Injunctions on editing "Walden"

March 31.

In criticising your writing, trust your fine instinct.  There are many things which we come very near questioning, but do not question. When I have sent off my manuscripts to the printer, certain objectionable sentences or expressions are sure to obtrude themselves on my attention with force, though I had not consciously suspected them before. My critical instinct then at once breaks the ice and comes to the surface.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 31, 1854

When I have sent off my manuscripts to the printer, certain objectionable sentences or expressions are sure to obtrude themselves on my attention. See March 28, 1854 ("Got first proof of "Walden.””); April 8, 1854 ("I find that I can criticise my composition best when I stand at a little distance from it. . .and judge it more impartially when my manuscript is out of the way");  See also January 1, 1852 ("When possessed with a strong feeling on any subject foreign to the one I may be writing on, I know very well what of good and what of bad I have written."); March 1, 1854 (" In correcting my manuscripts, . . . having purified the main body and thus created a distinct standard for comparison, I can review the rejected sentences and easily detect those which deserve to be readmitted."); February 20, 1859 ("It is the greatest art to find out as quickly as possible which are the best passages you have written, and tear the rest away."); 

A pigeon woodpecker at the hollow poplar

March 30.

6 a. m. — To Island. First still hour since the afternoon of the 17th.

Very severe cold and high winds cold enough to skim the river over in broad places at night, and commencing with the greatest and most destructive gale for many a year,  has never ceased to blow since till this morning. 

The ground these last cold (thirteen) days has been about bare of snow, but frozen.

At the Island I see and hear this morning the cackle of a pigeon woodpecker at the hollow poplar; had heard him tapping distinctly from my boat's place. 

Great flocks of tree sparrows and some F. hyemalis on the ground and trees on the Island Neck, making the air and bushes ring with their jingling.

The river early is partly filled with thin, floating, hardly cemented ice, occasionally turned on its edge by the wind and sparkling in the sun.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 30, 1854

At the Island I see and hear this morning the cackle of a pigeon woodpecker at the hollow poplar; had heard him tapping distinctly from my boat's place. See March 29, 1853 (" On approaching the Island, I am surprised to hear the scolding, cackle-like note of the pigeon woodpecker, a prolonged loud sound somewhat like one note of the robin. This was the tapper, on the old hollow aspen which the small woodpeckers so much frequent. Unless the latter make exactly the same sound with the former, then the pigeon woodpecker has come!! "); April 14, 1856 ("Hear the flicker’s cackle on the old aspen, and his tapping sounds afar over the water. Their tapping resounds thus far, with this peculiar ring and distinctness, because it is a hollow tree they select to play on, as a drum or tambour. It is a hollow sound which rings distinct to a great distance, especially over water.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Pigeon Woodpecker (flicker).

Great flocks of tree sparrows.  See March 28, 1853 ("I saw in Dodd's yard and flying thence to the alders by the river what I think must be the tree sparrow, — a ferruginous crowned, or headed, and partly winged bird, light beneath, with a few of the F. hyemalis in company. It sang sweetly, much like some notes of a canary."); April 1, 1854 ("The birds sing this warm, showery day after a fortnight's cold with a universal burst and flood of melody. The tree sparrows, hyemalis, and song sparrows are particularly lively and musical in the yard this rainy and truly April day. The air rings with them"); April 4, 1853 ("I hear the twitter of tree sparrows from fences and shrubs in the yard and from alders by meadows and the riverside every day"); April 4, 1855 ("A fine morning, still and bright, with smooth water and singing of song and tree sparrows and some blackbirds"); April 8, 1854 ("Methinks I do not see such great and lively flocks of hyemalis and tree sparrows in the morning since the warm days, the 4th, 5th, and 6th. Perchance after the warmer days, which bring out the frogs and butterflies, the alders and maples, the greater part of them leave for the north and give place to newcomers."); April 17, 1855 ("A sudden warm day, like yesterday and this, takes off some birds and adds others. . . . I suspect that most of the tree sparrows and F. hyemalis, at least, went yesterday.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Tree Sparrow; A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Dark-eyed Junco (Fringilla hyemalis)

Ice turned on its edge by the wind and sparkling in the sun. See March 29, 1854 ("Thin cakes of ice at a distance now and then blown up on their edges glistening in the sun."). See also February 12, 1851 ("I see at a distance thin cakes of ice forced upon their edges and reflecting the sun like so many mirrors, whole fleets of shining sails, giving a very lively appearance to the river. ");  March 10, 1859 ("The strong northwest wind of last night broke the thin ice just formed, and set the irregular triangular pieces on their edges quite perpendicular and directed northwest and southeast and pretty close together, about nine inches high, for half a dozen rods, like a dense fleet of schooners with their mainsails set."); March 4, 1860 ("Ice will occasionally be lifted up on its edge two feet high and very conspicuous afar.")

