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

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