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
Wind from the northwest
bracing and encouraging
and now we can sail.
Northwesterly wind,
cool clear and elastic air.
First day of autumn.
August 19, 2017
The seasons do not cease a moment to revolve
and therefore Nature rests no longer
at her culminating point
than at any other.
The dog-day weather is suddenly gone and here is a cool, clear, and elastic air. You may say it is the first day of autumn. August 19, 1858
I see thistle-down, grayish-white, floating low quite across Fair Haven Pond. August 19, 1858.
The wind rises and the pasture thistle down is blown about. August 19, 1856.
After more rain, with wind in the night, it is now clearing up cool. There is a broad, clear crescent of blue in the west, slowly increasing, and an agreeable autumnal coolness.. . . and a considerable wind wafts us along with our one sail and two umbrellas. August 19, 1853
The wind comes from the northwest and is bracing and encouraging, and we can now sail up the stream. August 19, 1853
It is cool with a considerable northwesterly wind, so that we can sail to Fair Haven. August 19, 1858
I see thistle-down, grayish-white, floating low quite across Fair Haven Pond. August 19, 1858.
The wind rises and the pasture thistle down is blown about. August 19, 1856.
After more rain, with wind in the night, it is now clearing up cool. There is a broad, clear crescent of blue in the west, slowly increasing, and an agreeable autumnal coolness.. . . and a considerable wind wafts us along with our one sail and two umbrellas. August 19, 1853
The wind comes from the northwest and is bracing and encouraging, and we can now sail up the stream. August 19, 1853
It is cool with a considerable northwesterly wind, so that we can sail to Fair Haven. August 19, 1858
The sun comes out now about noon, when we are at Rice's, and the water sparkles in the clear air, and the pads reflect the sun. August 19, 1853
This is a world where there are flowers. August 19, 1851
Small rough sunflower by side of road between canoe birch and White Pond, — Helianthus divaricatus. August 19, 1851
Now for the pretty red capsules or pods of the Hypericum Canadense. August 19, 1851
I see Hypericum Canadense and mutilum abundantly open at 3 P. M. Apparently they did not bear the dry, hot weather of July so well. They are apparently now in prime, but the Sarothra is not open at this hour. The perforatum is quite scarce now, and apparently the corymbosum; the ellipticum quite done. The small hypericums have a peculiar smart, somewhat lemon-like fragrance, but bee-like. August 19, 1856
I spent my afternoon among the desmodiums and lespedezas, sociably. . . . All the lespedezas are apparently more open and delicate in the woods, and of a darker green, especially the violet ones. August 19, 1856
I feel an agreeable surprise as often as I come across a new locality for desmodiums. Rarely find one kind without one or two more species near, their great spreading panicles, yet delicate, open, and airy, occupying the August air. August 19, 1856
The fragrance of the clethra fills the air by water sides. August 19, 1851
I noticed the localities of black willows as far up as the mouth of the river in Fair Haven Pond, . . ., and from the last observations I infer that the willow grows especially and almost exclusively in places where the drift is most likely to lodge, as on capes and points and concave sides of the river. August 19, 1858
The Viburnum dentatum berries are now blue. August 19, 1852
What countless varieties of low blackberries! Here, in this open pine grove, I pluck some large fresh and very sweet ones when they are mostly gone without. So they are continued a little longer to us. August 19, 1856
The small fruits of most plants are now generally ripe or ripening, and this is coincident with the flying in flocks of such young birds now grown as feed on them. August 19, 1852
I meet the rain at the edge of the wood, and take refuge under the thickest leaves, where not a drop reaches me, and, at the end of half an hour, the renewed singing of the birds alone advertises me that the rain has ceased, and it is only the dripping from the leaves which I hear in the woods. August 9, 1851
The blue heron has within a week reappeared in our meadows, and the stake-driver begins to be seen oftener, and as early as the 5th I noticed young summer ducks about; the same of hawks, owls, etc. This occurs as soon as the young birds can take care of themselves, and some appear to be very early on the return southward, with the very earliest prospect of fall. Such birds are not only more abundant but, methinks, more at leisure now, having reared their family, and perhaps they are less shy. August 19, 1858
Blue herons, which have bred or been bred not far from us (plainly), are now at leisure, or are impelled to revisit our slow stream. August 19, 1858.
The goldfinch, though solitary, is now one of the commonest birds in the air. August 19. 1851.
