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
Walden not melted. Journal, March 26, 1852
Walden not melted about shore. See April 14, 1852 ("Walden is only melted two or three rods from the north shore yet. It is a good thermometer of the annual heats, because, having no outlet nor inlet on the surface, it has no stream to wear it away more or less rapidly or early as the water may be higher or lower, and also, being so deep, it is not warmed through by a transient change of temperature"): April 19, 1852 ("Walden is clear of ice. The ice left it yesterday, then, the 18th.[the latest in Thoreau's records]") See also March 26, 1857 ("Walden is already on the point of breaking up. In the shallow bays it is melted six or eight rods out, and the ice looks dark and soft."); March 11, 1861 ("t will be open then the 12th or 13th. This is earlier than I ever knew it to open. "); April 18, 1856 ("I have observed its breaking up of different years commencing in ’45, and the average date has been April 4th")and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Ice-Out
At the Hubbard Bath, a mink comes teetering along the ice by the side of the river. See February 4, 1854 ("I go over to the Hemlocks on the Assabet this morning. See the tracks of a mink, in the shallow snow along the edge of the river, looking for a hole in the ice."); March 8, 1853 ("Saw a mink run across the road in Sudbury, a large black weasel, to appearance, worming its supple way over the snow."); March 13, 1859 ("I commonly saw two or three in a year."); April 15, 1858 ("Having stood quite still on the edge of the ditch close to the north edge of the maple swamp some time, and heard a slight rustling near me from time to time, I looked round and saw a mink under the bushes within a few feet. It was pure reddish-brown above, with a blackish and somewhat bushy tail, a blunt nose, and somewhat innocent-looking head. It crept along toward me and around me, within two feet, in a semicircle, snuffing the air, and pausing to look at me several times."); April 29, 1860 ("I now actually see one small-looking rusty or brown black mink scramble along the muddy shore and enter a hole in the bank.")
The farmers pause to see me scud before it. See May 19, 1856 (“As I sail up the reach of the Assabet above Dove Rock with a fair wind, a traveller riding along the highway is watching my sail while he hums a tune. . . . As he looked at my sail, I listened to his singing. Perchance they were equally poetic, and we repaid each other.”)
So many purposes left unaccomplished, Journal, March 26, 1856
They are just beginning to use wheels in Concord. See March 25, 1860 ("When March arrives, a tolerably calm, clear, sunny, spring like day, the snow is so far gone that sleighing ends and our compassion is excited by the sight of horses laboriously dragging wheeled vehicles through mud and water and slosh. We shall no longer hear the jingling of sleigh bells.")
Like the light reflected from the mountain-ridges within the shaded portions of the moon, Journal, March 26, 1857
The first croaking frogs, the hyla, the white maple blossoms, the skunk-cabbage, and the alder’s catkins are observed about the same time. See March 26, 1860 ("The wood frog may be heard March 15, as this year, or not till April 13, as in ’56"); March 27, 1853 ("though I waited about half an hour, would not utter a sound . . .")Fair Haven is open; may have been open several days. See March 26, 1860 ("Fair Haven Pond may be open by the 20th of March, as this year], or not till April 13 as in '56, or twenty-three days later.”) Also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Ice-out
Are not March and November gray months? See March 30, 1855 (“He must have a great deal of life in him to draw upon, who can pick up a subsistence in November and March. . . . Except for science, do not travel in such a climate as this in November and March.”); March 12, 1854 (“The scenery is like, yet unlike, November; you have the same barren russet, but now, instead of a dry, hard, cold wind, a peculiarly soft, moist air, or else a raw wind.”)
What was that large rather grayish duck on Fair Haven Pond this afternoon?, Journal, March 26, 1859
Much earth has been washed away from the roots of grasses and weeds along the banks of the river, and many of those pretty little bodkin bulbs are exposed and so transported to new localities. See April 22, 1856 ("What is that little bodkin-shaped bulb which I found washed up on the edge of the meadow, white with a few small greenish rounded leafets? "); April 16, 1858 ("The bodkin-like bulb, . . . is probably the water-purslane. I see it floating free and sending out many rootlets, on pools and ditches. In this way it spreads itself.")On the top of the hill at Lee's Cliff much wintergreen has been eaten. See November 16, 1858 (“Methinks the wintergreen, pipsissewa, is our handsomest evergreen, so liquid glossy green and dispersed almost all over the woods.”); November 19, 1850 ("Now that the grass is withered and the leaves are withered or fallen, it begins to appear what is evergreen the partridge-berry and checkerberry, and winter-green leaves even, are more conspicuous.”); December 23, 1855 (“At Lee’s Cliff I notice these radical(?) leaves quite fresh: saxifrage, sorrel, polypody, . . . checkerberry, wintergreen, . . .”); February 16, 1855 (“I see where probably rabbits have nibbled of the leaves of the Wintergreen.”); see also July 3, 1852 ("The Chimaphila umbellata, wintergreen, must have been in blossom some time.”)
