A Book of the Seasons: October 3.

October 3.

Hear the loud laughing of a loon on Flint's, apparently alone in the middle. A wild sound, heard far and suited to the wildest lake. October 3, 1852

A wild sound heard far,
suited to the wildest lake.
Laughing of a loon.
October 3, 1852

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. October 3, 1856

These lit glowing leaves
by the dry stony shore of
this cool and deep well.
October 3, 1856

The maples about Walden are quite handsome now. . . .About the pond I see maples of all their tints, and black birches (on the southwest side) clear pale yellow; and on the peak young chestnut clumps and walnuts are considerably yellowed. .October 3, 1858

Maples of all tints,
clear pale yellow black birches
on the southwest side.
October 3, 1858

,

See about the pond
clear pale yellow black birches,
maples of all tints.
October 3, 1858

Cooler, autumnal.
You incline to sit in a
sunny sheltered place.
October 3, 1859

Serene as the sky,

emulating nature with

calm and peaceful lives.

October 3, 1859

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


The white pines are now getting to be pretty generally parti-colored, the lower yellowing needles ready to fall. October 3, 1856
White pines fairly begin to change. October 3, 1858

The Rhus radicans also turns yellow and red or scarlet, like the Toxicodendron. October 3, 1857

The sumachs are generally crimson (darker than scarlet), and young trees and bushes by the water and meadows are generally beginning to glow red and yellow. October 3, 1856

The red maples which changed first, along the river, are now faded and partly fallen. They look more pink. But others are lit, and so there is more color than before. Some particular maple among a hundred will be of a peculiarly bright and pure scarlet, and, by its difference of tint and intenser color, attract our eyes even at a distance in the midst of the crowd. October 3, 1858

Looking all around Fair Haven Pond yesterday, where the maples were glowing amid the evergreens, my eyes invariably rested on a particular small maple of the purest and intensest scarlet. October 3, 1858






I see the ground strewn with Populus grandidentata leaves in one place on the old Carlisle road, where one third are fallen. These yellow leaves are all thickly brown-spotted and are very handsome. . .— they cover the still green sward by the roadside and the gray road thick as a pavement, each one worthy to be admired as a gem or work of Oriental art. October 3, 1859


The hard frost of September 28th, 29th, and 30th, and especially of October 1st, has suddenly killed, crisped, and caused to fall a great many leaves of ash, hickory, etc., etc. October 3, 1860

Many acorns strew the ground, and have fallen into the water. October 3, 1852

I have seen and heard sparrows in flocks, more as if flitting by, within a week, or since the frosts began. October 3, 1860

See sparrows in flocks and have heard more flitting by since the frosts began. HDT ~October 3, 1860

*****

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 © 2009-2019