Anniversary Week

June 2.

The past has been Anniversary Week in Boston, and there have been several rainy or cloudy days. Cleared up at noon to-day. This Anniversary Week is said to be commonly rainy.

There is a lively and washing northwest wind after the rain. The waves are breaking on this shore with a swash. The air is cleansed and clear, and the waves, as I look toward the sun, sparkle with so bright and white a light, - so peculiarly fresh and bright.

The impurities have all come down out of the air.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 2, 1860

The air is cleansed and clear, and the waves sparkle with so bright and white a light. Compare June 9, 1852 ("For a week past we have had washing days. . . . The weather is very clear, and the sky bright. The river shines like silver.”); June 23, 1852 ("It is an agreeably cool and clear and breezy day, when all things appear as if washed bright and shine, . . . The air is cleared and cooled by yesterday's thunder-storms. The river too has a fine, cool, silvery sparkle or sheen on it.”)