A Book of the Seasons: June 6 (ephemeral seasons, falling maple keys, turtles lay, devils needles, evening on the river)

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

June 6.

June 6, 2012

The dark eye and shade

of June seen on the river

as well as on land.

June 6, 1855

A year is made up 

of a certain series of 

sensations and thoughts.

 June 6, 1857

The trembling aspens

offer me a new summer

fluttering my thoughts.

June 6, 1857

The air full of sound,

sunset after a rain-storm.

Every bird singing.

June 6, 1860

A year is made up of a certain series and number of sensations and thoughts which have their language in nature. June 6, 1857

Each season is but an infinitesimal point. June 6, 1857

This is June, the month of grass and leaves. June 6, 1857

You see the dark eye and shade of June on the river as well as on land, and a dust-like tint on river, apparently from the young leaves and bud-scales, covering the waters, which begin to be smooth, and imparting a sense of depth. June 6, 1855

Already the aspens are trembling again, and a new summer is offered me. I feel a little fluttered in my thoughts, as if I might be too late. June 6, 1857

It no sooner comes than it is gone. June 6, 1857

We receive a prompting and impulse and instantly pass to a new season. June 6, 1857

The aspect of the dry rocky hills already indicates the rapid revolution of the seasons. June 6, 1853

I perceive the sweetness of the locust blossoms fifteen or twenty rods off as I go down the street. June 6, 1854

The air over the river meadows is saturated with sweetness June 6, 1854

It is Lee's Cliff I am on. How dry and crisp the turf feels there now, not moist with melted snows, remembering, as it were, when it was the bottom of the sea. June 6, 1853

From time to time, at mid-afternoon, is heard the trump of a bullfrog, like a Triton's horn. June 6, 1854

The painted tortoises are nowadays laying their eggs. June 6, 1854

I see a yellow-spotted tortoise twenty rods from river, and a painted one four rods from it which has just made a hole for her eggs. June 6, 1855

See three or four Emys insculpta about, making their holes in the gravelly bank south of Assabet Bath" June 6, 1858

I notice a clam lying up, and two or three cleared or light-colored places, apparently bream-nests commenced. June 6, 1855

First devil's-needles in the air, and some smaller, bright-green ones on flowers. June 6, 1852

I see many great devil's-needles in an open wood — and for a day or two, — stationary on twigs, etc.,. . . They were evidently just escaped from the slough. June 6, 1857

The white maple keys are about half fallen. June 6, 1855

It is remarkable that this happens at the time the emperor moth (cecropia) comes out. June 6, 1855

How well suited the lining of a bird’s nest, not only for the comfort of the young, but to keep the eggs from breaking! June 6, 1856

Two catbirds’ nests in the thickest part of the thicket on the edge of Wheeler’s meadow near Island. June 6, 1855

A catbird nest on shore of Andromeda and in shrub oak, three feet high, twigs and bark shreds lined with root-fibres; three eggs. June 6, 1856

Those nests in the andromeda are blackbird’s. Many sound the alarm while I am wading through the swamp. June 6, 1856

Hear of a kingfisher's nest, just found in a sand bank behind Abner Buttrick's, with six fresh eggs, of which I have one. The boy said it was six or seven feet deep in the bank. June 6, 1859

A brown thrasher's nest, with two eggs, on ground, near lower lentago wall and toward Bittern Cliff. June 6, 1857

A kingbird's nest, with two of its large handsome eggs, very loosely set over the fork of a horizontal willow by river, with dried everlasting of last year, as usual, just below Garfield's boat. June 6, 1857

Another in black willow south of long cove (east side, north of Hubbard's Grove) and another north of said cove. June 6, 1857

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 (I had remarked the peculiar yellow of its flowers) willows (fulvae) of Barratt. It is now just beginning to open its long beaks. June 6, 1856

The S. cordata is another of the ochre-flowered ones. June 6, 1856

The Salix cordata (which apparently blossomed some days after the S. sericea) is very common on Prichard’s shore and also Whiting’s. June 6, 1855

Also at the last place is a small shrub, —a little of it, — perhaps S. lucida, which apparently blossomed about same time, or a day or two after, the sericea. June 6, 1855

Salix pedicellaris off Holden's has been out of bloom several days at least. So it is earlier to begin and to end than our S. lucida. June 6, 1857

There is a thorn now in its prime, i. e. near the beaked hazel, Conantum, with leaves more wedge-shaped at base than the Cratcegus coccinea; apparently a variety of it, between that and Crus-Galli. (In press.) June 6, 1857

Crataegus Crus-Galli, maybe a day. June 6, 1857

Cornus florida at Island well out, say the 3d. June 6, 1858

Gathered last night the strong, rank, penetrating-scented angelica . . . A strong, penetrating, lasting, and sickening odor. June 6, 1851

