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
Cut this winter. December 14, 1851 ("I hear the small woodpecker whistle as he flies to ward the leafless wood on Fair Haven, doomed to be cut this winter."); January 21, 1852 ("This winter they are cutting down our woods more seriously than ever,--Fair Haven hill, Walden, Linnaea, Borealis Wood, etc., etc. Thank God, they cannot cut down the clouds!"); January 22, 1852 ("It concerns us all whether these proprietors choose to cut down all the woods this winter or not"); March 11, 1852 (The woods I walked in in my youth are cut off. Is it not time that I ceased to sing?")
Moore's larch trees beyond Sleepy Hollow. See June 6, 1853 ("The larch grows in both Moore's and Pedrick’s swamps. Do not the trees that grow there indicate the depth of the swamp?")
Moore's larch trees beyond Sleepy Hollow. See June 6, 1853 ("The larch grows in both Moore's and Pedrick’s swamps. Do not the trees that grow there indicate the depth of the swamp?")
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 3, 1855:
I found a cone apparently just opened, and I shake its seeds out. See February 1, 1856 ("I see a pitch pine seed, blown thirty rods from J. Hosmer’s little grove.”) March 1, 1856 ("I see a pitch pine seed with its wing, far out on Walden.”); February 22, 1855 (“Pitch pine cones must be taken from the tree at the right season, else they will not open or “blossom” in a chamber.” ); February 27, 1853 (“ The expanding of the pine cones, that, too, is a season.”);March 6, 1853 ("Part of the pitch pine cones are yet closed.”) see also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Pitch Pine.
I see, in another place under a pitch pine, many cores of cones which the squirrels have completely stripped. See note to February 21, 1861 ("This plucking and stripping a pine cone is a business which he and his family understand perfectly. That is their forte."); February 28, 1858 ("I see twenty-four cones brought together under one pitch pine in a field, evidently gnawed off by a squirrel, but not opened.”); April 2, 1859 (" I find under one small pitch pine tree a heap of the cones which have been stripped of their scales, evidently by the red squirrels,. . . I counted two hundred and thirty-nine cones under this tree alone, . . .These had all been cut off by the squirrels and conveyed to this tree and there stripped and eaten.")
I found a cone apparently just opened, and I shake its seeds out. See February 1, 1856 ("I see a pitch pine seed, blown thirty rods from J. Hosmer’s little grove.”) March 1, 1856 ("I see a pitch pine seed with its wing, far out on Walden.”); February 22, 1855 (“Pitch pine cones must be taken from the tree at the right season, else they will not open or “blossom” in a chamber.” ); February 27, 1853 (“ The expanding of the pine cones, that, too, is a season.”);March 6, 1853 ("Part of the pitch pine cones are yet closed.”) see also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Pitch Pine.
I see, in another place under a pitch pine, many cores of cones which the squirrels have completely stripped. See note to February 21, 1861 ("This plucking and stripping a pine cone is a business which he and his family understand perfectly. That is their forte."); February 28, 1858 ("I see twenty-four cones brought together under one pitch pine in a field, evidently gnawed off by a squirrel, but not opened.”); April 2, 1859 (" I find under one small pitch pine tree a heap of the cones which have been stripped of their scales, evidently by the red squirrels,. . . I counted two hundred and thirty-nine cones under this tree alone, . . .These had all been cut off by the squirrels and conveyed to this tree and there stripped and eaten.")
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 3, 1857
The red maple sap, which I first noticed the 21st of February, is now frozen up. See note to February 21, 1857 ("Am surprised to see this afternoon a boy collecting red maple sap from some trees behind George Hubbard's.”)
There is no expanding of buds of any kind, nor early birds, to be seen. Compare March 5, 1852 ("As I sit under their boughs, looking into the sky, I suddenly see the myriad black dots of the expanded buds against the sky. Their sap is flowing.”)
Nature . . . anticipated her own revolutions.See April 18, 1852 ("Can I not by expectation affect the revolutions of nature, make a day to bring forth something new?")
Great organ-pipes of a ringed structure, which run together, buttressing the rock. See February 14, 1852 ("icicles . . .hang perpendicularly, like organ pipes . . . "); January 11, 1854 ("Now is the time to go out and see the ice organ-pipes.)
The red maple sap, which I first noticed the 21st of February, is now frozen up. See note to February 21, 1857 ("Am surprised to see this afternoon a boy collecting red maple sap from some trees behind George Hubbard's.”)
