ZtonePhruit: September 2015

The wind is northerly these afternoons, blowing pretty strong early in the afternoon, so that I can sail up the stream; but later it goes down, leaving the river glassy smooth, and only a leaping ﬁsh or an insect dimples it or makes a sparkle on it. September 30, 1858

How well they know the woods and fields and the haunt of every flower! If there are any sweet flowers still lingering on the hillside, it is known to the bees both of the forest and the village. September 30, 1852

I feel the richer for this experience. September 30, 1852

It taught me that even the insects in my path are not loafers, but have their special errands. Not merely and vaguely in this world, but in this hour, each is about its business. September 30, 1852

It is not in vain that the flowers bloom, and bloom late too, in favored spots. September 30, 1852

I am surprised to see that some red maples, which were so brilliant a day or two ago, have already shed their leaves, and they cover the land and the water quite thickly. I see a countless ﬂeet of them slowly carried round in the still bay by the Leaning Hemlocks. September 30, 1854

Walking early in the day and approaching the rocky shore from the north, the shadows of the cliffs were very distinct and grateful and our spirits were buoyant. Though we walked all day, it seemed the days were not long enough to get tired in. September 30, 1858

I observe the peculiar steel-bluish purple of the nightshade, i. e. the tips of the twigs, while all beneath is green, dotted with bright berries, over the water. Perhaps this is the most singular color of any autumnal tint. It is almost black in some lights, distinctly steel-blue in the shade and contrasting with the green beneath, but, seen against the sun, it is a rich purple, its veins full of ﬁre. September 30, 1858

Ever since the unusually early and severe frost of the 16th, the evergreen ferns have been growing more and more distinct amid the fading and decaying and withering ones, and the sight of those suggests a cooler season. They are greener than ever, by contrast. September 30, 1859

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A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

A Book of the Seasons: September 29.

September 29.

Cool breezy evening with a
prolonged white twilight,

quite Septemberish.

September 29, 1854

I am late for grapes.
Dark-purple, very acid,
hard. Most have fallen.
September 29, 1856

All sorts of men come
to the Cattle-Show. I see
one with a blue hat.
September 29, 1857

What astronomer
can calculate the orbit
of my thistle-down?
September 29, 1858

September 29, 2013

The poet writes the history of his body. September 29, 1851

One or two myrtle-birds in their fall dress, with brown head and shoulders, two whitish bars on wings, and bright-yellow rump. September 29, 1858

The intense brilliancy of the red-ripe maples scattered here and there in the midst of the green oaks and hickories on its hilly shore.September 29, 1851

alternating with yellow birches and poplars and green oaks, they remind me of a line of soldiers, redcoats and riflemen in green mixed together. . September 29, 1851

Again we have smooth waters, yellow foliage, and faint warbling birds, etc., as in spring. The year thus repeats itself. September 29, 1858

Astronomers can calculate the orbit of that thistle-down called the comet, now in the northwest sky, conveying its nucleus, which may not be so solid as a thistle’s seed, some whither, but what astronomer can calculate the orbit of my thistle-down and tell where it will deposit its precious freight at last? It may still be travelling when I am sleeping. September 29, 1858

All sorts of men come to Cattle-Show. I see one with a blue hat. September 29, 1857

I hear that some have gathered fringed gentian. September 29, 1857

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

September 29, 2018

September 28, 1854 ("R. W. E.’s pines are parti-colored, preparing to fall, some of them.”):October 3, 1852 ("The pine fall, i.e. change, is commenced, and the trees are mottled green and yellowish.”)

October 18, 1857 ("The fringed gentian closes every night and opens every morning in my pitcher.”); October 19, 1852 ("At 5 p. m. I found the fringed gentian now some what stale and touched by frost, being in the meadow toward Peter's. (Gentiana crinita in September, Bigelow and Gray.) ... They are now, at 8 a. m., opening a little in a pitcher. It is too remarkable a flower not to be sought out and admired each year, however rare.. . .It is a very singular and agreeable surprise to come upon this conspicuous and handsome and withal blue flower at this season, when flowers have passed out of our minds and memories; the latest of all to begin to bloom.”) See also A Book of the Seasons by Henry Thoreau, The Fringed Gentian

September 23, 1855 (“A little wren-like (or female goldﬁnch) bird on a.willow at Hubbard’s Causeway, eating a miller: with bright-yellow rump when wings open, and white on tail. Could it have been a yellow-rump warbler?”); October 14, 1855 ("Black bill and feet, yellow rump, brown above, yellowish-brown on head, cream-colored chin, two white bars on wings, tail black, edged with white, — the yellow-rump warbler or myrtle-bird without doubt.”)

