The year is but a succession of days,
and I see that I could assign some office to each day
which, summed up, would be the history of the year.
Henry Thoreau, August 24, 1852
The sailboat is an
invention so contrary
to expectation –
easier to guide
than a horse, the wind transports
you against itself.
First red leaves – kindred
of fruits in the harvest and
skies in the evening.
The insect that comes
for the pollen of a plant
becomes part of it.
July 29, 2017
Another smart rain, with lightning. July 29, 1856
Dog-days and fogs. July 29, 1859
It reminds me of the edible nests of the Chinese swallow. Who knows but their edibleness is due to a similar glue secreted by the bird and used still more profusely in building its nests? July 29, 1856
This sailing on salt water is something new to me. July 29, 1851
I think the inventor must have been greatly surprised, as well as delighted, at the success of his experiment. July 29, 1851
This deep, unfordable sea! but this wind ever blowing over it to transport you! July 29, 1851
Most fields are so completely shorn now that the walls and fence-sides, where plants are protected, appear unusually rich. July 29, 1853
To Lincoln Bridge by railroad. Rain, more or less, by day, and more in the night. July 29. 1860
I think we scared up a black partridge just beyond. July 29, 1857
See large flocks of red-wings now, the young grown. July 29, 1859
Over these meadows the marsh hawk circles undisturbed. July 29, 1853
I see nowadays young martins perched on the dead tops of high trees; also young swallows on the telegraph wire. July 29, 1858
The chimney swallow is said to break off the twigs as it flies. July 29, 1856
Pratt gave me a chimney swallow's nest, which he says fell down Wesson's chimney with young in it two or three days ago. July 29, 1856
It reminds me of the edible nests of the Chinese swallow. Who knows but their edibleness is due to a similar glue secreted by the bird and used still more profusely in building its nests? July 29, 1856
This sailing on salt water is something new to me. July 29, 1851
The boat is such a living creature . . . The sailboat is an admirable invention, by which you compel the wind to transport you even against itself.July 29, 1851
It is easier to guide than a horse; the slightest pressure on the tiller suffices. July 29, 1851
I think the inventor must have been greatly surprised, as well as delighted, at the success of his experiment. July 29, 1851
It is so contrary to expectation, as if the elements were disposed to favor you. July 29, 1851
This deep, unfordable sea! but this wind ever blowing over it to transport you! July 29, 1851
The river is very nearly down to summer level now, and I notice there, among other phenomena of low water by the river, the great yellow lily pads flat on bare mud, the Ranunculus Flammula (just begun), a close but thin green matting now bare for five or six feet in width, bream nests bare and dried up, or else bare stones and sand for six or eight feet. July 29, 1859
The white lilies are generally lifted an inch or two above water by their stems; also the Utricularia vulgaris and purpurea are raised higher above the surface than usual. July 29, 1859
Rails are lodged amid the potamogetons in midstream and have not moved for ten days. July 29, 1859
Rocks unsuspected peep out and are become visible. July 29, 1859
The water milfoil (the ambiguum var. nutans), otherwise not seen, shows itself. This is observed only at lowest water. July 29, 1859
I examined some of these bream nests left dry at Cardinal Shore. These were a foot or two wide and excavated five inches deep (as I measured) in hard sand. The fishes must have worked hard to make these holes. Sometimes they are amid or in pebbles, where it is harder yet. July 29, 1859
There are now left at their bottoms, high and dry, a great many snails (Paludina decisa) young and old, some very minute. July 29, 1859
They either wash into them or take refuge there as the water goes down. I suspect they die there. July 29, 1859
The fishes really work hard at making their nests — these, the stone-heaps, etc. — when we consider what feeble means they possess. July 29, 1859
About these times some hundreds of men with freshly sharpened scythes make an irruption into my garden when in its rankest condition, and clip my herbs all as close as they can, and I am restricted to the rough hedges and worn-out fields which had little to attract them, to the most barren and worthless pastures. July 29, 1853
I know how some fields of johnswort and goldenrod look, left in the natural state, but not much about our richest fields and meadows. July 29, 1853
Most fields are so completely shorn now that the walls and fence-sides, where plants are protected, appear unusually rich. July 29, 1853