Trees in foggy woods

appearing one at a time

clear my foggy mind.

zphx20140330

Ice glistening in the sun.

March 29.

Coldest night. Pump freezes so as to require thawing. 

See two marsh hawks, white on rump. 

A gull of pure white, - a wave of foam in the air. How simple and wave-like its outline, two curves, - all wing - like a birch scale.

Fair Haven half open; channel wholly open. Thin cakes of ice at a distance now and then blown up on their edges glistening in the sun. 

A hen-hawk, - two - circling over Cliffs.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 29, 1854

A gull of pure white. See March 22, 1858 ("We see many gulls on the very opposite side of the meadow, near the woods. They look bright-white, like snow on the dark-blue water. It is surprising how far they can be seen, how much light they reflect, and how conspicuous they are.")

Fair Haven half open; channel wholly open. See March 29, 1855 ("Fair Haven Pond only just open over the channel of the river"). See also March 28, 1855 ("The river has not yet quite worn its way through Fair Haven Pond, but probably will to-morrow."); March 28, 1858 ("Fair Haven Pond is open."); March 30, 1852 (" Fair Haven Pond is open over the channel of the river, . . .The slight current there has worn away the ice. I never knew before exactly where the channel was")

Thin cakes of ice at a distance now and then blown up on their edges glistening in the sun. See March 29, 1855 ("A field of ice nearly half as big as the pond has drifted against the eastern shore and crumbled up against it, forming a shining white wall of its fragments.”)

See two marsh hawks, white on rump. ... A hen-hawk, - two - circling over Cliffs. See March 29, 1858 ("Hearing a quivering note of alarm from some bird, I look up and see a male hen-harrier, the neatly built hawk, sweeping over the hill."); See also   March 15, 1860 ("These [hen]-hawks, as usual, began to be common about the first of March, showing that they were returning from their winter quarters. . . . An easily recognized figure anywhere.” ); March 27, 1855 (“See my frog hawk. . . .It is the hen-barrier, i.e. marsh hawk, male. Slate-colored; beating the bush; black tips to wings and white rump.");  March 30, 1856 ("See probably a hen hawk (?) ... may have been a marsh hawk or harrier.")

What HDT calls the "marsh hawk/hen harrier" is the northern harrier. The “hen-hawk” is the red-tailed hawk. ~ zphx  See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Marsh Hawk (Northern Harrier).; The hen-hawk

Got first proof of "Walden."

March 28.

P. M. — To White Pond. 

Coldest day for a month or more, — severe as almost any in the winter.

See this afternoon either a snipe or a woodcock; it appears rather small for the last. Pond opening on the northeast. 

A flock of hyemalis drifting from a wood over a field incessantly for four or five minutes, — thousands of them, notwithstanding the cold.

The fox-colored sparrow sings sweetly also. 

See a small slate-colored hawk, with wings transversely mottled beneath, — probably the sharp-shinned hawk.

Got first proof of "Walden."

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 28, 1854

A flock of hyemalis — thousands of them, notwithstanding the cold. See March 28, 1853 ("The woods ring with the cheerful jingle of the F. hyemalis. This is a very trig and compact little bird, and appears to be in good condition. The straight edge of slate on their breasts contrasts remarkably with the white from beneath ; the short, light-colored bill is also very conspicuous amid the dark slate ; and when they fly from you, the two white feathers in their tails are very distinct at a good distance. They are very lively, pursuing each other from bush to bush.").See also  note to  March 14, 1858 ("I see a Fringilla hyemalis, the first bird, perchance, — unless one hawk, – which is an evidence of spring, though they lingered with us the past unusual winter, at least till the 19th of January. They are now getting back earlier than our permanent summer residents. It flits past with a rattling or grating chip, showing its two white tail-feathers.”) See also  A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Dark-eyed Junco

The fox-colored sparrow sings sweetly. See  March 28, 1853 (“Could that be the fox-colored sparrow I saw this morning, — that reddish-brown sparrow?”);  March 29, 1858 (“The latter are singing very loud and sweetly. Somewhat like ar, tea, – twe’-twe, twe’-twe, or arte, ter twe’-twe, twe’-twe, variously. They are quite tame”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Fox-colored Sparrow.