There is no expanding of buds of any kind, nor early birds, to be seen. Compare March 5, 1852 ("As I sit under their boughs, looking into the sky, I suddenly see the myriad black dots of the expanded buds against the sky. Their sap is flowing.”)
Nature . . . anticipated her own revolutions.See April 18, 1852 ("Can I not by expectation affect the revolutions of nature, make a day to bring forth something new?")
Great organ-pipes of a ringed structure, which run together, buttressing the rock. See February 14, 1852 ("icicles . . .hang perpendicularly, like organ pipes . . . "); January 11, 1854 ("Now is the time to go out and see the ice organ-pipes.)
H. D Thoreau, Journal, March 3, 1859:
Going to Acton this morning, I saw some sparrows on the wall, which I think must have been the F. hyemalis. See February 16, 1854 ("I have not seen F . hyemalis since last fall."): March 6, 1860 ("Going by Messer's, I hear the well-known note and see a flock of F. hyemalis flitting in a lively manner about trees, weeds, walls, and ground, by the roadside, showing their two white tail-feathers. They are more fearless than the song sparrow. These attract notice by their numbers and incessant twittering in a social manner. ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Dark-eyed Junco (Fringilla hyemalis)
I heard a faint rippling note and, looking up, saw about fifteen snow buntings sitting in the top of the oak. See March 2, 1858 (“See a large flock of snow buntings, the white birds of the winter, rejoicing in the snow”); February 27, 1858 ("I see a snow bunting, though it is pleasant and warm.”); February 1, 1857 ("Warm as it is, I see a large flock of snow buntings on the railroad causeway.”); January 6, 1856 ("While I am making a path to the pump, I hear hurried rippling notes of birds, look up, and see quite a flock of snow buntings coming to alight amid the currant-tops in the yard.”). Compare January 2, 1856"("They have come with this deeper snow and colder weather. ") See also A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Snow Bunting
Going to Acton this morning, I saw some sparrows on the wall, which I think must have been the F. hyemalis. See February 16, 1854 ("I have not seen F . hyemalis since last fall."): March 6, 1860 ("Going by Messer's, I hear the well-known note and see a flock of F. hyemalis flitting in a lively manner about trees, weeds, walls, and ground, by the roadside, showing their two white tail-feathers. They are more fearless than the song sparrow. These attract notice by their numbers and incessant twittering in a social manner. ") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Dark-eyed Junco (Fringilla hyemalis)
I heard a faint rippling note and, looking up, saw about fifteen snow buntings sitting in the top of the oak. See March 2, 1858 (“See a large flock of snow buntings, the white birds of the winter, rejoicing in the snow”); February 27, 1858 ("I see a snow bunting, though it is pleasant and warm.”); February 1, 1857 ("Warm as it is, I see a large flock of snow buntings on the railroad causeway.”); January 6, 1856 ("While I am making a path to the pump, I hear hurried rippling notes of birds, look up, and see quite a flock of snow buntings coming to alight amid the currant-tops in the yard.”). Compare January 2, 1856"("They have come with this deeper snow and colder weather. ") See also A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Snow Bunting
How imperceptibly the first springing takes place! See March 8, 1860 ("You cannot say that vegetation absolutely ceases at any season in this latitude; for there is grass in some warm exposures and in springy places, always growing more or less, and willow catkins expanding and peeping out a little further every warm day from the very beginning of winter, and the skunk cabbage buds being developed and actually flowering sometimes in the winter, and the sap flowing [in] the maples in midwinter in some days,. . .There is something of spring in all seasons. ")
The small reddish radical leaves of the dock, too, are observed flat on the moist ground as soon as the snow has melted there, as if they had grown beneath it. See February 22, 1855 (“You see fresh upright green radical leaves of some plants — the dock, probably water dock, for one — in and about water now the snow is gone there, as if they had grown all winter.”); March 10, 1853 (“The radical leaves of innumerable plants (as here [John Hosmer’s ditch] a dock in and near the water) are evidently affected by the spring influences”)
Talk about reading! On the evening of March 2, 1859 HDT had delivered “Autumn Tints” in Concord. “Father said there were constant spontaneous bursts of laughter and Mr. Thoreau was applauded,” wrote Ellen Tucker Emerson. See Thoreau's Lectures after Walden. 297
I should have launched my boat ere this if it had been ready. See March 16, 1860 ("As soon as I can get it painted and dried, I launch my boat and make my first voyage for the year up or down the stream, on that element from which I have been debarred for three months and a half.") See also March 15, 1854 ("Paint my boat."); March 8, 1855 ("This morning I got my boat out of the cellar and turned it up in the yard to let the seams open before I calk it."); March 9, 1855 ("Painted the bottom of my boat."); February 24, 1857 ("Get my boat out the cellar."); February 26, 1857 ("Paint the bottom of my boat"); March 16, 1859 ("Launch my boat and sail to Ball's Hill"); and A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Boat in. Boat out.
