The pollen of the pitch pine now beginning to cover the surface of the pond.

June 9.

Walden is still rising, though the rains have ceased and the river has fallen very much. 

I see the pollen of the pitch pine now beginning to cover the surface of the pond. Most of the pines at the north northwest end have none, and on some there is only one pollen-bearing flower. 

I saw a striped snake which the fire in the woods had killed, stiffened and partially blackened by the flames, with its body partly coiled up and raised from the ground, and its head still erect as if ready to dart out its tongue and strike its foe. No creature can exhibit more venom than a snake, even when it is not venomous, strictly speaking.

The fire ascended the oak trees very swiftly by the moss which fringed them.

The life in us is like the water in the river; it may rise this year higher than ever it was known to before and flood the uplands — even this may be the eventful year and drown out all our muskrats.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 9, 1850

I see the pollen of the pitch pine now beginning to cover the surface of the pond.  See June 1, 1853 (" A little of the pollen now along the shore of the still coves. The pitch pines near by have shed theirs."); June 14, 1854 ("Bacon says he has seen pitch pine pollen in a cloud going over a hill a mile off;"); June 18, 1860 ("I see in the southerly bays of Walden the pine pollen now washed up thickly . . . It has come quite across the pond from where the pines stand, full half a mile, probably washed across most of the way."); June 21, 1856 ("Much pine pollen is washed up on the northwest side of the pond. Must it not have come from pines at a distance? ); June 21, 1860 (" Having noticed the pine pollen washed up on the shore of three or four ponds in the woods lately. . . .The air must be full of this fine dust at this season, that it must be carried to great distances, and its presence might be detected remote from pines by examining the edges of bodies of water ... the lakes detect for us thus the presence of the pine pollen in the atmosphere. They are our pollinometers. ")

No creature can exhibit more venom than a snake, even when it is not venomous. See April 26, 1857 ("I have the same objection to killing a snake that I have to the killing of any other animal, yet the most humane man that I know never omits to kill one.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Striped Snake


June 9. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, June 9

Walden still rises

 though the rains have ceased and the 

river has fallen

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Walden still rises

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 © 2009-2024