Probably the sharp-shinned hawk. See May 4, 1855 (“Flapping briskly at intervals and then gliding straight ahead with rapidity, controlling itself with its tail. . . .Was it not the sharp-shinned, or Falco fuscus?  I think that what I have called the sparrow hawk falsely, and latterly pigeon hawk, is also the sharp-shinned .”) See also  A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the sharp-shinned hawk.

Got first proof of "Walden." See August 9, 1854 (""Walden" published.")

Cold and windy – osiers surprise me.

March 25.

March 25, 2017

Cold and windy.

Down river in boat to Great Meadows. Freezes on oars. Too cold and windy almost for ducks. They are in the smoother open water (free from ice) under the lee of hills.

Got a boat-load of driftwood, — rails, bridge timber, planks, etc.

White maple buds bursting, making trees look like some fruit trees with blossom-buds.

Is not the small duck or two I see one at a time and flying pretty high a teal?

Willow osiers near Mill Brook mouth I am almost certain have acquired a fresher color; at least they surprise me at a distance by their green passing through yellowish to red at top.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 25, 1854

Too cold and windy almost for ducks. They are in the smoother open water (free from ice) under the lee of hills. See  March 21, 1854 ("At sunrise to Clamshell Hill . . .Think I should find ducks cornered up by the ice; they get behind this hill for shelter. Look with glass and find more than thirty black ducks asleep with their heads on their backs, motionless, and thin ice formed about them. ");March 22, 1854 ("Still very cold . . . Scare up my flock of black ducks and count forty together. ");.March 24, 1854 ("The same ducks under Clamshell Hill "); March 25, 1858 ("Cold northwest wind as yesterday and day before . . .There are so many sportsmen out that the ducks have no rest); and see March 28, 1858 ("Apparently they improve this warm and pleasant day, with little or no wind, to continue their journey northward.. . . It is a wildlife that is associated with stormy and blustering weather"); .March 29, 1858 ("I infer that waterfowl travel in pleasant weather") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the American Black Duck

White maple buds bursting, making trees look like some fruit trees with blossom-buds. See March 23, 1853 (“The white maple . . . has opened unexpectedly, and a rich sight it is, looking up through the expanded buds to the sky.”) See also  A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, White Maple Buds and Flowers

Is not the small duck or two I see one at a time and flying pretty high a teal? See March 18, 1855 ("Meanwhile a small dark-colored duck, all neck and wings, a winged rolling-pin, went over,--perhaps a teal"); March 24, 1857 ("Humphrey Buttrick . . . shot three black ducks and two green-winged teal, – though the latter had no green on their wings, it was rather the color of his boat, but Wesson assured him that so they looked in the spring. "); April 15, 1855 ("We scare up but few ducks — some apparently black, which quacked—and some small rolling-pins, probably teal.")

I am almost certain osiers have acquired a fresher color. See February 24, 1855 ("You will often fancy that they look brighter before the spring has come, and when there has been no change in them"); March 2, 1860 ("This phenomenon, whether referable to a change in the condition of the twig or to the spring air and light, or even to our imaginations,is not the less a real phenomenon, affecting us annually at this season"); March 14, 1856 ("They certainly look brighter now and from this point than I have noticed them before this year,. . . Yet I think that on a close inspection I should find no change. Nevertheless, it is, on the whole, perhaps the most springlike sight I have seen."); March 16, 1856 ("There is, at any rate, such a phenomenon as the willows shining in the spring sun, however it is to be accounted for."); March 22, 1854("C. thinks some willow osiers decidedly more yellow."); March 24, 1855 ("I am not sure that the osiers are decidedly brighter yet"). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Osier in Winter and early Spring

Willow osiers

surprise me at a distance –

green, yellowish, red!

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Willow Osiers Surprise Me

 "A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality."

 ~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx ©  2009-2024

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-540325

Goose Pond half open.

March 24

March 24, 2014

Fair again, the snow melting. 