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 3, 1861:
It is an exceedingly warm and pleasant day. The snow is suddenly all gone except heels, and -- what is more remarkable -- the frost is generally out of the ground. See March 9, 1852 ("[T]he air excites me. When the frost comes out of the ground, there is a corresponding thawing of the man.”); compare March 30, 1852 (" Though the frost is nearly out of the ground, the winter has not broken up in me." )
Talk about reading! On the evening of March 2, 1859 HDT had delivered “Autumn Tints” in Concord. “Father said there were constant spontaneous bursts of laughter and Mr. Thoreau was applauded,” wrote Ellen Tucker Emerson. See Thoreau's Lectures after Walden. 297
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 3, 1860:
The first song sparrows are very inconspicuous and shy on the brown earth. See March 2, 1860 ("Looking up a narrow ditch in a meadow, I see a modest brown bird flit along it furtively, — the first song sparrow, -"); March 10, 1852 (" See a sparrow, perhaps a song sparrow, flitting amid the young oaks where the ground is covered with snow.") See also note to February 24, 1857 ("I am surprised to hear the strain of a song sparrow from the riverside. ") and A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,the Song Sparrow (Fringilla melodia)
C. says that Walden began to be hard to get on to the first of March. See March 7, 1855 ("It is now difficult getting on and off Walden.") See also Walden, Chapter 17 (Spring) ("This pond never breaks up so soon as the others in this neighborhood, on account both of its greater depth and its having no stream passing through it to melt or wear away the ice. It commonly opens about the first of April," [In Thoreau’s records, ice out occurred as early as March 15 and as late as April 18]); March 11, 1856 ("Cut a hole in the ice in the middle of Walden. It is just 24 1/4 inches thick,"); March 11, 1861 ("C. says that Walden is almost entirely open to-day, so that the lines on my map would not strike any ice, but that there is ice in the deep cove. It will be open then the 12th or 13th. This is earlier than I ever knew it to open.");… Walden, Chapter 17 (Spring) ("On the 13th of March, after I had heard the bluebird, song-sparrow, and red-wing, the ice was still nearly a foot thick. . . .. One year I went across the middle only five days before it disappeared entirely."); March 14, 1860 (" I am surprised to find Walden open. No sooner has the ice of Walden melted than the wind begins to play in dark ripples over the surface of the virgin water. Ice dissolved is the next moment as perfect water as if melted a million years") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Ice-out
C. says that Walden began to be hard to get on to the first of March. See March 7, 1855 ("It is now difficult getting on and off Walden.") See also Walden, Chapter 17 (Spring) ("This pond never breaks up so soon as the others in this neighborhood, on account both of its greater depth and its having no stream passing through it to melt or wear away the ice. It commonly opens about the first of April," [In Thoreau’s records, ice out occurred as early as March 15 and as late as April 18]); March 11, 1856 ("Cut a hole in the ice in the middle of Walden. It is just 24 1/4 inches thick,"); March 11, 1861 ("C. says that Walden is almost entirely open to-day, so that the lines on my map would not strike any ice, but that there is ice in the deep cove. It will be open then the 12th or 13th. This is earlier than I ever knew it to open.");… Walden, Chapter 17 (Spring) ("On the 13th of March, after I had heard the bluebird, song-sparrow, and red-wing, the ice was still nearly a foot thick. . . .. One year I went across the middle only five days before it disappeared entirely."); March 14, 1860 (" I am surprised to find Walden open. No sooner has the ice of Walden melted than the wind begins to play in dark ripples over the surface of the virgin water. Ice dissolved is the next moment as perfect water as if melted a million years") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Ice-out
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 3, 1861:
Fully blossomed cone,
winged black seeds half fill my hand
like tiny fishes.
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 © 2009-2019
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