Sheltered in shadow of ferns in the meadow on the cool mud in the hot afternoon.

July 18

P. M. — To Wheeler meadow to look at willows. 

Again scare up a woodcock, apparently seated or sheltered in shadow of ferns in the meadow on the cool mud in the hot afternoon. 

July 18

Rosa Carolina, some time, at edge of Wheeler meadow near Island Neck. 

You see almost everywhere on the muddy river bottom, rising toward the surface, first, the coarse multifid leaves of the Ranunculus Purshii, now much the worse for the wear; second, perhaps, in coarseness, the ceratophyllum, standing upright; third, perhaps, the Bidens Beckii, with its leafets at top; then the Utricularia vulgaris, with its black or green bladders, and the two lesser utricularias in many places.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 18, 1856

Again scare up a woodcock. See July 3, 1856 ("I scare up one or two woodcocks in different places by the shore, where they are feeding, and in a meadow. They go off with a whistling flight. Can see where their bills have probed the mud. "); July 13, 1852 ("Each day now I scare up woodcocks by shady springs and swamps."); July 27, 1852 ("Woodcocks have been common by the streams and springs in woods for some weeks."); See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The American Woodcock

Rosa Carolina, some time. See July 8, 1854 ("The Rosa nitida I think has [been] some time done; the lucida generally now ceasing, and the Carolina (?) just begun."); .July 18, 1853  ("The late, or river, rose spots the copses over the water, — a great ornament to the river's brink now"); July 23, 1860  ("The late rose is now in prime along the river, a pale rose-color but very delicate, keeping up the memory of roses."); See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, The Wild Rose

The coarse multifid leaves of the Ranunculus Purshii . . . ceratophyllum, standing upright . . . the Bidens Beckii, . . . the Utricularia vulgaris, with its black or green bladders, and the two lesser utricularias in many places. See  July 18, 1853 ("Three utricularias and perhaps the horned also common now. ") See also July 4, 1853 ("The weeds are now so thick in the river — potamogetons, heart - leaf, Ranunculus Purshii, eel - grass, etc., etc. — as almost to conceal the stream and seriously to obstruct the passage of my boat."); July 14, 1856 ("Ceratophyllum [hornwort] with a dense whorl of twelve little oval red-dotted apparent flower-buds (?) in an axil. "); July 25, 1856 ("Whorled utricularia very abundantly out, apparently in its prime. ); July 27, 1856 ("Ceratophyllum is now apparently in bloom commonly, with its crimson-dotted involucre."); July 31, 1859 ("What a variety of weeds by the riverside now, in the water of the stagnant portions! Not only lilies of three kinds, but heart-leaf, Utricularia vulgaris and purpurea, all (at least except two yellow lilies) in prime. Sium in bloom, too, and Bidens Beckii just begun, and Ranunculus Purshii still.") and  A Book of the Seasons,, by Henry Thoreau, The Bidens Beckii

 

July 18. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, July 18

In shadow of ferns 

on the cool mud, a woodcock

this hot afternoon.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau. Sheltered in shadow of ferns

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 © 2009-2026

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-560718