This is a day of sunny water.

August 8. 

August 8, 2014

This is a day of sunny water. As I walk along the bank of the river, I look down a rod and see distinctly the fishes and the bottom.

Lobelia cardinalis

The cardinals are in perfection, standing in dark recesses of the green shore, or in the open meadow. They are fluviatile, and stand along some river or brook, like myself.



The foliage of most trees is now not only most dense, but a very dark green. I see one large white maple crisped and tinged with a sort of rosaceous tinge, just above the Golden Horn. The surface is very glassy there.   

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 8, 1854

I look down a rod and see distinctly the fishes and the bottom.  See August 8, 1859 ("The river, now that it is so clear and sunny, is better than any aquarium."); see also July 30, 1856 ("The wonderful clearness of the water, enabling you to explore the river bottom and many of its secrets now...”); July 28, 1859 ("The season has now arrived when I begin to see further into the water"); July 27, 1860 ("The water has begun to be clear and sunny, revealing the fishes and countless minnows of all sizes and colors”).

August 8. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, August 8

 

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 © 2009-2021