Small rough sunflower by side of road between canoe birch and White Pond, — Helianthus divaricatus. August 19, 1851
Now for the pretty red capsules or pods of the Hypericum Canadense. August 19, 1851
I see Hypericum Canadense and mutilum abundantly open at 3 P. M. Apparently they did not bear the dry, hot weather of July so well. They are apparently now in prime, but the Sarothra is not open at this hour. The perforatum is quite scarce now, and apparently the corymbosum; the ellipticum quite done. The small hypericums have a peculiar smart, somewhat lemon-like fragrance, but bee-like. August 19, 1856
I spent my afternoon among the desmodiums and lespedezas, sociably. . . . All the lespedezas are apparently more open and delicate in the woods, and of a darker green, especially the violet ones. August 19, 1856
I feel an agreeable surprise as often as I come across a new locality for desmodiums. Rarely find one kind without one or two more species near, their great spreading panicles, yet delicate, open, and airy, occupying the August air. August 19, 1856
The fragrance of the clethra fills the air by water sides. August 19, 1851
I noticed the localities of black willows as far up as the mouth of the river in Fair Haven Pond, . . ., and from the last observations I infer that the willow grows especially and almost exclusively in places where the drift is most likely to lodge, as on capes and points and concave sides of the river. August 19, 1858
The Viburnum dentatum berries are now blue. August 19, 1852
What countless varieties of low blackberries! Here, in this open pine grove, I pluck some large fresh and very sweet ones when they are mostly gone without. So they are continued a little longer to us. August 19, 1856
The small fruits of most plants are now generally ripe or ripening, and this is coincident with the flying in flocks of such young birds now grown as feed on them. August 19, 1852
I meet the rain at the edge of the wood, and take refuge under the thickest leaves, where not a drop reaches me, and, at the end of half an hour, the renewed singing of the birds alone advertises me that the rain has ceased, and it is only the dripping from the leaves which I hear in the woods. August 9, 1851
The blue heron has within a week reappeared in our meadows, and the stake-driver begins to be seen oftener, and as early as the 5th I noticed young summer ducks about; the same of hawks, owls, etc. This occurs as soon as the young birds can take care of themselves, and some appear to be very early on the return southward, with the very earliest prospect of fall. Such birds are not only more abundant but, methinks, more at leisure now, having reared their family, and perhaps they are less shy. August 19, 1858
Blue herons, which have bred or been bred not far from us (plainly), are now at leisure, or are impelled to revisit our slow stream. August 19, 1858.
The goldfinch, though solitary, is now one of the commonest birds in the air. August 19. 1851.
Flocks of bobolinks go tinkling along about the low willows, and swallows twitter, and a kingbird hovers almost stationary in the air, a foot above the water. August 19, 1853
A great reddish-brown marsh hawk circling over the meadow there.
August 19, 1853
See painted tortoise shedding scales, half off and loose. August 19, 1855
A great reddish-brown marsh hawk circling over the meadow there.
August 19, 1853
See painted tortoise shedding scales, half off and loose. August 19, 1855
It is already fall in some of these shady, springy swamps, as at the Corner Spring. Here is a little brook of very cold spring-water, rising a few rods distant, sometimes running underground, meandering exceedingly, with a gray sandy and pebbly bottom, flowing through this dense swampy thicket. The sun falls in here and there between the leaves and shines on its bottom. The water has the coldness it acquired in the bowels of the earth. August 19, 1852
Here is a recess apparently never frequented. Thus this rill flowed here a thousand years ago, and with exactly these environments. August 19, 1852
For some days past I have noticed a red maple or two about the pond, though we have had no frost. August 19, 1851
There is such a haze we see not further than our Annursnack, which is blue as a mountain. August 19, 1854
The near meadow is very beautiful now, seen from the railroad through this dog-day haze, which softens its fresh green of so many various shades, blending them harmoniously, — darker and lighter patches of grass and the very light yellowish-green of the sensitive fern which the mowers have left. It has an indescribable beauty to my eye now, which it could not have in a clear day. August 19, 1854
As the rays of the sun fall horizontally across the placid pond, they light up the side of Baker's Pleasant Meadow Wood. The different shades of green of different and the same trees make a most glorious soft and harmonious picture, only to be seen at this season of the day and perhaps of the year. August 19, 1853
As toward the evening of the day the lakes and streams are smooth, so in the fall, the evening of the year, the waters are smoothed more perfectly than at any other season August, 19, 1853
The day is an epitome of the year. August, 19, 1853
Here is a recess apparently never frequented. Thus this rill flowed here a thousand years ago, and with exactly these environments. August 19, 1852
For some days past I have noticed a red maple or two about the pond, though we have had no frost. August 19, 1851
There is such a haze we see not further than our Annursnack, which is blue as a mountain. August 19, 1854
The near meadow is very beautiful now, seen from the railroad through this dog-day haze, which softens its fresh green of so many various shades, blending them harmoniously, — darker and lighter patches of grass and the very light yellowish-green of the sensitive fern which the mowers have left. It has an indescribable beauty to my eye now, which it could not have in a clear day. August 19, 1854
As the rays of the sun fall horizontally across the placid pond, they light up the side of Baker's Pleasant Meadow Wood. The different shades of green of different and the same trees make a most glorious soft and harmonious picture, only to be seen at this season of the day and perhaps of the year. August 19, 1853
As toward the evening of the day the lakes and streams are smooth, so in the fall, the evening of the year, the waters are smoothed more perfectly than at any other season August, 19, 1853
The day is an epitome of the year. August, 19, 1853
The seasons do not cease a moment to revolve, and therefore Nature rests no longer at her culminating point than at any other. If you are not out at the right instant, the summer may go by and you not see it. August 19, 1851
The poet must be continually watching the moods of his mind.