A little bream about an inch and an eighth long, very much like those found at Walden last fall. See November 26, 1858 (" a great many minnows about one inch long . . . shaped like bream, but had the transverse bars of perch. ... Yet, from their form and single dorsal fin, I think they are breams. Are they not a new species? "); November 27, 1858 ("They have about seven transverse dark bars, a vertical dark mark under eye, and a dark spot on edge of operculum. "); December 3, 1858 ("The largest of the four breams (vide November 26th) . . . Operculums tinged, streaked, and spotted with golden, coppery, greenish, and violet reflections. A vertical dark mark or line, corresponding to the stripes, through the eye. Iris copper-color or darker. ")
The Brown Season, Journal, March 26, 1860
I think I heard the last lesser redpolls near the beginning of this month. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Lesser Redpoll
The top of a white maple swamp had a reddish tinge at a distance day before yesterday. Was it owing to any expansion of the buds? See March 23, 1853 (“The white maple may perhaps be said to begin to blossom to-day, — the male, — for the stamens, both anthers and filament, are conspicuous on some buds. It has opened unexpectedly, and a rich sight it is, looking up through the expanded buds to the sky.”); March 24, 1855 (“The white maple buds, too, show some further expansion methinks.”); March 25, 1854 ("White maple buds bursting, making trees look like some fruit trees with blossom-buds. "); March 27, 1857 ("The white maple is well out with its pale [?] stamens on the southward boughs, and probably began about the 24th.”)See also A Book of the Seasons by Henry Thoreau, White Maple Buds and Flowers
See the flash of its boughs reflecting the sun, each light or sunny above and shaded beneath, even like the clouds with their dark bases, a sort of mackerel sky of pine boughs. See February 16, 1859 (" I look back through the sun, this soft afternoon, to some white pine tops near Jenny Dugan’s. Their flattish boughs rest stratum above stratum like a cloud, a green mackerel sky")
I wore my old and common clothes, which were of Vermont gray. See October 16, 1859 ("As nature generally, on the advent of frost, puts on a russet and tawny dress, so is not man clad more in harmony with nature in the fall in a tawny suit or the different hues of Vermont gray?")
The skunk-cabbage may flower March 2 (‘60) or April 6 or 8 (as in ’55 and’54). See February 18, 1851 (" See the skunk-cabbage in flower.”); March 2, 1860 ("It was fairly in bloom, and probably yesterday too.. . . No doubt it may have bloomed in some places in this neighborhood in the last day or two of February this year."); March 18, 1860 (“ Skunk-cabbage, now generally and abundantly in bloom all along under Clamshell.”) March 21, 1858 (“The skunk-cabbage at Clamshell is well out, shedding pollen. The date of its flowering is very fluctuating.”); March 26, 1857 (“At Well Meadow Head, am surprised to find the skunk-cabbage in flower, . . .The first croaking frogs, the hyla, the white maple blossoms, the skunk-cabbage, and the alder’s catkins are observed about the same time.”); April 7, 1855 ("The skunk-cabbage open yesterday, — the earliest flower this season.")
The bluebird may be seen February 24, as in ’50, ‘57, and ’60, or not till March 24, as in ’56. See February 24, 1857 ("As I cross from the causeway to the hill, thinking of the bluebird, I that instant hear one's note from deep in the softened air. It is already 40°, and by noon is between 50° and 60°. As the day advances I hear more bluebirds and see their azure flakes settling on the fence-posts. Their short, rich, crispy warble curls through the air."); March 24 1856 (" Spend the forenoon on the river at the white maples. I hear a bluebird’s warble and a song sparrow’s chirp. So much partly for being out the whole forenoon. Bluebirds seen in all parts of the town to-day for first time, as I hear.") See also A Book of the Seasons by Henry Thoreau, The Bluebird in Spring.
The yellow-spotted tortoise may be seen February 23, as in '57, or not till March 28, as in ’55. See February 23, 1857 (“See two yellow-spotted tortoises in the ditch south of Trillium Wood. . . .I have seen signs of the spring.”); March 10, 1853 ("I find a yellow-spotted tortoise (Emys guttata) in the brook.”); March 18, 1854 (" C. has already seen a yellow-spotted tortoise in a ditch.”); ; March 28, 1852 (“ a yellow-spotted tortoise by the causeway side in the meadow near Hubbard's Bridge.”); March 23, 1858 (“Something stirring amid the dead leaves in the water at the bottom of a ditch., in two or three places, and presently see the back of a yellow-spotted turtle. ”); March 28, 1855 (“A yellow-spotted tortoise in a still ditch, which has a little ice also. It at first glance reminds me of a bright freckled leaf, skunk-cabbage scape, perhaps. They are generally quite still at this season, or only slowly put their heads out (of their shells).”) See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Yellow-Spotted Turtle
The wood frog may be heard March 15, as this year, or not till April 13, as in ’56. See March 15, 1860 ("Am surprised to hear, from the pool behind Lee's Cliff, the croaking of the wood frog. It is all alive with them, and I see them spread out on the surface. . . . How suddenly they awake! yesterday, as it were, asleep and dormant, to-day as lively as ever they are. The awakening of the leafy woodland pools"); March 26, 1857 ("The notes of the croaking frog and the hylodes are not only contemporary with, but analogous to, the blossoms of the skunk-cabbage and white maple. "); April 13, 1856 ("As I go by the Andromeda Ponds, I hear the tut tut of a few croaking frogs.")
The yellow sands of a lonely brook seen through the rippling water, with the shadows of the ripples like films passing over it. See March 10, 1853 ("At Nut Meadow Brook . . . gazing into the eddying stream. The ripple-marks on the sandy bottom [and].the shadows of the invisible dimples reflecting prismatic colors on the bottom") October 18, 1857 ("The shadows of these bugs on the bottom, half a dozen times as big as themselves, are very distinct and interesting, with a narrow and well-defined halo about them. , , , I also see plainly the shadows of ripples they make, which are scarcely perceptible on the surface."); August 13, 1858 ("Such endless and varied play of light and shadow is on the river bottom!")
The yellow sands of
a lonely brook with shadows
of rippling water.
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
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