account of any adventure I have had after years have elapsed, for then I am not confused, only the most significant facts surviving in my memory. Indeed, all that continues to interest me after such a lapse of time is sure to be pertinent, and I may safely record all that I remember.")

More ideal, like the landscape seen with the head inverted, or reflections in water. See 1850 ("You have only to stand on your head a moment to be enchanted with the beauty of the landscape "); January 9, 1853 ("I see to-day the reflected sunset sky in the river, but the colors in the reflection are different from those in the sky.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Inverted Head experiment.

April 20. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, April 20

Yesterday is like

a reflection in water.

 Inverted, ideal.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Yesterday is like a refletion

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 © 2009-2024

tinyurl.com/hdt-540420

We reach the lower view just before sunset. The woods have that late afternoon glow. At the view the sun is down. A clear blue sky and saffron horizon. The pond bright. Later walking home the long way the stars are out, shining through the trees like a winters night, the big dipper upside down.

On the long way home

stars shine like a winter night

dipper upside down.

April 20, 2014

Zphx