Great flocks of hyemalis drifting about with their jingling note. The same ducks under Clamshell Hill. 

Goose Pond half open. Flint's has perhaps fifteen or twenty acres of ice yet about shores. Can hardly tell when it is open this year. 

The black ducks — the most common that I see — are the only ones whose note I know or hear, — a hoarse, croaking quack. How shy they are!

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 24, 1854

Great flocks of hyemalis drifting about with their jingling note. See March 24, 1856 ("The F. hyemalis has been seen two or three days") See also March 23, 1852 ("They sing with us in the pleasantest days before they go northward."); March 23, 1853 ("The birds which are merely migrating or tarrying here for a season are especially gregarious now."); March 23, 1854 (" The hyemalis jingle easily distinguished.") and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: The note of the dark-eyed junco going northward and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Dark-eyed Junco

Goose Pond half open. See March 20, 1853 ("Goose Pond is wholly open"); March 21, 1855 (“Crossed Goose Pond on ice ”); March 29, 1855 (“Goose Pond [open] only a little about the shores.”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Ice Out

Flint's has perhaps fifteen or twenty acres of ice yet about shores. See March 19, 1854 (" Flint's Pond almost entirely open.”); April 3, 1854 ("I think I may say that Flint's broke up entirely on the first wet day after the cold spell, — i.e. the 31st of March, — though I have not been there lately.”) See also March 21, 1853 (" I am surprised to find Flint's Pond not more than half broken up."); March 21, 1855 ("There is no opening in Flint’s Pond except a very little around the boat-house.”); March 23, 1853 (“The ice went out ...of Flint's Pond day before yesterday, I have no doubt”); March 29, 1855 ("Flint’s Pond is entirely open; may have been a day or two."); April 1, 1852 (" I am surprised to find Flint's Pond frozen still, which should have been open a week ago.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Ice Out

The same ducks under Clamshell Hill . . . the only ones whose note I know or hear, — a hoarse, croaking quack. See March 21, 1854 ("At sunrise to Clamshell Hill . . . Think I should find ducks cornered up by the ice; they get behind this hill for shelter. Look with glass and find more than thirty black ducks asleep with their heads on their backs, motionless, and thin ice formed about them. . . . At length they detect me and quack . . .and when I rise up all take to flight in a great straggling flock."); March 22, 1854 ("Launch boat and paddle to Fair Haven. Still very cold . . . Scare up my flock of black ducks and count forty together."); March 25, 1854 ("Too cold and windy almost for ducks. They are in the smoother open water (free from ice) under the lee of hills."); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the American Black Duck

March 24. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, March 24

The same ducks under

Clamshell Hill. Black ducks — the most

common that I see.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Goose Pond half open.

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

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-540324

Going to another Boston

March 23

March 23, 2014

Snows and rains a little. The birds in yard active now, — hyemalis, tree sparrow, and song sparrow. The hyemalis jingle easily distinguished. Hear all together on apple trees these days. 

Minott confesses to me to-day that he has not been to Boston since the last war, or 1815. Aunt said that he had not been ten miles from home since; that he has not been to Acton since Miss Powers lived there; but he declared that he had been there to cornwallis and musters. When I asked if he would like to go to Boston, he answered he was going to another Boston.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal,  March 23, 1854

The birds in yard active now. .See March 23, 1852 ("I heard, this forenoon, a pleasant jingling note from the slate-colored snowbird on the oaks in the sun on Minott's hillside. Apparently they sing with us in the pleasantest days before they go northward.") March 23, 1853 ("The birds which are merely migrating or tarrying here for a season are especially gregarious now"); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring, the note of the dark-eyed junco going northward

Going to another Boston. See March 5, 1854 ("Channing, talking with Minott the other day about his health, said, " I suppose you 'd like to die now." "No," said Minott, "I 've toughed it through the winter, and I want to stay and hear the bluebirds once more." The patches of bare ground grow larger and larger, of snow less and less; even after a night you see a difference. It is a clear morning with some wind be ginning to rise, and for the first time I see the water looking blue on the meadows"); January 8, 1857 ("Miss Minott tells me that she does not think her brother George has ever been to Boston more than once. . . and certainly not since 1812 . . . Minott says he has lived where he now does as much as sixty years. He has not been up in town for three years, on account of his rheumatism."); September 30, 1857 ("Minott says he is seventy-five years old."); January 28, 1858 ("He thought that the back of the winter was broken, but he feared such a winter would kill him too."); October 2, 1858 ("Minott told me yesterday that he had never seen the seashore but once, and that was Noddle’s Island in the War of 1812") and note to October 4, 1851 ("Minott is, perhaps, the most poetical farmer — \

who most realizes to me the poetry of the farmer's life — that I know . . . 