May 5, 1860 ("It takes us many years to find out that Nature repeats herself annually”)

September 23 , 1858 ("saw the comet very bright in the northwest. "); October 5, 1858 ("The comet makes a great show these nights.")

October 3, 1856 (" Especially the hillsides about Walden begin to wear these autumnal tints in the cooler air. These lit leaves, this glowing, bright-tinted shrubbery, is in singular harmony with the dry, stony shore of this cool and deep well.")

See August 19, 1851 ("The poet must be continually watching the moods of his mind,"); April 8, 1854 ("The poet deals with his privatest experience."); October 21, 1857 ("Is not the poet bound to write his own biography?")

September 29, 2017

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."

The tautog or blackfish, Tautoga onitis, for dinner

September 29.

Go to Daniel Ricketson’s, New Bedford.

September 29, 2015

At Natural History Library saw Dr. Cabot, who says that he has heard either the hermit, or else the olivaceous, thrush sing,—very like a wood thrush, but softer. Is sure that the hermit thrush sometimes breeds hereabouts.

Get out at Tarkiln Hill, or Head of the River Station, three miles this side of New Bedford. Recognized an old Dutch barn.

R.’s sons Arthur and Walton were just returning from tautog-ﬁshing in Buzzard’s Bay, and I tasted one at supper. Singularly curved from snout to tail.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 29, 1855

Go to Daniel Ricketson’s, New Bedford. Thoreau wrote to Blake: "I have just got a letter from Ricketson, urging me to come to New Bedford, which possibly I may do. He says I can wear my old clothes there." Letters to Blake, September 26, 1855. See also , e.g. December 26, 1854 ("I walk in the woods with R. It is wonderfully warm and pleasant, and the cockerels crow just as in a spring day at home. I feel the winter breaking up in me; if I were home I would try to write poetry."); June 23,, 1856 ("To New Bedford with Ricketson . . .Bay-wings sang morning and evening about R.’s house,")

At Natural History Library . . . HDT needed brushing up on his thrushes, See May 22, 1852 ("On my way to Plymouth, looked at Audubon in the State-House. The female (and male?) wood thrush spotted the whole length of belly; the hermit thrush not so.”); See also May 7, 1852 ("A wood [sic] thrush which. . .betrayed himself by moving, like a large sparrow with ruffled feathers, and quirking his tail like a pewee, on a low branch.”); April 18, 1854 (Was surprised to see a wagtail thrush, the golden-crowned, at the Assabet Spring, which inquisitively followed me along the shore over the snow, hopping quite near. I should say this was the golden-crowned thrush without doubt, though I saw none of the gold, if this and several more which I saw had not kept close to the water. May possibly be the aquaticus. Have a jerk of the forked tail”); April 21, 1855 ("At Cliffs, I hear at a distance a wood [sic] thrush. It affects us as a part of our unfallen selve..”); May 4, 1855 ("Several larger thrushes on low limbs and on ground, with a dark eye (not the white around it of the wood thrush) and, I think, the nankeen spot on the secondaries. A hermit thrush?); Compare April 24, 1856 ("Returning, in the low wood just this side the ﬁrst Second Division Brook, near the meadow, see a brown bird ﬂit, and behold my hermit thrush, with one companion, ﬂitting silently through the birches. I saw the fox-color on his tail-coverts, as well as the brown streaks on the breast. Both kept up a constant jerking of the tail as they sat on their perches.")

Rickertson and New Bedford... See Mapping Thoreau Country

Monday, September 28, 2015

A Book of the Seasons: September 28 (severe frost, the pine change, barberries, lambkill, gentian, violets -- a second spring, the blue jay and red squirrel scold)

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

September 28

The first severe frost

in the garden this morning –

ice under the pump.

September 28, 1860

September 28, 2015

It has been too cold for the thinnest coat since the middle of September. September 28, 1852

For a week or ten days I have ceased to look for new flowers or carry my botany in my pocket. September 28, 1851

A considerable part of the last two nights and yesterday, a steady and rather warm rain, such as we have not had for a long time. This morning it is still completely overcast and drizzling a little. September 28, 1851

A warm, damp, mistling day, without much wind. September 28, 1851

A windy day. What have these high and roaring winds to do with the fall? September 28, 1852

This morning we had a very severe frost, the first to kill our vines, etc., in garden; what you may call a black frost, –– making things look black. Also ice under pump. September 28, 1860

Poke berries in the sprout-land east of the red huckleberry still fresh and abundant, perhaps a little past prime. I never saw so many . . . black or purplish-black berries , almost crowd one another, hanging around the bright-purple, now for the most part bare, stems. September 28, 1856