August 19, 1851
Walden, "Spring" ("The day is an epitome of the year. The night is the winter, the morning and evening are the spring and fall, and the noon is the summer.")
November 3, 1853 (“There are very few phenomena which can be described indifferently as occurring at different seasons of the year, for they will occur with some essential difference.”)
August 17, 1851 (" I see a solitary goldfinch now and then. ")
August 21, 1859 ("The blue herons must find it easy to get their living now. Are they not more common on our river such [drought] years as this?")
August 22, 1854 (“See a blue heron — apparently a young bird, of a brownish blue — fly up from one of these pools, and a stake-driver from another, and also see their great tracks on the mud, and the feathers they had shed, — some of the long, narrow white neck-feathers of the heron. The tracks of the heron are about six inches long.”)
The poet must be continually watching the moods of his mind.
August 19, 1851
 |
| August 19, 2015 |
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau:
August 19, 2013
November 3, 1853 (“There are very few phenomena which can be described indifferently as occurring at different seasons of the year, for they will occur with some essential difference.”)
March 18, 1853 ("This the foreglow of the year, when the walker goes home at eve to dream of summer”)
April 24, 1859 ("There is a season for everything, and we do not notice a given phenomenon except at that season, if, indeed, it can be called the same phenomenon at any other season.")
June 6, 1857 ("Each season is but an infinitesimal point.”)
June 6, 1857 ("Each experience reduces itself to a mood of the mind.")
June 25, 1852("There is a flower for every mood of the mind.")
June 6, 1857 ("Each season is but an infinitesimal point.”)
June 6, 1857 ("Each experience reduces itself to a mood of the mind.")
June 25, 1852("There is a flower for every mood of the mind.")
July 23, 1851 ("The mind is subject to moods, as the shadows of clouds pass over the earth")
July 26, 1854 ("The broods of birds just matured find thus plenty to eat.”)
July 26, 1854 ("The broods of birds just matured find thus plenty to eat.”)
July 27, 1853 ("This the afternoon of the year. How apt we are to be reminded of lateness, even before the year is half spent!")
August 6, 1856 (“Desmodium rotundifolium, some days at least.”);
August 7, 1856 (“At Blackberry Steep . . . D. rotundifoliumis there abundant;. . . as also at Heywood Peak. All these plants seem to love a dry open hillside, a steep one.”)
August 7, 1853 ("The objects I behold correspond to my mood.")
August 6, 1856 (“Desmodium rotundifolium, some days at least.”);
August 7, 1856 (“At Blackberry Steep . . . D. rotundifoliumis there abundant;. . . as also at Heywood Peak. All these plants seem to love a dry open hillside, a steep one.”)
August 7, 1853 ("The objects I behold correspond to my mood.")
August 12, 1856 (“The sarothra — as well as small hypericums generally — has a lemon scent.”)
August 12, 1860 ("The clethra is in prime")
August 12, 1860 ("The clethra is in prime")
August 12, 1853 ("See the blue herons opposite Fair Haven Hill, as if they had bred here.”)
August 13, 1854 ("Now the mountains are concealed by the dog-day haze ”)
August 13, 1858 ("The dullish-blue or lead-colored Viburnum dentatum berries are now seen, not long, overhanging the side of the river.")
August 13, 1854 ("Now the mountains are concealed by the dog-day haze ”)
August 13, 1858 ("The dullish-blue or lead-colored Viburnum dentatum berries are now seen, not long, overhanging the side of the river.")
August 14, 1852("Viburnum dentatum berries blue.")
August 14,1859 (" If you would know the depth of the water on these few shoalest places of Musketaquid, ask the blue heron that wades and fishes there")
August 15, 1852 (“See a blue heron on the meadow.”)
August 15, 1860 ("See a blue heron.”)
August 15, 1852 ("Some naked viburnum berries are quite dark purple amid the red, while other bunches are wholly green yet")
August 14,1859 (" If you would know the depth of the water on these few shoalest places of Musketaquid, ask the blue heron that wades and fishes there")
August 15, 1852 (“See a blue heron on the meadow.”)
August 15, 1860 ("See a blue heron.”)