He loves to walk in 

a swamp in windy weather 

and hear the wind groan."); 

See also August 6, 1851 ("It takes a man of genius to travel in his own country, in his native village"); September 7, 1851 ("The discoveries which we make abroad are special and particular; those which we make at home are general and significant. The further off, the nearer the surface. The nearer home, the deeper.")

Birds active in yard

now all heard together on

apple trees these days.

Minott, when i asked

answered he was going to

another Boston.

March 23, 1854

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Going to another Boston

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

https://tinyurl.com/hdt18540323

Over cold water silvery willow catkins shine along the shore.

March 22

March 22, 2014

Launch boat and paddle to Fair Haven. Still very cold.  

About the piers of the bridges the most splendid show of ice chandeliers that I ever saw or imagined. Perfect, sharp cone-shaped drops hang inches above the water. 

I should have described it then. It would have filled many pages.

Scare up my flock of black ducks and count forty together. 

See crows along the water's edge. What do they eat? 

See a small black duck with glass, — a dipper (?).

Fair Haven still covered and frozen anew in part. Shores of meadow strewn with cranberries. 

The now silvery willow catkins shine along the shore over the cold water, and C. thinks some willow osiers decidedly more yellow.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 22, 1854

Launch boat and paddle to Fair Haven.  See March 12, 1854 ("Men are eager to launch their boats and paddle over the meadows. ");March 15, 1854 ("Paint my boat. "); March 16, 1854 ("See and hear honey-bees about my boat in the yard, attracted probably by the beeswax in the grafting-wax which was put on it a year ago. "); March 18, 1854 ("Took up my boat, a very heavy one, which was lying on its bottom in the yard, and carried it two rods.") See also December 5, 1856 ("I love to have the river closed up for a season and a pause put to my boating to be obliged to get my boat in.I shall launch it again in the springwith so much more pleasure.")

Scare up my flock of black ducks and count forty together. See March 21, 1854 ("Look with glass and find more than thirty black ducks asleep with their heads on their backs, motionless, and thin ice formed about them.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the American Black Duck

See crows along the water's edge. What do they eat? See March 22, 1855 ("I have noticed crows in the meadows ever since they were first partially bare, three weeks ago.“); March 22, 1856 ("Many tracks of crows in snow along the edge of the open water against Merrick’s at Island. They thus visit the edge of water—this and brooks —before any ground is exposed. Is it for small shellfish?”). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the American Crow

See a small black duck with glass, — a dipper (?). See March 13, 1854 ("Bought a telescope to-day for eight dollars");  April 19, 1855 ("It has a moderate-sized black head and neck, a white breast, and seems dark-brown above, with a white spot on the side of the head, not reaching to the out side, from base of mandibles, and another, perhaps, on the end of the wing, with some black there . . . Is it not a female of the buffle-headed or spirit duck?") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Little Dipper

The now silvery willow catkins shine along the shore. See March 22, 1860 ("The phenomena of an average March . . .willow catkins become silvery,"); March 21, 1855. ("Early willow and aspen catkins are very conspicuous now . . .This increased silveriness was obvious, I think, about the first of March, perhaps earlier . . .I t is the first decided growth I have noticed, and is probably a month old.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: Alder and Willow Catkins Expanding

C. thinks some willow osiers decidedly more yellow. See March 22, 1860 ("The phenomena of an average March . . . osiers, etc., look bright"); See also February 24, 1855 ("You will often fancy that they look brighter before the spring has come, and when there has been no change in them."); March 2, 1860 ("This phenomenon, whether referable to a change in the condition of the twig or to the spring air and light, or even to our imaginations, is not the less a real phenomenon, affecting us annually at this season."); March 24, 1855 ("I am not sure that the osiers are decidedly brighter yet.") and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Osier in Winter and early Spring

Over cold water

silvery willow catkins

shine along the shore.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Silvery willow catkins shine along the shore

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

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-540322

Ducks on ice

"The parallelism produced
 by their necks and bodies
 steering the same way
 gives the idea of order."