The arum berries are still fresh and abundant, perhaps in their prime. . . . These singular vermilion-colored berries, about a hundred of them, surmount a purple bag on a peduncle six or eight inches long. September 28, 1856

Looking down from Nawshawtuct this afternoon, the white maples on the Assabet and below have a singular light glaucous look, almost hoary, as if curled and showing the under sides of the leaves, and they contrast with the fresh green pines and hemlocks. September 28, 1857

The white pines in Hubbard's Grove have now a pretty distinct parti-colored look, –– green and yellow mottled, September 28, 1851

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

The fall dandelion is now very fresh and abundant in its prime. September 28, 1851

Children are now gathering barberries, — just the right time. September 28, 1852

How many fruits are scarlet now! — barberries, prinos, etc. September 28, 1856

The swamp is bordered with the red-berried alder, or prinos, and the button-bush. The balls of the last appear not half grown this season,-probably on account of the drought, and now they are killed by frost. September 28, 1851

The Eupatorium purpureum is early killed by frost and stands now all dry and brown by the sides of other herbs like the goldenrod and tansy, which are quite green and in blossom. September 28, 1851

Acalypha is killed by frost, and rhexia. September 28, 1858

Liatris done, apparently some time. September 28, 1858

The fringed gentian was out before Sunday; was (some of it) withered then, says Edith Emerson. September 28, 1853

The gentian (Andrewsii), now generally in prime, loves moist, shady banks, and its transcendent blue shows best in the shade and suggests coolness; contrasts there with the fresh green;—a splendid blue, light in the shade, turning to purple with age.September 28, 1858

They are particularly abundant under the north side of the willow-row in Merrick’s pasture. September 28, 1858

I count ﬁfteen in a single cluster there, and afterward twenty at Gentian Lane near Flint’s Bridge, and there were other clusters below. September 28, 1858

Bluer than the bluest sky, they lurk in the moist an shady recesses of the banks. September 28, 1858

I find the hood-leaved violet quite abundant in a meadow, and the pedata in the Boulder Field. September 28, 1852

I have now seen all but the blanda, palmata, and pubescens blooming again, and bluebirds and robins, etc., are heard again in the air. September 28, 1852

This is the commencement, then, of the second spring. Violets, Potentilla Canadensis, lambkill, wild rose, yellow lily, etc., etc., begin again. September 28, 1852

I hear the barking of a red squirrel, who is alarmed at something, and a great scolding or ado among the jays, who make a great cry about nothing. September 28, 1851

Had one of those sudden cool gusts, which filled the air with dust from the road, shook the houses, and caused the elms to labor and drop many leaves, early in afternoon. No such gust since spring. September 28, 1857

The mist is so thin that it is like haze or smoke in the air, imparting a softness to the landscape. September 28, 1851

The mist has now thickened into a fine rain, and I retreat. September 28, 1851

He whose theme is moonlight will find it difficult to illustrate it with the light of the moon alone.

September 28, 1854

September 28, 2015

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Blue Jay

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Red Squirrel
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The October Pine Fall
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Arum Berries
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Common Barberry

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Liatris

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Violets

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Fringed Gentian

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Autumnal Dandelion

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Lambkill (Kalmia augustifolia)

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, September Moonlight

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, September Moods

THE COMMON BARBERRY

August 12, 1858 (“Saw a Viola pedata blooming again.”)

August 29, 1858 ("Gentiana Andrewsii, one not quite shedding pollen.")

August 31, 1853 ("Viola pedata out again.")

September 4, 1856 ("Viola pedata again.")

September 10, 1857 ("I see lambkill ready to bloom a second time.")

September 9, 1858 ("Many Viola cucullata have opened again")

September 12, 1851 ("Found a violet, apparently Viola cucullata, or hood-leaved violet, in bloom in Baker's Meadow beyond Pine Hill.")

September 13, 1858 ("Fringed gentian out well, on easternmost edge of the Painted-Cup Meadows, by wall.")

September 14, 1856 ("Fringed gentian well out.")

September 15, 1851 ("Ice in the pail under the pump, and quite a frost.").. . .

September 16. 1857 ("Barberries very handsome now. See boys gathering them in good season.")

September 16, 1852 (“Some birds, like some flowers, begin to sing again in the fall.”)

Se ptember 18, 1854 ("Fringed gentian near Peter’s out a short time, . . ., it may after all be earlier than the hazel.”)

September 18, 1856 ("The gentian is now far more generally out here than the hazel.")

September 18, 1859 ("From the observation of this year I should say that the fringed gentian opened before the witch-hazel")

September 18, 1856 ("I get a full peck from about three bushes.”)

September 19, 1852 ("The Viola lanceolata has blossomed again, and the lambkill.")

