Pestered by flies about my head.

July 23.

P. M. — To Walden. 

July 23, 2019

Going through Thrush Alley and beyond, I am pestered by flies about my head, — not till now (though I may have said so before). They are perfect imps, for they gain nothing for their pains and only pester me. They do not for the most part attempt to settle on me,  never sting me. Yet they seriously interfere with walking in the wood. Though I may keep a leafy twig constantly revolving about my head, they too constantly revolve, nevertheless, and appear to avoid it successfully. They leave you only when you have got fairly out of the wood. They seem to do it for deviltry and sport. 

The second and fourth, or lake-like, reaches of the river are those in which there is the least fall, if indeed there can be said to be any much of the year. A slight northerly wind, or a shower at the lower end, will make it easier to row up stream than down. 

Low blackberries have begun. 

I notice the scarlet leaves of the sand cherry, which grows in dry places, and skunk-cabbage leaves have now begun to decay, turning black, and the angelica fall has commenced along the brooks. 

Rhexia in bloom, how long? 

What I call Juncus scirpoides is common at Hubbard's Close, and also what I call Juncus marginatus (somewhat like the luzula). 

Prenanthes alba, how long? 

See an early kind of wool-grass, done, of various sizes, and another with larger reflexed sheaths, not begun. 

Aster Radula, how long?

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 23, 1859



The lake-like, reaches of the river are those in which a slight northerly wind, or a shower at the lower end, will make it easier to row upstream than down. See April 16, 1852 ("A succession of bays it is, a chain of lakes, . . .There is just stream enough for a flow of thought; that is all. Many a foreigner who has come to this town has worked for years on its banks without discovering which way the river runs. ")

Low blackberries have begun. See July 17, 1856 ("Going up the hillside, between J. P. Brown's and rough-cast house, am surprised to see great plump ripe low blackberries."); July 21, 1856 ("Low blackberries thick enough to pick in some places, three or four days."); July 26, 1854(" low blackberries of two or more varieties.").

Rhexia in bloom, how long? See July 18, 1852 ("The petals of the rhexia have a beautiful clear purple with a violet tinge."); August 1, 1856 ("Far in the broad wet meadows, on the hummocks and ridges, these bright beds of rhexia turn their faces to the heavens, seen only by the bitterns and other meadow birds that fly over.") and note to August 5, 1858 ("I cannot sufficiently admire the rhexia, one of the highest-colored purple flowers, but difficult to bring home in its perfection, with its fugacious petals.")

Aster Radula, how long? See July 26, 1853 ("I notice to-day the first purplish aster, a pretty sizable one; may have been out a day or two, near the brook beyond Hubbard's Grove, - A.Radula. ")

July 23. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, July 23

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