March 21.

At sunrise to Clamshell Hill.

River skimmed over at Willow Bay last night. Think I should find ducks cornered up by the ice; they get behind this hill for shelter.  Look with glass and find  more than thirty black ducks asleep with their heads on their backs, motionless, and thin ice formed about them. 

There was an open space, eight or ten rods by one or two. At first all within a space of apparently less than a rod diameter. Soon one or two are moving about slowly. It is 6.30 a. m., the sun shining on them, but bitter cold.  How tough they are! 

I crawl on my stomach and get a near view of them, thirty rods off. At length they detect me and quack. Some get out upon the ice, and when I rise up all take to flight in a great straggling flock, which at a distance looks like crows, in no order.  Yet, when you see two or three  the parallelism produced by their necks and bodies steering the same way gives the idea of order. 

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 21, 1854

Look with glass and find more than thirty black ducks. See March 13, 1854 ("Bought a telescope to-day for eight dollars"); March 22, 1854 ("Scare up my flock of black ducks and count forty together."); March 22, 1858 ("About forty black ducks, pretty close together, sometimes apparently in close single lines.") See also  A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the American Black Duck

March 21.  See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, March 21

Thirty ducks asleep

with heads on backs, motionless -

ice forms about them.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Ducks on ice

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

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-540321

A Hieroglyphic of Spring

March 19

                                   March 19, 2020

Cold and windy. The meadow ice bears where shallow. 

See in Mill Brook behind Shannon's three or four shiners (the first), poised over the sand with a distinct longitudinal light-colored line midway along their sides and a darker line below it. This is a noteworthy and characteristic lineament, or cipher, or hieroglyphic, or type, of spring. 

You look into some clear, sandy-bottomed brook, where it spreads into a deeper bay, yet flowing cold from ice and snow not far off, and see, indistinctly poised over the sand on invisible fins, the outlines of a shiner, scarcely to be distinguished from the sands behind it as if it were transparent, as if the material of which it was builded had all been picked up from them. 

Flint's Pond almost entirely open, — much more than Fair Haven.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 19, 1854

Poised over the sand with a distinct longitudinal light-colored line midway along their sides and a darker line below it. March 19, 1856 ("No sooner is some opening made in the river, a square rod in area, where some brook or rill empties in, than the fishes apparently begin to seek it for light and warmth . . . They are seen to ripple the water, darting out as you approach."); March 19, 1860 ("Several suckers which swiftly dart out of sight, rippling the water. We rejoice to see the waters inhabited again, for a fish has become almost incredible."); See also July 17, 1856 ("They have brighter golden irides, all the abdomen conspicuously pale-golden, the back and half down the sides pale-brown, a broad, distinct black band along sides (which methinks marks the shiner), and comparatively transparent beneath behind vent.”). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: Ripples made by Fishes

Flint's Pond almost entirely open. See March 21, 1855 (“ There is no opening in Flint’s Pond except a very little around the boat-house. ”); March 23, 1853 ("The ice went out ...of Flint's Pond day before yesterday, I have no doubt.”); March 24, 1854 ( Flint's has perhaps fifteen or twenty acres of ice yet about shores. Can hardly tell when it is open this year.”)

March 19. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, March 19

Sandy-bottomed brook

flowing cold from ice and snow –

fins poised over sand!

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, A Hieroglyphic of Spring

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

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-540319

The white caps of the waves on the flooded meadow, seen from the window; signs of spring

March 18

March 18, 2019

Very high wind this forenoon; began by filling the air with a cloud of dust. Never felt it shake the house so much; filled the house with dust through the cracks; books, stove, papers covered with it. Blew down Mr. Frost's chimney again.

Took up my boat, a very heavy one, which was lying on its bottom in the yard, and carried it two rods. 

The white caps of the waves on the flooded meadow, seen from the window, are a rare and exciting spectacle, — such an angry face as our Concord meadows rarely exhibit. 

Walk down the street to post-office. Few inhabitants out more than in a rain. Elms bending and twisting and thrashing the air as if they would come down every moment. 

P. M. — Walked round by the west side of the river to Conantum. 

Wind less violent. 

C. has already seen a yellow- spotted tortoise in a ditch. 

(Two sizable elms by river in Merrick's pasture blown down, roots being rotted off on water side.) 

The willow catkins this side M. Miles's five eighths of an inch long and show some red. 

