 |
| Rattlesnake Plantain in winter. |
See a sparrow, perhaps a song sparrow, flitting amid the young oaks where the ground is covered with snow. I think that this is an indication that the ground is quite bare a little further south.
Probably the spring birds never fly far over a snow-clad country.
A wood-chopper tells me he heard a robin this morning.
I see the reticulated leaves of the rattlesnake-plantain in the woods, quite fresh and green.
What is the little chickweed-like plant already springing up on the top of the Cliffs? There are some other plants with bright-green leaves which have either started somewhat or have never suffered from the cold under the snow.
Summer clenches hands with summer under the snow.
I am pretty sure that I hear the chuckle of a ground squirrel among the warm and bare rocks of the Cliffs.
A wood-chopper tells me he heard a robin this morning.
I see the reticulated leaves of the rattlesnake-plantain in the woods, quite fresh and green.
What is the little chickweed-like plant already springing up on the top of the Cliffs? There are some other plants with bright-green leaves which have either started somewhat or have never suffered from the cold under the snow.
Summer clenches hands with summer under the snow.
I am pretty sure that I hear the chuckle of a ground squirrel among the warm and bare rocks of the Cliffs.
The earth is perhaps two thirds bare to-day. The mosses are now very handsome, like young grass pushing up.
Hear the phoebe note of the chickadee to-day for the first time. I had at first heard their day-day-day ungratefully,-- ah! you but carry my thoughts back to winter, -- but anon I find that they too have become spring birds; they have changed their note. Even they feel the influence of spring.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 10, 1852
I see flocks of a dozen bluebirds together. See March 10, 1853 ("What was that sound that came on the softened air? It was the warble of the first bluebird from that scraggy apple orchard yonder. When this is heard, then has spring arrived"); March 10, 1855 ("You are always surprised by the sight of the first spring bird or insect; they seem premature, and there is no such evidence of spring as themselves, so that they literally fetch the year about. It is thus when I hear the first robin or bluebird or, looking along the brooks, see the first water-bugs out circling. But you think, They have come, and Nature cannot recede."); March 10, 1859 ("And already, when near the road, I hear the warble of my first Concord bluebird, borne to me from the hill through the still morning air, and, looking up, I see him plainly, though so far away, a dark speck in the top of a walnut.. . . The bluebird on the apple tree, warbling so innocently to inquire if any of its mates are within call, — the angel of the spring! Fair and innocent, yet the offspring of the earth. The color of the sky above and of the subsoil beneath. Suggesting what sweet and innocent melody (terrestrial melody) may have its birthplace between the sky and the ground") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: Listening for the Bluebird
Hear the phoebe note of the chickadee to-day for the first time. I had at first heard their day-day-day ungratefully,-- ah! you but carry my thoughts back to winter, -- but anon I find that they too have become spring birds; they have changed their note. Even they feel the influence of spring.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 10, 1852
I see flocks of a dozen bluebirds together. See March 10, 1853 ("What was that sound that came on the softened air? It was the warble of the first bluebird from that scraggy apple orchard yonder. When this is heard, then has spring arrived"); March 10, 1855 ("You are always surprised by the sight of the first spring bird or insect; they seem premature, and there is no such evidence of spring as themselves, so that they literally fetch the year about. It is thus when I hear the first robin or bluebird or, looking along the brooks, see the first water-bugs out circling. But you think, They have come, and Nature cannot recede."); March 10, 1859 ("And already, when near the road, I hear the warble of my first Concord bluebird, borne to me from the hill through the still morning air, and, looking up, I see him plainly, though so far away, a dark speck in the top of a walnut.. . . The bluebird on the apple tree, warbling so innocently to inquire if any of its mates are within call, — the angel of the spring! Fair and innocent, yet the offspring of the earth. The color of the sky above and of the subsoil beneath. Suggesting what sweet and innocent melody (terrestrial melody) may have its birthplace between the sky and the ground") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: Listening for the Bluebird
See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: the Song Sparrow Sings
I see the reticulated leaves of the rattlesnake-plantain in the woods, quite fresh and green. See August 27, 1856 ("Is it not the prettiest leaf that paves the forest floor?”) ; June 12, 1853 ("The rattlesnake-plantain now surprises the walker amid the dry leaves on cool hillsides in the woods; of very simple form, but richly veined with longitudinal and transverse white veins. It looks like art.”) Also
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Rattlesnake-Plantain
Hear the phoebe note of the chickadee to-day for the first time. See January 9, 1858 ("Some chickadees come flitting close to me, and one utters its spring note, phe-be, for which I feel under obligations to him"); February 9, 1856 ("I hear a phoebe note from a chickadee."); February 24, 1857 ("A chickadee with its winter lisp flits over, and I think it is time to hear its phebe note, and that instant it pipes it forth. "); March 1, 1854 ("I hear the phoebe or spring note of the chickadee, and the scream of the jay is perfectly repeated by the echo from a neighboring wood.”); March 1, 1856 ("I hear several times the fine-drawn phe-be note of the chickadee, which I heard only once during the winter. Singular that I should hear this on the first spring day. “); March 11, 1854 ("Air full of birds, — bluebirds, song sparrows, chickadee (phoebe notes), and blackbirds. Bluebirds' warbling curls in elms.”); March 14, 1852 ("I see a flock of blackbirds and hear their conqueree. The ground is mostly bare now. Again I hear the chickadee's spring note.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring, the spring note of the chickadee
I see the reticulated leaves of the rattlesnake-plantain in the woods, quite fresh and green. See August 27, 1856 ("Is it not the prettiest leaf that paves the forest floor?”) ; June 12, 1853 ("The rattlesnake-plantain now surprises the walker amid the dry leaves on cool hillsides in the woods; of very simple form, but richly veined with longitudinal and transverse white veins. It looks like art.”) Also
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Rattlesnake-Plantain
Hear the phoebe note of the chickadee to-day for the first time. See January 9, 1858 ("Some chickadees come flitting close to me, and one utters its spring note, phe-be, for which I feel under obligations to him"); February 9, 1856 ("I hear a phoebe note from a chickadee."); February 24, 1857 ("A chickadee with its winter lisp flits over, and I think it is time to hear its phebe note, and that instant it pipes it forth. "); March 1, 1854 ("I hear the phoebe or spring note of the chickadee, and the scream of the jay is perfectly repeated by the echo from a neighboring wood.”); March 1, 1856 ("I hear several times the fine-drawn phe-be note of the chickadee, which I heard only once during the winter. Singular that I should hear this on the first spring day. “); March 11, 1854 ("Air full of birds, — bluebirds, song sparrows, chickadee (phoebe notes), and blackbirds. Bluebirds' warbling curls in elms.”); March 14, 1852 ("I see a flock of blackbirds and hear their conqueree. The ground is mostly bare now. Again I hear the chickadee's spring note.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring, the spring note of the chickadee
No comments:
Post a Comment