A Book of the Seasons, The October Pine Fall

It is remarkable that 

the old leaves turn and fall 

in so short a time. 

Henry Thoreau, November 21, 1850

*****

How evenly the 

freshly fallen pine-needles

are spread on the ground! 

The ground is strewn with 

pine-needles as if sunlight –

the river dark blue. 

On a rounded rock

covered with fresh pine-needles

I see Wachusett.

The trembling shimmer 

and gleam of the pine-needles –

these November lights.

There is a season

when old pine leaves are yellow –

then they are fallen.

*****

September 3.  The narrow brown sheaths from the base of white pine leaves now strew the ground and are washed up on the edge of puddles after the rain. September 3, 1858

September 5.  I now see those brown shaving like stipules of the white pine leaves, which are falling, i.e. the stipules, and caught in cobwebs. September 5, 1857

September 10.  As I go up Fair Haven Hill, I see some signs of the approaching fall of the white pine. On some trees the old leaves are already somewhat reddish, though not enough to give the trees a parti-colored look, and they come off easily on being touched, - the old leaves on the lower part of the twigs. September 10, 1851

September 28.  R. W. E.’s pines are parti-colored, preparing to fall, some of them. September 28, 1854

September 29.  Pines have begun to be parti-colored with yellow leaves. September 29, 1857

October 1.   The pines now half turned yellow, the needles of this year are so much the greener by contrast.  October 1, 1857

October 2.  The white pines have scarcely begun at all to change here, though a week ago last Wednesday they were fully changed at Bangor. October 2, 1853

October 3. The pine fall, i.e. change, is commenced, and the trees are mottled green and yellowish. October 3, 1852

October 3.  White pines fairly begin to change.  October 3, 1858

October 5. White pines in low ground and swamps are the first to change. Some of these have lost many needles. Some on dry ground have so far changed as to be quite handsome, but most only so far as to make the misty glaucous (green) leaves more soft and indefinite. October 5, 1858

October 8.  The pines are still shedding their leaves. October 8, 1851

October 9.  On Lee's hillside by the pond, the old leaves of some pitch pines are almost of a golden-yellow hue, seen in the sunlight, a rich autumnal look. The green are, as it were, set in the yellow. October 9, 1851 

October 9. In the swamp, some twenty-foot maples are already bare, and some white pines are as yellow as birches. October 9, 1857

October 10, 2018

October 11.  White pines are apparently ready to fall. Some are much paler brown than others. October 11, 1858

October 12.  A new carpet of pine leaves is forming in the woods. The forest is laying down her carpet for the winter. October 12, 1852

October 13.  A thick carpet of white pine needles lies now lightly, half an inch or more in thickness, above the dark-reddish ones of last year. October 13, 1854

October 13.  The pitch and white pines on the north of Sleepy Hollow. . . are at the height of their change, generally, though many needles fallen, carpeting the ground. October 13, 1857

October 14.   The pines are now two-colored, green and yellow, – the latter just below the ends of the boughs. October 14, 1852

October 14.   Pine-needles, just fallen, now make a thick carpet. October 14, 1856

October 15.  White pines are in the midst of their fall. October 15, 1858

October 16.  The pines, too, have fallen. October 16, 1854

October 16.  How evenly the freshly fallen pine-needles are spread on the ground! quite like a carpet. Throughout this grove no square foot is left bare. October 16, 1855

October 16.  A great part of the pine-needles have just fallen.  October 16, 1857 

October 18.  In Lee's Wood, white pine leaves are now fairly fallen . . . These leaves, like other, broader ones, pass through various hues (or shades) from green to brown, — first yellow, giving the tree that parti-colored look, then pale brown when they fall, then reddish brown after lying on the ground, and then darker and darker brown when decaying. October 18, 1857

October 18.  As I come through Hubbard’s Woods I see the wintergreen, conspicuous now above the freshly fallen white pine needles. Their shining green is suddenly revealed above the pale-brown ground. I hail its cool unwithering green, one of the humbler allies by whose aid we are to face the winter. October 18, 1858

October 19.  I return by the west side of Lee's Cliff hill, and sit on a rounded rock there, covered with fresh-fallen pine-needles, amid the woods, whence I see Wachusett . . . The rich sunny yellow of the old pitch pine needles, just ready to fall, contrasting with the new and unmixed masses above, makes a very pleasing impression. Occtober 19, 1856

October 22. The pines, both white and pitch, have now shed their leaves, and the ground in the pine woods is strewn with the newly fallen needles. October 22, 1851

October 22. White pines have for the most part fallen. All the underwood is hung with their brown fallen needles, giving to the woods an untidy appearance. October 22, 1858

October 23. The white pines have shed their leaves, making a yellow carpet on the grass, but the pitch pines are yet parti-colored. October 23, 1852 

October 23.  Some pines still parti-colored. October 23, 1853

October 23.  The fallen pine-needles, as well as other leaves, now actually paint the surface of the earth brown in the woods, covering the green and other colors, and the few evergreen plants on the forest floor stand out distinct and have a rare preeminence. October 23, 1857

October 25.  The ground is strewn with pine-needles as sunlight. October 25, 1853

October 25.  Now, especially, we notice . . . the silvery sheen of pine-needles; i. e., when its old leaves have fallen and trees generally are mostly bare, in the cool Novemberish air and light we observe and enjoy the trembling shimmer and gleam of the pine-needles. October 25, 1858

October 26. The hillside is slippery with new-fallen white pine leaves. October 26, 1855 

October 26. The pitch pine leaves not yet quite fallen. October 26, 1857

October 28. The white pine needles on the ground are already turned considerably redder.  The pitch pines, which are yellower than the white when they fall, are three quarters fallen. October 28, 1857

October 28.  Pitch pines are falling.  October 28, 1858

October 29.   I see the white pines, a clear green, rising amid and above the pitch pines, which are parti-colored, glowing internally with the warm yellow of the old leaves. Of our Concord evergreens, only the white and pitch pines are interesting in their change, for only their leaves are bright and conspicuous enough. October 28, 1859

November 9.  Just a month ago, I observed that the white pines were parti-colored, green and yellow, the needles of the previous year now falling. Now I do not observe any yellow ones, and I expect to find that it is only for a few weeks in the fall after the new leaves have done growing that there are any yellow and falling, — that there is a season when we may say the old pine leaves are now yellow, and again, they are fallen. The trees were not so tidy then; they are not so full now. They look best when contrasted with a field of snow. November 9, 1850

November 21.  For a month past the grass under the pines has been covered with a new carpet of pine leaves. It is remarkable that the old leaves turn and fall in so short a time. November 21, 1850

December 24. I observe that there are many dead pine-needles sprinkled over the snow, which had not fallen before. December 24, 1850

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The October Pine Fall

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