How large a proportion of flowers, for instance, are referred to and found by hedges, walls, and fences. July 29, 1853
Rhexia. Probably would be earlier if not mowed down.July 29, 1856
Rich-weed, how long? July 29, 1854
Amaranthus hypochondriacus, apparently some days, with its interesting spotted leaf, lake beneath, and purple spike; amid the potatoes. July 29, 1854
American pine-sap, just pushing up, — false beech-drops. Gray says from June to August. It is cream-colored or yellowish under the pines in Hubbard's Wood Path. Some near the fence east of the Close. A plant related to the tobacco-pipe. July 29, 1853
Remarkable this doubleness in nature, — not only that nature should be composed of just these individuals, but that there should be so rarely or never an individual without its kindred, — its cousin. It is allied to something else. July 29, 1853
I also see some small, umbrella-shaped (with sharp cones), shining and glossy yellow fungi, like an election cake atop, also some dead yellow and orange. July 29, 1853
The V. vacillans berries are in dense clusters, raceme-like, as huckleberries are not. July 29, 1858
Also in dry sandy soil the little tufts of Fimbristylis capillaris in bloom are quite brown and withered-looking now, – another yet more autumnal-suggesting sight. July 29, 1859
These leaves interest me as much as flowers. July 29, 1852
At 10 P.M. it is perfectly fair and bright starlight. July 29, 1851
July 28, 1852 ("Goldenrod and asters have fairly begun; there are several kinds of each out")
July 28, 1856 ("Richweed at Brown's oak, several days (since 16th; say 22d).")
July 28, 1854 ("Partridges begin to go off in packs.")
I know not what aspect the flowers would present if our fields and meadows were untouched for a year, if the mower were not permitted to swing his scythe there. July 29, 1853
No doubt some plants contended long in vain with these vandals, and at last withdrew from the contest. July 29, 1853
In the Poorhouse Meadow, the white orchis spike almost entirely out, some days at least. July 29, 1853
What I have called Hieracium Gronovii, with three cauline leaves and without veins, has achenia like H . venosum; so I will give it up. Its radical leaves are very hairy beneath, especially along midrib. July 29, 1856
Aralia racemosa, and Aster macrophyllus in bloom, with bluish rays and quite fragrant (!), like some medicinal herb, so that I doubted at first if it were that. .July 29, 1857 . .
I found on the edge of this clearing the Cirsium muticum, or swamp thistle, abundantly in bloom. July 29, 1857
Beck Stow's is much frequented by cows, which burst through the thickest bushes. July 29, 1853
Butterflies of various colors are now more abundant than I have seen them before, especially the small reddish or coppery ones. July 29, 1853
I counted ten yesterday on a single Sericocarpus conyzoides. They were in singular harmony with the plant, as if they made a part of it. July 29, 1853
I counted ten yesterday on a single Sericocarpus conyzoides. They were in singular harmony with the plant, as if they made a part of it. July 29, 1853
The insect that comes after the honey or pollen of a plant is necessary to it and in one sense makes a part of it. July 29, 1853
Being constantly in motion and, as they moved, opening and closing their wings to preserve their balance, they presented a very lifesome scene. July 29, 1853
To-day I see them on the early goldenrod (Solidago strict).July 29, 1853
To-day I see them on the early goldenrod (Solidago strict).July 29, 1853
Bartonia tenella, how long? July 29, 1859
Rich-weed, how long? July 29, 1854
Amaranthus hypochondriacus, apparently some days, with its interesting spotted leaf, lake beneath, and purple spike; amid the potatoes. July 29, 1854
Remarkable this doubleness in nature, — not only that nature should be composed of just these individuals, but that there should be so rarely or never an individual without its kindred, — its cousin. It is allied to something else. July 29, 1853
There is not only the tobacco-pipe, but pine-sap. July 29, 1853
I also see some small, umbrella-shaped (with sharp cones), shining and glossy yellow fungi, like an election cake atop, also some dead yellow and orange. July 29, 1853
Nature made ferns for pure leaves, to show what she could do in that line. July 29, 1853
To Pine Hill, looking for the Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum berries. July 29, 1858
I find plenty of bushes, but these bear very sparingly. July 29, 1858
I find plenty of bushes, but these bear very sparingly. July 29, 1858
They appear to bear but one or two years before they are overgrown. July 29, 1858
Also they probably love a cool atmosphere, for they bear annually on mountains, as Monadnock. July 29, 1858
Where the woods have been cut a year or two they have put forth fresh shoots of a livelier green. July 29, 1858