Gathered to-night the Cicuta maculata, American hemlock, the veins of the leaflets ending in the notches and the root fasciculated. June 6, 1851

A slender rush, flowered at the top, at bathing-place, some time. June 6, 1854

Yellow wood-sorrel out. Umbelled thesium, how long? June 6, 1859

Red avens, how long? June 6, 1859

The Stellaria longifolia has been out, apparently, a day or two. June 6, 1854

Stellaria longifolia, at Well Meadow Head, how long? June 6, 1859

Cardamine rhomboidea has green seed. June 6, 1859

I hear of linnaea out in a pitcher and probably (?) in woods. June 6, 1858

Golden senecio is not uncommon now. June 6, 1858

There is garlic by the wall, not yet out. June 6, 1854

Am surprised to find that the buck bean flowers are withered, being killed by the recent frosts. June 6, 1858

Yellow Bethlehem-star. June 6, 1858

Edith Emerson has found, in the field (Merriam’s) just south of the Beck Stow pine grove, Lepidium campestre, which may have been out ten days. June 6, 1858

Early iris. June 6, 1857

Viburnum-Lentago, a day or more. June 6, 1857

Krigias, with their somewhat orange yellow, spot the dry hills all the fore noon and are very common, but as they are closed in the afternoon, they are but rarely noticed by walkers. June 6, 1857

The long mocker-nut on Conantum not yet out, and the second, or round, one will be yet later. Its catkins are more grayish. June 6, 1857

The Ranunculus Purshii is in some places abundantly out now and quite showy. It must be our largest ranunculus (flower). June 6, 1857

Waxwork open and pollen one or two days. June 6, 1855

One thimble-berry blossom done— probably several days. June 6, 1855

Blue-eyed grass maybe several days in some places. June 6, 1855

Carex crinita, a few days, along bank of Assabet. June 6, 1855

Whiteweed, Merrick’s pasture shore, these two or three days. June 6, 1855

The side-flowering sandwort, an inconspicuous white flower like a chickweed. June 6, 1852

The earliest blueberries are now forming as greenberries. June 6, 1852

Rain still (the second day) clears up before night, and so cool that many have fires. June 6, 1860

The wind already injures the just-expanded leaves, tearing them and making there turn black. June 6, 1853

I see the effects of recent frosts on the young oaks in hollows in the woods. June 6, 1852

The leaves are turned dry, black, and crisp. June 6, 1852

As I sit on Lee's Cliff, I see a pe-pe on the topmost dead branch of a hickory eight or ten rods off. June 6, 1857

Looking round for its prey and occasionally changing its perch, it every now and then darts off (phoebe-like), even five or six rods, to ward the earth to catch an insect, and then returns to its favorite perch. June 6, 1857

On the Island I hear still the redstart—tsip tsip tsip tsip, tsit-i-yet, or sometimes tsip tsip tsip tsip, tse vet. A young male. It repeats this at regular intervals for a long time, sitting pretty still now. June 6, 1855

Still see cherry-birds in flocks of five or six. June 6, 1856

Every bird seems to be singing in the wood across the steam. June 6, 1860

How full the air of sound at sunset and just after, at the end of a rain-storm! June 6, 1860

All sounds are more distinctly heard. June 6, 1860

The black oaks, birches, etc., etc., are covered with ephemeræ of various sizes and colors, with one, two, three, or no streamers, ready to take wing at evening. June 6, 1854

There are now those large swarms of black-winged millers a half-inch long, with two long streamers ahead, fluttering three to six inches over the water; not long, methinks; also other insects. June 6, 1855

As the light is obscured after sunset, the birds rapidly cease their songs, and the swallows cease to flit over the river. June 6, 1860

Soon the bats are seen taking the places of the swallows, flying back and forth like them. June 6, 1860

After the bats, half an hour after sunset, the water-bugs begin to spread themselves over the stream, - now, when it is difficult to see them or the dimples they make, except when you look toward the reflected western sky. June 6, 1860

Each experience reduces itself to a mood of the mind. June 6, 1857

It simply gives a tone and hue to my thought. June 6, 1857

Each annual phenomenon is a reminiscence and prompting. June 6, 1857

June 6, 2019

*****

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, Reminiscence and Prompting

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, As the Seasons Revolve

 A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Western Sky

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Maple Keys

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Painted Turtle (Emys picta); A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Wood Turtlw (Emys insculpta)

 A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Yellow-Spotted Turtle (Emys guttata)

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau.the Devil's-needle

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau,

Insect Hatches in Spring (millers, perla, shad-flies or ephemera)

 A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Water-bug (Gyrinus) and Skaters (Hydrometridae)

*****

Already the aspens are trembling again, and . . .I feel a little fluttered in my thoughts . . Each annual phenomenon is a reminiscence and prompting See May 17, 1860 ("Standing in the meadow near the early aspen at the island, I hear the first fluttering of leaves, - a peculiar sound, at first unaccountable to me.")

