Cool north wind

June 30.
Cooler, with a northerly wind. The pads blown up by it already show crimson, it is so strong, but this not a fall phenomenon yet.

H.D. Thoreau, Journal, June 30, 1859

The pads blown up by it already show crimson . . .See June 29, 1852 ("The wind exposes the red under sides of the white lily pads. This is one of the aspects of the river now”); July 30, 1856 ("I am struck with the splendid crimson-red under sides of the white lily pads where my boat has turned them, at my bath place near the Hemlocks.”); August 24,1854 ("The bright crimson-red under sides of the great white lily pads, turned up by the wind in broad fields on the sides of the stream, are a great ornament to the stream. It is not till August, methinks, that they are turned up conspicuously.”)

We walk down to the waterfall and back; detouring for a brief stop at the fort.  it gets dark as we walk and sprinkles on and off.  Buda is with me on a leash . the woods are damp, as it has rained every day.  June is over tonight with 9 inches in burlington as opposed to a regular three. before the boardwalk we see a flash, then later hear thunder.  a  moderate downpour hits just after we get home, i am sweaty and happy. i come up and turn off my fan to listen to the rain.

A flash then thunder --

Home, I turn off my fan and

listen to the rain.

June 30, 2013 

 It is Sunday night. After dinner we walk to the view and back.  The birds are the usual suspects. Two thrushes  ovenbird peewee Rose breasted grosbeak great crested flycatcher. Did we hear a scarlet Tanager? I have lost the mental note of this sound 

There was thunder last night and storms elsewhere in this morning heavy rain on and off with light rain in between. The stream at the junction has dried up and at the first stream crossing they are only two or three pools left for the dogs to drink. This probably will be the case for the rest of the summer. I’ve already lugged a good gallon jug of water to the view The sun is setting through the trees at the house. On the trail in the woods and on the cliffs are those orangey spots. But it has set well before we get there. I’m surprised the air is so clear and clean -- a pleasant northwest winds,  thunderhead perhaps on the north horizon.  I just never paid attention that it has cleared up. 

The sun is setting orange And one moment I think I see different layers of orange  I get one good picture that captures the colors. We sit longer than planned then head back the usual way in the dusk without headlamps   And press all the way home after dark using the luminescent paint along the trails to guide us now accompanied by a myriad fireflies.  We would never seen the fireflies dancing in the woods and over the trail using a headlamp   

Fireflies dancing

     in the night in the woods we 

           walk without headlamp  

June 30 2019

Zphx

In Howard's Meadow

June 29.

P. M. — To Walden. Very hot. 

The piper grass bloom in prime. 

Examined the flying squirrel's nest at the base of a small white [oak] or two (sprouts), four inches through, in a small old white oak stump, half open above, just below the level of the ground, composed of quite a mass of old withered oak leaves and a few fresh green ones, and the inside wholly of fine, dry sedge and sedge-like bark-fibres.  The upper side of the nest was half visible from above. It was eight or nine inches across. 

In it I found the wing of an Attacus luna, — and July 1st another wing near Second Division, which makes three between June 27th and July 1st.

At the railroad spring in Howard's meadow, I see two chestnut-sided warblers hopping and chipping as if they had a nest, within six feet of me, a long time. No doubt they are breeding near. Yellow crown with a fine dark longitudinal line, reddish-chestnut sides, black triangle on side of head, white beneath. 

River falls several inches.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 29, 1859

The flying squirrel's nest. See June 19, 1859 ("A flying squirrel's nest . . .south of Walden, on hilltop, in a covered hollow in a small old stump at base of a young oak")

I found the wing of an Attacus luna, three between June 27th and July 1st. See June 27, 1859 ("At the further Brister's Spring, under the pine, I find an Attacus luna, half hidden under a skunk-cabbage leaf, ")   See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Luna Moth (Attacus luna)

A merganser on the dock

At evening the sound of rain before it rains, pummeling the water. Starting a fire when the sky clears. Now rain in West Castleton coming across the water. The sight of rain before it rains. The sound of rain...the sound of rain.

No way the fire is still going. But hot coals glow when the rain stops. Cook over the fire and eat as the sunset lingers, followed by a setting new moon and morning, a merganser on the dock, mist rising.

Zphx, June 25, 2009

The other day it rains all afternoon as i sit by an open window in my attic room thinking of you listening to the sound of rain. The sound of rain stirring the embers of memory. The heat of our flame. The sound of rain. 20190621

On the road to Gettysburg: "Be at home soon now if nothing happens. "

In June, 1863 a Confederate army of 75,000 men marched through the Shenandoah Valley into southern Pennsylvania. The Army of the Potomac, numbering 90,000 and now commanded by General George G. Meade, moved to check Lee's advance.


