How earthy old people become.

August 16. 

P. M. — To Flint's Pond with Mr. Conway. 

Started a woodcock in the woods. 

Also saw a large telltale, I think yellow-shanks, whose note I at first mistook for a jay's, giving the alarm to some partridges. 

The Polygonum orientale, probably some days, by Turnpike Bridge, a very rich rose-color large flowers, distinguished by its salver-shaped upper sheaths. It is a color as rich, I think, as that of the cardinal-flower. 

Desmodium paniculatum in the wood-path northeast of Flint's Pond. Its flowers turn blue-green in drying. 

Yesterday also in the Marlborough woods, perceived everywhere that offensive mustiness of decaying fungi. 

How earthy old people become, — mouldy as the grave! Their wisdom smacks of the earth. There is no foretaste of immortality in it. They remind me of earthworms and mole crickets.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, August 16, 1853

Also saw a large telltale, I think yellow-shanks. See September 14, 1854 ("A flock of thirteen tell tales, great yellow-legs, start up with their shrill whistle from the midst of the great Sudbury meadow, and away they sail in a flock.").

Polygonum orientale, probably some days. See September 12 1852 ("the Polygonum orientale, prince's-feather, in E. Hosmer's grounds.")

Yesterday also in the Marlborough woods, perceived everywhere that offensive mustiness of decaying fungi. See September 10, 1854 ("Last year, for the last three weeks of August, the woods were filled with the strong musty scent of decaying fungi, but this year I have seen very few fungi and have not noticed that odor at all ."); August 14, 1853 ("there are countless great fungi of various forms and colors, the produce of the warm rains and muggy weather . . . and for most of my walk the air is tainted with a musty, carrion like odor, in some places very offensive")

August 16. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau,  August 16

 

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