August 15, 1852 ("Some naked viburnum berries are quite dark purple amid the red, while other bunches are wholly green yet")
August 16. 1858 ("A blue heron, with its great undulating wings, prominent cutwater, and leisurely flight, goes over southwest, cutting off the bend of the river west of our house.")
August 15, 1853 ("An inky darkness as of night under the edge of the woods, now at noonday heralding the evening of the year.”)
August 15, 1853 ("An inky darkness as of night under the edge of the woods, now at noonday heralding the evening of the year.”)
August 15, 1854 ("I see the goldfinch eating the seeds of the Canada thistle. I rarely approach a bed of them or other thistles nowadays but I hear the cool twitter of the goldfinch about it.")
August 15, 1859 ("Hypericum Canadense, Canadian St. John's-wort, distinguished by its red capsules.")
August 17, 1856 ("Hypericum Canadense well out at 2 p. m.")
August 17, 1851 ("The lead-colored berries of the Viburnum dentatum now.")
August 17, 1851 (" I see a goldfinch go twittering through the still, louring day, and am reminded of the peeping flocks which will soon herald the thoughtful season.")August 17, 1851 (" I see a solitary goldfinch now and then. ")
August 18, 1853 ("The night of the year is approaching.”)
August 21, 1859 ("The blue herons must find it easy to get their living now. Are they not more common on our river such [drought] years as this?")
August 22, 1854 (“See a blue heron — apparently a young bird, of a brownish blue — fly up from one of these pools, and a stake-driver from another, and also see their great tracks on the mud, and the feathers they had shed, — some of the long, narrow white neck-feathers of the heron. The tracks of the heron are about six inches long.”)
August 23, 1853 ("I am again struck by the perfect correspondence of a day — say an August day — and the year. I think that a perfect parallel may be drawn between the seasons of the day and of the year.”)
August 23, 1858 ("There is no plateau on which Nature rests at midsummer, but she instantly commences the descent to winter.")
August 24, 1854 (“See a blue heron standing on the meadow at Fair Haven Pond. At a distance before you, only the two waving lines appear, and you would not suspect the long neck and legs.”)
August 25, 1856 ("Why is the black willow so strictly confined to the bank of the river? ")
August 26, 1856 (“A blue heron sails away from a pine at Holden Swamp shore and alights on the meadow above.”)
August 26, 1856 (“The desmodium flowers are pure purple, rose-purple in the morning when quite fresh, excepting the two green spots. The D. rotundifolium also has the two green (or in its case greenish) spots on its very large flower. . . . The round-leafed desmodium has sometimes seven pods and large flowers still fresh”)
August 26, 1856 (“A blue heron sails away from a pine at Holden Swamp shore and alights on the meadow above.”)
August 26, 1856 (“The desmodium flowers are pure purple, rose-purple in the morning when quite fresh, excepting the two green spots. The D. rotundifolium also has the two green (or in its case greenish) spots on its very large flower. . . . The round-leafed desmodium has sometimes seven pods and large flowers still fresh”)
August 27, 1859 ("Perfectly fresh and large low blackberries, peculiarly sweet and soft, in the shade of the pines at Thrush Alley,-- so much sweeter, tenderer, and larger.")
August 28, 1856 (“low blackberries done, high blackberries still to be had.”)
August 28, 1856 ("A goldfinch twitters away from every thistle now, and soon returns to it when I am past. I see the ground strewn with the thistle-down they have scattered on every side")
August 28, 1856 (“low blackberries done, high blackberries still to be had.”)
August 28, 1856 ("A goldfinch twitters away from every thistle now, and soon returns to it when I am past. I see the ground strewn with the thistle-down they have scattered on every side")
August 30, 1856 ("The sarothra is now apparently in prime on the Great Fields, and comes near being open now, at 3 p. m. Bruised, it has the fragrance of sorrel and lemon, rather pungent or stinging, like a bee.”)
August 31, 1856 ("A painted tortoise shedding its scales")
August 31, 1852 ("The evening of the year is colored like the sunset.")
September 1, 1852 ("A delicate hint of approaching autumn, when the first thistle-down descends on some smooth lake's surface, full of reflections, in the woods, sign to the fishes of the ripening year.”)
September 24, 1859 ("I would know when in the year to expect certain thoughts and moods")
August 31, 1852 ("The evening of the year is colored like the sunset.")
September 1, 1852 ("A delicate hint of approaching autumn, when the first thistle-down descends on some smooth lake's surface, full of reflections, in the woods, sign to the fishes of the ripening year.”)
September 24, 1859 ("I would know when in the year to expect certain thoughts and moods")
August 19, 2016
If you make the least correct
observation of nature this year,
you will have occasion to repeat it
with illustrations the next,
and the season and life itself is prolonged.
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, August 19
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 © 2009-2022
tinyurl.com/HDT19August
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