The poet naturalist

June 30.

Nature must be viewed humanly to be viewed at all; that is, her scenes must be associated with humane affections, such as are associated with one's native place, for instance. 

She is most significant to a lover. 

A lover of Nature is preeminently a lover of man. If I have no friend, what is Nature to me? She ceases to be morally significant.

7.30 p. m. — To stone bridge over Assabet. 

Moon nearly full; rose a little before sunset. 

Cat-mint (Nepeta cataria) in bloom.

The moon appears full. At first a mere white cloud. As soon as the sun sets, begins to grow brassy or obscure golden in the gross atmosphere. 

It is starlight about half an hour after sunset to-night; i. e. the first stars appear. The moon is now brighter, but not so yellowish. 

Ten or fifteen minutes after, the fireflies are observed, at first about the willows on the Causeway, where the evening is further advanced. 

Sparrows quite generally, and occasionally a robin sings. (I heard a bobolink this afternoon.) The creak of the crickets is more universal and loud, and becomes a distinct sound. 

The oily surface of the river in which the moon is reflected looks most attractive at this hour. I see the bright curves made by the water-bugs in the moonlight, and a muskrat crossing the river, now at 9 o'clock. 

Finally the last traces of day disappear, about 9.30 o'clock, and the night fairly sets in. 

The color of the moon is more silvery than golden, or silvery with a slight admixture of golden, a sort of burnished cloud. 

The bass tree is budded. 

Haying has commenced. 

Is not this period more than any distinguished for flowers, when roses, swamp-pinks, morning-glories, arethusas, pogonias, orchises, blue flags, epilobiums, mountain laurel, and white lilies are all in blossom at once?

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 30, 1852

Moon nearly full; rose a little before sunset. . . . At first a mere white cloud. As soon as the sun sets, begins to grow brassy. See July 11, 1851 ("[The moon] who was a pale cloud before, begins to emit a silvery light, acquiring at last a tinge of golden as the darkness deepens."); April 30, 1852 ("Then when I turned, I saw in the east, just over the woods, the modest, pale, cloud-like moon, two thirds full, looking spirit-like on these daylight scenes. Such a sight excites me. The earth is worthy to inhabit.") Compare August 12, 1851 ("She will appear but as a cloud herself, and sink unnoticed into the west.") See also May 3, 1852 ("A great brassy moon going down in the west."); June 1, 1852 ("The moon about full.. . .The moving clouds are the drama of the moonlight nights"); July 20, 1852 (" The crescent moon, meanwhile, grows more silvery, and, as it sinks in the west, more yellowish,")

It is starlight about half an hour after sunset to-night; i. e. the first stars appear. . . .Finally the last traces of day disappear, about 9.30 o'clock, and the night fairly sets in. See August 8, 1851 ("Starlight! that would be a good way to mark the hour, if we were precise.”);May 8, 1852 (“Starlight marks conveniently a stage in the evening, i. e. when the first star can be seen. ”); June 28,1852 ("Now it is starlight; perhaps that dark cloud in the west has concealed the evening star before . . .Starlight!. . .. That is an epoch, when the last traces of daylight have disappeared and the night (nox) has fairly set in.”); July 12, 1852 (“Now, a quarter after nine, as I walk along the river-bank, long after starlight, and perhaps an hour or more after sunset, I see some of those high-pillared clouds of the day, in the southwest, still reflecting a downy light from the regions of day, they are so high.”); July 20, 1852 ("Then the cloudlets in the west turn rapidly dark, the shadow of night advances in the east, and the first stars become visible. It is starlight. You see the first star in the southwest, and know not how much earlier you might have seen it had you looked. . . .the last traces of daylight disappear, about 10 o'clock, the same time the moon goes down.")

I see the bright curves made by the water-bugs in the moonlight . . . now at 9 o'clock. See June 2, 1860 (“Water-bugs dimple the surface now quite across the river, in the moonlight, for it is a full moon.”); August 8, 1851 (“As I recross the string-pieces of the bridge, I see the water-bugs swimming briskly in the moonlight . . .”)

Haying has commenced. See June 30, 1851 ("Haying has commenced.”)

Arethusas, pogonias, orchises, blue flags, epilobiums. See June 20, 1859 ("Great purple fringed orchis."); July 2, 1857 (“Pogonia ophioglossoides apparently in a day or two.”); July 7,1856 (The snake-head arethusa is now abundant amid the cranberries there [Gowings Swamp].”); July 8, 1857 (“Find a Pogonia ophioglossoides with a third leaf and second flower an inch above the first flower.”); July 24,, 1857 (“ great fields of epilobium or fire-weed, a mass of color. . . .”); August 1, 1856 ("Snake-head arethusa still in the meadow”); June 30,1851 ("The blue flag (Iris versicolor) enlivens the meadow.”)