The V. vacillans berries are in dense clusters, raceme-like, as huckleberries are not. July 29, 1858
Vaccinium vacillans begin to be pretty thick and some huckleberries. July 29, 1859
The Cyperus dentatus in bloom on hard sandy parts of meadows now is very interesting and handsome on being inspected now, with its bright chestnut purple sided flat spikelets, -- a plant and color looking toward autumn. Very neat and handsome on a close inspection. July 29, 1859
Also in dry sandy soil the little tufts of Fimbristylis capillaris in bloom are quite brown and withered-looking now, – another yet more autumnal-suggesting sight. July 29, 1859
The sight of the small rough sunflower about a dry ditch bank and hedge advances me at once further toward autumn. July 29, 1853
At the same time I hear a dry, ripe, autumnal chirp of a cricket. It is the next step to the first goldenrod. July 29, 1853
I see a geranium leaf turned red in the shade of a copse; the same color with the woodbine seen yesterday. July 29, 1852
The colors which some rather obscure leaves assume in the fall in dark copses or unobserved by the roadside interest me more than their flowers. July 29, 1852
These leaves interest me as much as flowers. July 29, 1852
I should like to have a complete list of those that are the first to turn red or yellow. July 29, 1852
How attractive is color, especially red; kindred this with the color of fruits in the harvest and skies in the evening. July 29, 1852
Heat lightning flashes, which reveal a distant horizon to our twilight eyes. But my fellows simply assert that it is not broad day, which everybody knows, and fail to perceive the phenomenon at all. July 29, 1857
At 10 P.M. it is perfectly fair and bright starlight. July 29, 1851
I am interested in an indistinct prospect, a distant view, a mere suggestion often, revealing an almost wholly new world to me. I rejoice to get, and am apt to present, a new view. July 29, 1857
But I find it impossible to present my view to most people. In effect, it would seem that they do not wish to take a new view in any case. July 29, 1857
The most valuable communication or news consists of hints and suggestions. When a truth comes to be known and accepted, it begins to be bad taste to repeat it. Every individual constitution is a probe employed in a new direction, and a wise man will attend to each one's report. July 29, 1857
I am willing to pass for a fool in my often desperate, perhaps foolish, efforts to persuade them to lift the veil from off the possible and future, which they hold down with both their hands, before their eyes. July 29, 1857
*****
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau:
March 18, 1860 (“There is but one flower in bloom in the town, and this insect knows where to find it . . . No doubt this flower, too, has learned to expect its winged visitor knocking at its door in the spring.”)
May 21, 1860 (“The birches . . . leaves more like flowers than foliage.”)
July 5, 1854 ("One hundred and nine swallows on telegraph-wire at bridge within eight rods, and others flying about.")
July 11, 1856 (“See quite a flock of red-wing blackbirds and young (?)”)
July 12, 1853 ("Spikenard, not quite yet")
July 12, 1852 ("I observed this morning a row of several dozen swallows perched on the telegraph-wire by the bridge, and ever and anon a part of them would launch forth as with one consent, circle a few moments over the water or meadow, and return to the wire again.");
July 12, 1859 (" They take their broods to the telegraph-wire for an aerial perch, where they teach them to fly.")
July 13, 1852 ("It is impossible to say what day — almost what week — the huckleberries begin to be ripe, unless you are acquainted with, and daily visit, every huckleberry bush in the town")
July 13, 1852 ("Huckleberries, both blue and black,must have been ripe several days.")
July 13, 1856 (“See quite a large flock of chattering red-wings, the flight of first broods.”);
July 14, 1856 (“See and hear martins twittering on the elms by riverside.”)
July 15, 1854 (“There are many butterflies, yellow and red, about the Asclepias incarnata now.”)
July 16, 1857(“I hear of the first early blueberries brought to market.”)
July 17, 1857 ("Aralia racemosa, not in bloom")
July 17, 1853 ("I think we have no Hieracium Gronoviis")
July 18, 1852 ("The petals of the rhexia have a beautiful clear purple with a violet tinge.")
July 22, 1852 ("The Aster macrophyllus, large-leafed, in Miles's Swamp.")
July 22, 1855 "See small flocks of red-wings, young and old, now, over the willows.”);
July 24, 1853 ("The berries of the Vaccinium vacillans are very abundant and large this year on Fair Haven, where I am now.Indeed these and huckleberries and blackberries are very abundant in this part of the town.")