Late rose now in prime.

The memory of roses

along the river.

July 23, 1860

******

The dark eye and shade of June. See June 4, 1855 ("dark shadows on field and wood are the more remarkable by contrast with the light yellow-green foliage now, and when they rest on evergreens they are doubly dark, like dark rings about the eyes of June. "); June 4, 1860 (" a grateful but thin shade, like a coarse sieve, so open that we see the fluttering of each leaf in its shadow.”); June 9. 1856 ("Now I notice where an elm is in the shadow of a cloud,—the black elm-tops and shadows of June. It is a dark eyelash which suggests a flashing eye beneath. It suggests houses that lie under the shade, the repose and siesta of summer noons, the thunder-cloud, bathing, and all that belongs to summer. ") June 11, 1856 ("I observe and appreciate the shade, as it were the shadow of each particular leaf on the ground. . . . the leaves are rapidly acquiring a darker green, are more and more opaque, and, besides, the sky is lit with the intensest light. It reminds me of the thunder-cloud and the dark eyelash of summer. "); June 26, 1854 ("the peculiar agreeable dark shade of June, a clear air, and bluish light on the grass and bright silvery light reflected from fresh green leaves.")

The painted tortoises are nowadays laying their eggs. Three or four Emys insculpta about, making their holes in the gravelly bank. A yellow-spotted tortoise twenty rods from rive.  See June 7, 1854 ("Yesterday I saw the painted and the wood tortoise out."); June 8, 1859 ("See a painted turtle beginning to lay. She has merely scratched the ground a little, and moistened it very much. This must be to make it adherent."); June 9, 1858 ("See a yellow spotted turtle digging her hole at 5 P.M. . . . It is made under one side like the picta’s. "); June 10, 1857 ("A wood tortoise making a hole for her eggs just like a picta's hole.") 

The white maple keys are about half fallen. It is remarkable that this happens at the time the emperor moth (cecropia) comes out. See May 29, 1854 ("The white maple keys have begun to fall and float down the stream like the wings of great insects");  June 2, 1855   (" From that cocoon of the Attacus cecropia which I found. . . came out this forenoon a splendid moth.");  June 9, 1858("White maple keys are abundantly floating. ")

First devil's-needles evidently just escaped from the slough. See June 8, 1855 (“A great many devil’s-needles in woods within a day or two."); June 11, 1860 (“See many small blue devil's-needles, but no mates with them.”); June 13, 1854 (“. . . my sail so idle that I count ten devil's-needles resting along it at once.”); June 19, 1860("The devil's-needles now abound in wood-paths and about the Ripple Lakes. “); June 23, 1853 (“Here are thousands of devil's-needles of all sizes hovering over the surface of this shallow pond in the woods”); July 16, 1854 (“Methinks there were most devil's-needles a month ago.”) 

Golden senecio is not uncommon now. See May 23, 1853 ("I am surprised by the dark orange-yellow of the senecio. At first we had the lighter, paler spring yellows of willows, dandelion, cinquefoil, then the darker and deeper yellow of the buttercup; and then this broad distinction between the buttercup and the senecio, as the seasons revolve toward July."); May 27, 1859 ("Golden senecio, at least to-morrow. ");May 29, 1856 (" Ride to Painted-Cup Meadow. . . . Golden senecio there, a day or two, at least"); June 9, 1853 ("The meadows are now yellow with the golden senecio, a more orange yellow, mingled with the light glossy yellow of the buttercup") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Golden Senecio

The earliest blueberries are now forming as greenberries. See June 7, 1854 (“I am surprised at the size of green berries, -- shad-bush, low blueberries, choke-cherries, etc., etc. It is but a step from flowers to fruit.”)

Half an hour after sunset the water-bugs begin to spread themselves over the stream, when it is difficult to see them. See June 2, 1860 ("Water-bugs dimple the surface now quite across the river, in the moonlight, for it is a full moon.") 

The reflected western sky. See October 20, 1858 ("There is one advantage in walking eastward these afternoons, at least, that in returning you may have the western sky before you."); November 15, 1853 (“Just after sundown, the waters become suddenly smooth, and the clear yellow light of the western sky is . . . reflected in the water . . . diffusing light from below as well as above”); December 25, 1858 ("How full of soft, pure light the western sky now, after sunset!”); January 17, 1852 ("In proportion as I have celestial thoughts, is the necessity for me to be out and behold the western sky sunset these winter days."); August 2, 1854 (“I am compelled to stand to write where a soft, faint light from the western sky came in between two willows.”); August 5, 1851 (“The light from the western sky is stronger still than that of the moon”) 

June 6, 2016

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 

June 5  < <<<<<. June 6  >>>>>  June 7

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, June 6.

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

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