I would gladly walk far in this stormy weather.

May 10. 

The third day of rain. The river has again gone over the meadows, which were almost bare. 



P. M. —To Walden in rain. 

Some Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum out in Cut woods; maybe a day, as it has rained steadily the last two days. It seems to bloom with or immediately after the bear-berry. 

I would gladly walk far in this stormy weather, for now I see and get near to large birds. Two quails whir away from the old shanty stubble-field, and two turtle doves go of from an apple tree with their clikit. Also at Walden shore a pigeon hawk (or else sharp shinned), with deep-brown back, went off from close at hand. 

I see there, just above the edge of the Pool in Hubbard’s Wood Path, the Viola blanda passing into the V. lanceolata, which last also is now in bloom, probably earlier there than in wetter places. May have been as early as the blanda. 

Where the pitch pines were cut some years ago on Thrush Alley, I now see birches, oaks, and pitch and white pines. 

On the railroad causeway against Trillium Wood, I see an apparently native willow, a shrub, with greenish bark and conspicuous yellow catkins, now in full bloom, apparently a little earlier than the Salix alba, but its leafets or bracts much less advanced and conspicuous. Another on the Walden road. What is it? 

Mr. Prichard’s Canada plum will open as soon as it is fair weather.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 10, 1856

Some Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum out in Cut woods; maybe a day . . . See May 10, 1855  ("Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum, early blueberry, in bloom; probably may shed pollen.")

I would gladly walk far in this stormy weather, . . . See also May 13, 1852 ("They who do not walk in the woods in the rain never behold them in their freshest, most radiant and blooming beauty.").

Just above the edge of the Pool in Hubbard’s Wood Path, the Viola blanda. . .. See May 6, 1852 ("The first Viola blanda (sweet-scented white), in the moist ground . . .by this spring."). See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau the Violets

Where the pitch pines were cut some years ago on Thrush Alley . . . See April 28, 1856 ("Let me look at the site of some thick pine woods. . .and see what has sprung up. . .");

On the railroad causeway . . . an apparently native willow,. . . now in full bloom, . . . See  May 10, 1854 ("I perceive the sweetness of the willows on the causeway.");  May 14, 1852 ("Going over the Corner causeway, the willow blossoms fill the air with a sweet fragrance, and I am ready to sing,"); June 6, 1856 ("That willow, male and female, opposite to Trillium Woods on the railroad, I find to be the Salix rostrata, or long-beaked willow, one of the ochre-flowered . . .  willows . . .")

Mr. Prichard’s Canada plum will open as soon as it is fair weather.  See May 5, 1855 ("Canada plum and cultivated cherry and Missouri currant look as if they would bloom to-morrow.”); May 7, 1860 ("Canada plum in full bloom, or say in prime. Also common plum in full bloom?");  May 8, 1858 ("Broke off a twig of Prichard's Canada plum in the evening, from which I judge that it may have opened to-day."); May 10, 1855 ("Canada plum opens petals to-day and leafs. Domestic plum only leafs.”); May 12, 1856 ("Prichard’s Canada plum will probably bloom to-morrow.”); May 14, 1855 (“Domestic plums open; some maybe yesterday.”)

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, May 10

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