Union Mills June 25th 1863

Dear Lettie

We are all packed and just on another start and have just time to write a word. The last I wrote you a note we were just on a start to guard a Ford on Cedar Run Mill. We just as I said started until last night when we had orders to withdraw our picket and report to this place at once which we did, arriving about half past one o'clock this morning.

I traveled some 20 miles yesterday and last night and feel first rate today better fitted for another march than so I had lazed in camp until now.

It is now most noon and I have working just as hard as I can jump every since morning getting ready. Have given up all my stuff except a shirt, pair stockings, blanket and a few other things.

We have been transferred to the Army of Potomac 1st Corps under command of Genl. Reynolds. The whole brigade goes and we expect a lively campaign but it will be short -- less than a month.

It is expected we march at once. We are only waiting for 12th & 13th to come up. Shall write often as I can but you must not expect many when on such marches.

I feel first rate, had as well go there as any where for a short time. I don’t think there is much doubt but what we shall have fun soon.

George has got better and is going to Alexandria with some Express boxes today and follow us tomorrow or next day.

Read your kind letter of the 18th inst. this morning when I arrived in camp which I read with much pleasure before retiring. I have no time to notice its contents.

Don’t worry about me but think me all right and be happy. Be at home soon now if nothing happens. I shall think of you every minute and love you always. Let me hug and kiss you again and again as I bid you good bye my darling one.

Affectionately,
Elmer


Captain Elmer Duane Keyes, Company H, 16th Vermont Regiment, Letter from Union Mills, June 25, 1863

High water on the Concord

June 22.

One who is not almost daily on the river will not perceive the revolution constantly going on.

It is hard to tell what is a fresh deposit and what an old growth. I notice a black willow top a foot above water, a dozen rods from shore, near the outlet of Fair Haven Pond, or just off the point of the Island, where the water is ten feet deep by my measure, and it is alive and green. There is a very large mass of bushes moved on the right shore, some way above Sherman's Bridge, and a large mass above Heard's Bridge some distance, on the east side (having drifted across). I should say that the largest masses, or islands, of button-bushes standing in the meadows had drifted there.

Many seeing the green willow-tops rising above the surface in deep water think that there is a rock there on which they grow. Even the owner of the meadow and the haymakers may not always detect what was imported the previous spring, these transplanted plants look so at home there.

So the revolution is almost an imperceptible one.

H.D. Thoreau, Journal, June 22, 1859

One who is not almost daily on the river will not perceive the revolution constantly going on. See February 25, 1851 ("The crust of the meadow afloat, . . . another agent employed in the distribution of plants."); February 27, 1851("Blue-joint was introduced into the first meadow where it did not grow before."); February 28, 1855 ("This is a powerful agent at work.”)

Two Lost Celebrities with single Death Notice, June 2009

Suicide with a gun
is a messy imposition
on those you leave behind
to clean brains off the wall
and all that blood.

Better hang yourself in a closet
with a rope around your balls
to let them think
you were having fun.

Obituary.

Sleeping peacefully
surrounded by family and friends:
Accidental death!


Zphx, June 19, 2009

Taking shelter from a shower on the river.

June 18.

P. M. — Sail up river.

Rain again, and we take shelter under a bridge, and again under our boat, and again under a pine tree.

It is worth the while to sit or lie through a shower thus under a bridge or under a boat on the bank, because the rain is a much more interesting and remarkable phenomenon under these circumstances.

The surface of the stream betrays every drop from the first to the last, and all the variations of the storm, so much more expressive is the water than the comparatively brutish face of earth. We no doubt often walk between drops of rain falling thinly, without knowing it, though if on the water we should have been advertised of it.

At last the whole surface is nicked with the rebounding drops as if the surface rose in little cones to accompany or meet the drops, till it looks like the back of some spiny fruit or animal, and yet the different-colored currents, light and dark, are seen through it all;

and then, when it clears up, how gradually the surface of the water becomes more placid and bright, the dimples growing fewer and finer till the prolonged reflections of trees are seen in it, and the water is lit up with a joy which is in sympathy with our own, while the earth is comparatively dead.

I saw swarms of little gnats, light-winged, dancing over the water in the midst of the rain, though you would say any drop would end one's days.

The swamp white oaks and red maples and willows, etc., now first begin to show a slight silveriness on the under edges of their flakes, where the under sides of the new leaves are shown.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 18, 1859

The different-colored currents, light and dark, are seen through it all. See July 31, 1860 ("The differently shaded or lit currents of the river through it all; but anon it begins to rain very hard, and a myriad white globules dance or rebound an inch or two from the surface, where the big drops fall, and I hear a sound as if it rains pebbles or shot.")

June18.  See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, June 18

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 © 2009-2020