July 24, 1853 ("A spikenard just beyond the spring has already pretty large green berries, though a few flowers")July 28, 1852 ("Goldenrod and asters have fairly begun; there are several kinds of each out")
July 28, 1856 ("Richweed at Brown's oak, several days (since 16th; say 22d).")
July 28, 1854 ("Partridges begin to go off in packs.")
Magically at dusk
the woods fill with fireflies and
the flute of the thrush.
July 29, 2013
July 30, 1852 ("Do not all flowers that blossom after mid-July remind us of the fall? ")
July 30, 1854 ("The tobacco-pipes are still pushing up white amid the dry leaves, sometimes lifting a canopy of leaves with them four or five inches")
July 30, 1853 ("If the meadows were untouched, I should no doubt see many more of the rare white and the beautiful smaller purple orchis there, as I now see a few along the shaded brooks and meadow's edge")
July 30, 1856 ("This is a perfect dog-day. The atmosphere thick, mildewy, cloudy. It is difficult to dry anything. The sun is obscured, yet we expect no rain.")
July 30, 1859 ("This dog-day weather I can see the bottom where five and a half feet deep.")
July 30, 1860 ("Am glad to press my way through Miles's Swamp . . . in cool openings, stands an island or two of great dark-green high blueberry bushes, with big cool blueberries,")
July 30, 1854 ("The tobacco-pipes are still pushing up white amid the dry leaves, sometimes lifting a canopy of leaves with them four or five inches")
July 30, 1853 ("If the meadows were untouched, I should no doubt see many more of the rare white and the beautiful smaller purple orchis there, as I now see a few along the shaded brooks and meadow's edge")
July 30, 1856 ("This is a perfect dog-day. The atmosphere thick, mildewy, cloudy. It is difficult to dry anything. The sun is obscured, yet we expect no rain.")
July 30, 1859 ("This dog-day weather I can see the bottom where five and a half feet deep.")
July 30, 1860 ("Am glad to press my way through Miles's Swamp . . . in cool openings, stands an island or two of great dark-green high blueberry bushes, with big cool blueberries,")
July 31, 1856 (“How thick the berries — low blackberries, Vaccinium vacillans, and huckleberries — on the side of Fair Haven Hill!”)
July 31, 1857 ("I also saw here, or soon after, the red cohosh berries, ripe, (for the first time in my life); spikenard, etc..")
August 1, 1856 ("They make a splendid show, these brilliant rose-colored [rhexia] patches . . Yet few ever see them in this perfection, unless the haymaker who levels them, or the birds that fly over the meadow.")
August 4, 1852 (“Most huckleberries and blueberries and low blackberries are in their prime now.”)
August 4, 1854 ("On this hill (Smith's) the bushes are black with huckleberries . . . Now in their prime. Some glossy black, some dull black, some blue; and patches of Vaccinium vacillans inter mixed.")
August 4. 1856 ("This favorable moist weather has expanded some of the huckleberries to the size of bullets")
August 6, 1852 ("Aralia racemosa, how long?")
August 9, 1856 ("The flowers of A. macrophyllusare white with a very slight bluish tinge, in a coarse flat-topped corymb. Flowers nine to ten eighths of an inch in diameter.");
August 22, 1858 ("How sturdily it pulls, shooting us along, catching more wind than I knew to be wandering in this river valley! It suggests a new power in the sail. . .The boat is like a plow drawn by a winged bull.")
August 26, 1856 ("Aster macrophyllus, now in its prime. It grows large and rank, two feet high. On one I count seventeen central flowers withered, one hundred and thirty in bloom, and half as many buds.")
September 18, 1854 ("Fringed gentian . . .that has been cut off by the mowers . . . may after all be earlier.")
September 4, 1856 ("Aralia racemosa berries just ripe . . . not edible. ")
September 4, 1859 ("See a very large mass of spikenard berries fairly ripening, eighteen inches long.") September 9, 1856 [at Brattleboro] ("High up the mountain the Aster macrophyllus")
September 14, 1852 ("Amaranthus hypochondriacus, prince's-feather, with 'bright red-purple flowers' and sanguine stem")
October 23, 1853 ("Is it Gronovii or veiny-leaved?")
July 29, 2018
If you make the least correct
observation of nature this year,
you will have occasion to repeat it
with illustrations the next,
and the season and life itself is prolonged.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, July 29
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 © 2009-2022
https://tinyurl.com/HDT29JULY
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