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
I see from this hill
the horizon-edge distinct –
clear air after rain.
Shadows pass slowly
over the green forest top –
clouds floating in sky.
A late breeze rises
wood thrush and tanager sing –
sparkling the river.
 |
| July 1, 2019 A cloudy and slightly showery morning. July 1, 1852 It is more agreeable walking this cloudy day, with a few harmless sun-showers, than it would be in a glaring sunny day. July 1, 1852 Saw one of those great pea-green emperor moths, like a bird, fluttering over the top of the woods this forenoon, 10 a. m., near Beck Stow's. July 1, 1853 The path by the wood-side is red with the effete staminiferous flowers of the white pine. July 1, 1852 Roses are in their prime now, growing amid huckle-berry bushes, ferns, and sweet-ferns, especially about some dry pond-hole; some paler, some more red. July 1, 1852 Have heard the peculiar peep of young tailless golden robins for a day or more. July 1, 1859 I see young partridges not bigger than robins fly three or four rods, not squatting fast, now. July 1, 1860 From the hill I perceive that the air is beautifully clear after the rain of yesterday, and not hot; fine grained. The landscape is fine as behind a glass, the horizon-edge distinct. July 1, 1854  July 1, 2019 The distant vales toward the northwest mountains lie up open and clear. The shadows of trees are dark and distinct. July 1, 1854 The clouds are separate glowing masses or blocks floating in the sky, not threatening rain. I see from this hill their great shadows pass slowly here and there over the top of the green forest. July 1, 1854 It is pleasant to behold so much of the landscape in the shadow of the clouds. July 1, 1852 On the river I see the two broad borders of pads reflecting the light, the dividing line between them and the water, their irregular edge, perfectly distinct.July 1, 1854 The freshly opened lilies are a pearly white, and though the water amid the pads is quite unrippled, the passing air gives a slight oscillating, boat-like motion to and fro to the flowers, like boats held fast by their cables. July 1, 1852 I wish to breathe the atmosphere of lilies, and get the full impression which lilies are fitted to make. July 1, 1852 The white lilies are in all their splendor, fully open, sometimes their lower petals lying flat on the surface . . . Two which I examine have twenty-nine petals each. We push our boat into the midst of some shallow bays covered with pads and spotted white with many hundreds of lilies just expanded. July 1, 1852 The freshly opened lilies are a pearly white, and though the water amid the pads is quite unrippled, the passing air gives a slight oscillating, boat-like motion to and fro to the flowers, like boats held fast by their cables. July 1, 1852 After eating our luncheon at Rice's landing, I can not find one open anywhere for the rest of the day. July 1, 1852 Gathered the early red blackberry in the swamp or meadow. . . Fruit red, middle-sized, with a few, perhaps ten or twelve, large globules.May be the Rubus triflorus, but not growing on hills.July 1, 1853 Later a breeze rises and there is a sparkle on the river. The wood thrush and tanager sing at 4 P.M. at Cliffs. July 1, 1854 ***** A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau : July Summer Seen from a Hillside The Horizon  July 1, 2016 ***** It is pleasant to behold so much of the landscape in the shadow of the clouds See July 1,1854 ("I see from this hill their great shadows pass slowly here and there over the top of the green forest."); See also June 3, 1858 ("It was interesting to watch from that height the shadows of fair-weather clouds passing over the landscape."); July 27, 1852 ("It is pleasing to behold at this season contrasted shade and sunshine on the side of neighboring hills.") The peculiar peep of young tailless golden robins for a day or more. See June 28, 1855 ("Hear and see young golden robins which have left the nest, now peeping with a peculiar tone."); June 28, 1857("I hear on all hands these days, from the elms and other trees, the twittering peep of young gold robins, which have recently left their nests, and apparently indicate their locality to their parents by thus incessantly peeping all day long."); July 2, 1860 ("Nowadays hear from my window the constant tittering of young golden robins, ") May be the Rubus triflorus. See June 30, 1854 ("Rubus triflorus berries, some time, — the earliest fruit of a rubus. The berries are very scarce, light red, semitransparent, showing the seed . . ."); July 2, 1851("Some of the raspberries are ripe, the most innocent and simple of fruits") I see young partridges not bigger than robins .See June 26, 1857 ("See a pack of partridges as big as robins at least.”);July 5, 1856 ("Young partridges (with the old bird), as big as robins, make haste into the woods from off the railroad.") The landscape is fine as behind a glass. See February 9, 1852 ("It is a new glass placed over the picture every hour.") The distant vales toward the northwest mountains lie up open and clear. Compare July 11, 1857 (“Looking off into the vales from Fair Haven Hill, where a thin blue haze now rests almost universally, I see that the earth itself is invested with a glaucous bloom at this season.”); May 24, 1860 (“Looking into the northwest horizon, I see that Wachusett is partially concealed by a haze. This is one of the values of mountains in the horizon, that they indicate the state of the atmosphere.”); see also August 2, 1852 (“To look across hence to that blue rim of the earth, and be reminded of the invisible towns and communities, . . . which lie in the further and deeper hollows between me and those hills. . . ., and be reminded how many brave and contented lives are lived between me and the horizon.); March 28, 1858 (. On ascending the hill next his home, every man finds that he dwells in a shallow concavity whose sheltering walls are the convex surface of the earth, beyond which he cannot see. .”) The shadows of trees are dark and distinct. See June 30, 1860 (" The shadows under the edge of woods are less noticed now because the woods themselves are darker.”); June 11, 1856 ("I think that this peculiar darkness of the shade, or of the foliage as seen between you and the sky, is not accounted for merely by saying that we have not yet got accustomed to clothed trees, but the leaves are rapidly acquiring a darker green, are more and more opaque, and, besides, the sky is lit with the intensest light.”) The path by the wood-side is red with the effete staminiferous flowers of the white pine. See note to June 25, 1858 ("The ground under the white pines is now strewn with the effete flowers, like an excrement.”) Roses are in their prime now . . .The white lilies are in all their splendor. See June 30, 1852 ("Is not this period more than any distinguished for flowers, when roses, swamp-pinks, morning-glories, arethusas, pogonias, orchises, blue flags, epilobiums, mountain laurel, and white lilies are all in blossom at once?") After eating our luncheon . . . I can not find one open anywhere for the rest of the day. See July 17, 1854 (“I watch them for an hour and a half. By about 1.30 they are all shut up, and no petal is to be seen up and down the river . . .I think that I could tell when it was 12 o'clock within half an hour by the lilies.”) |
July 1, 2020
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.
June 30 <<<<< July 1 >>>>> July 2
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, July 1
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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