Poplar catkins nearly as large, color somewhat like a gray rabbit. 

Old barn blown down on Conantum. It fell regularly, like a weak box pushed over, without moving its bottom,  the roof falling upon it a little to leeward. The hay is left exposed, but does not blow away. 

The river was at its height last night.

It is very cold and freezing, this wind. The water has been blown quite across the Hubbard's Bridge causeway in some places and incrusted the road with ice.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 18, 1854

Very high wind this forenoon . . . very cold and freezing. See March 14, 1853 ("High winds, growing colder and colder, ground stiffening again. My ears have not been colder the past winter . . . March is rightly famous for its winds. "); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: March is famous for its winds

Took up my boat, a very heavy one. . . and carried it two rods.  See March 12, 1854 (" Men are eager to launch their boats and paddle over the meadows."); March 15, 1854 ("Paint my boat."); March 16, 1854 ("See and hear honey-bees about my boat in the yard, attracted probably by the beeswax in the grafting-wax which was put on it a year ago."); March 22, 1854 ("Launch boat and paddle to Fair Haven. Still very cold.") See also December 5, 1856 ("I love to have the river closed up for a season and a pause put to my boating to be obliged to get my boat in. I shall launch it again in the spring with so much more pleasure. I love best to have each thing in its season only and enjoy doing without it at all other times. ")

The white caps of the waves on the flooded meadow, seen from the window. See March 29, 1852 (“The water on the meadows looks very dark from the street . . . There is more water and it is more ruffled at this season than at any other, and the waves look quite angry and black. ”); April 10, 1856  ("Our meadow looks as angry now as it ever can.")

A yellow-spotted tortoise in a ditch. See February 23, 1857 ("I have seen signs of the spring. . . I have seen the brilliant spotted tortoises stirring at the bottom of ditches."): March 22, 1853 ("The Emys guttata is first found in warm, muddy ditches.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Yellow-Spotted Turtle (Emys guttata) and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: Frogs, and Turtles Stirring

The willow catkins this side M. Miles's five eighths of an inch long and show some red. See March 10, 1854 ("The willow catkins on the Miles [road] I should say had decidedly started since I was here last, and are all peeping from under their scales conspicuously.")  March 21, 1855 ("Early willow and aspen catkins are very conspicuous now. "); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: Alder and Willow Catkins Expanding

Poplar catkins nearly as large, color somewhat like a gray rabbit. See February 27. 1852 ("The buds of the aspen show a part of their down or silky catkins."); March 4, 1860 ("Aspen down a quarter of an inch out.") ; March 9, 1853 ("The relaxed and loosened (?) alder catkins and the extended willow catkins and poplar catkins are the first signs of reviving vegetation which I have witnessed."); March 10, 1853 ("Methinks the first obvious evidence of spring is the pushing out of the swamp willow catkins, then the relaxing of the earlier alder catkins . . . The early poplars are pushing forward their catkins , though they make not so much display as the willows"); March 22, 1860 ("The phenomena of an average March . . .willow catkins become silvery, aspens downy; osiers, etc., look bright, white maple and elm buds expand and open, oak woods thin-leaved; alder and hazel catkins become relaxed and elongated. ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Aspens

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

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, 

The white caps of the waves on the flooded meadow, seen from the window

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-540318

The first tinge of green.

March 17.

A remarkably warm day for the season; too warm while surveying without my great coat; almost like May heats. 

The grass is slightly greened on south bank-sides, — on the south side of the house.   The first tinge of green appears to be due to moisture more than to direct heat. It is not on bare dry banks, but in hollows where the snow melts last that it is most conspicuous. 

Fair Haven is open for half a dozen rods about the shores. If this weather holds, it will be entirely open in a day or two.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 17, 1854

The grass is slightly greened on south bank-sides. See March 17, 1857 ("No mortal is alert enough to be present at the first dawn of the spring, but he will presently discover some evidence that vegetation had awaked some days at least before."); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Signs of the Spring: greening grasses and sedges

Fair Haven is open for half a dozen rods about the shores. . . . See March 18, 1853 ("The ice in Fair Haven is more than half melted, and now the woods beyond the pond, reflected in its serene water where there has been opaque ice so long, affect me as they perhaps will not again this year. “); March 22, 1854 ("Fair Haven still covered and frozen anew in part.”)