September 19, 1856 (“Gather just half a bushel of barberries on hill in less than two hours, or three pecks to-day and yesterday in less than three hours.”)

September 20, 1851 ("On Monday of the present week water was frozen in a pail under the pump")

September 21, 1854 ("With this bright, clear, but rather cool air the bright yellow of the autumnal dandelion is in harmony and the heads of the dilapidated goldenrods.")

September 21, 1854 ("I hear many jays since the frosts began.”)

September 24, 1857 ("A red squirrel chiding you from his concealment in some pine-top. It is the sound most native to the locality.")

September 25, 1851 ("In these cooler, windier, crystal days the note of the jay sounds a little more native.")

September 25, 1855 ("The scream of the jay is heard from the wood-side.")

September 25, 1855 ("Carry Aunt and Sophia a-barberrying to Conantum . . . We get about three pecks of barberries from four or ﬁve bushes.")

September 25, 1857 ("Stopping in my boat under the Hemlocks, I hear singular bird-like chirruping from two red squirrels.")

September 25, 1858 ("The Gentiana Andrewsii are now in prime at Gentian Shore. Some are turned dark or reddish-purple with age.")

September 26, 1859 ("So it is with flowers, birds, and frogs a renewal of spring.")

September 27, 1852 ("The arum berries are now in perfection, cone-shaped spikes an inch and a half long, of scarlet or vermilion- colored, irregular, somewhat pear-shaped berries springing from a purplish core.")

The fringed gentian

was out before Sunday says

Edith Emerson.

September 28, 1853

Emerson's pines are

parti-colored preparing

to fall -- some of them.

September 28, 1854

Black or purplish-black

poke berries hanging around

bare bright-purple stems.

September 28, 1856

September 29, 1853 ("Lambkill blossoms again")

September 29, 1853 ("Barberry ripe. ")

September 29, 1853 ("Viola cucullata.")

September 29, 1854 ("Now is the time to gather barberries.")

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

September 29, 1857 ("I hear that some have gathered fringed gentian.")

October 1, 1853 ("A-barberrying by boat to Conantum, carrying Ellen, Edith, and Eddie . . . Got three pecks of barberries.")

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

October 1, 1858 ("The fringed gentians are now in prime.")

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

October 3, 1856 ("The white pines are now getting to be pretty generally parti-colored, the lower yellowing needles ready to fall.")

October 5, 1857 ("I hear the alarum of a small red squirrel.")

October 10, 1851 ("There are many things to indicate the renewing of spring at this season")

October 10, 1853 ("The faint suppressed warbling of the robins sounds like a reminiscence of the spring.")

October 10, 1856 ("Indian summer itself is a similar renewal of the year, with the faint warbling of birds and second blossoming of flowers.")

October 15, 1853 ("Last night the first smart frost that I have witnessed. Ice formed under the pump, and the ground was white long after sunrise.")

October 16, 1856 ("I notice these flowers on the way by the roadside, which survive the frost, i.e. a few of them: hedge-mustard, mayweed, tall crowfoot, autumnal dandelion, yarrow, some Aster Tradescanti, and some red clover.")

October 19, 1852 ("It is a very singular and agreeable surprise to come upon this conspicuous and handsome and withal blue flower at this season, when flowers have passed out of our minds and memories; the latest of all to begin to bloom.”)

October 22, 1859 ("In the wood-path below the Cliffs I see perfectly fresh and fair Viola pedata flowers, as in the spring, though but few together. No flower by its second blooming more perfectly brings back the spring to us.”)

October 23, 1853 ("Many phenomena re mind me that now is to some extent a second spring, — not only the new-springing and blossoming of flowers, but the peeping of the hylodes for some time, and the faint warbling of their spring notes by many birds.")

October 23, 1853 ("The Viola pedata looking up from so low in the wood-path makes a singular impression.")

November 8, 1851 ("Like Viola pedata, I shall be ready to bloom again . . .ever springing, never dying, with perennial root I stand; for the winter of the land is warm to me.")

November 9, 1850("I found many fresh violets (Viola pedata) to-day (November 9th) in the woods.”)

September 28, 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.

April 7, 1853

September 27 <<<<<<<<< September 28 >>>>>>>> September 29

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, September 28
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

tinyurl.com/HDT28Sept

ZtonePhruit

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

A Book of the Sesaons: September 30;

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

A Book of the Seasons: September 29.

The tautog or blackfish, Tautoga onitis, for dinner

Monday, September 28, 2015

A Book of the Seasons: September 28 (severe frost, the pine change, barberries, lambkill, gentian, violets -- a second spring, the blue jay and red squirrel scold)

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