ZtonePhruit: A Book of the Seasons: February 18 (Walden ice, snow, midwinter / signs of spring, February moods)

Friday, February 18, 2022

A Book of the Seasons: February 18 (Walden ice, snow, midwinter / signs of spring, February moods)

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

February 18

The ground bare of snow

gathering nuts and apples

colors red and green.

February 18, 1851

Mosses on the rocks

look green where snow has melted--

one of the spring signs.

February 18, 1852

It is so warm that

I walk over the hill and

listen for spring birds.

February 18, 1857

A cloud in the west

can change the whole character

of the afternoon.

February 18, 1860

A snow-storm composed

of granulated masses –

not in flakes at all.

February 18, 1860

February 18, 2014

Yesterday’s snow drifting. No cars from above or below till 1 P.M. February 18, 1856

I find Walden ice to be nine and a half plus inches thick, having gained three and a half inches since the 8th. . . . I see the ice, three inches thick, heaved up tentwise eighteen inches or more in height, near the shore. February 18, 1858

A snow-storm, falling all day; wind northeast. The snow is fine and drives low; is composed of granulated masses one sixteenth to one twentieth of an inch in diameter. February 18, 1860

All February thus far have been alternate thaw and freeze and snow. . . . It does not take so much fuel to keep us warm of late. I begin to think that my wood will last. February 18, 1854

Pleasant day with a strong south wind. February 18, 1851

Gather nuts and apples on the bare ground, still sound and preserving their colors, red and green. February 18, 1851

Skate, though the ice is soft in spots.February 18, 1851

See the skunk-cabbage in flower. February 18, 1851

The mosses on the rocks look green where the snow has melted. This must be one of the spring signs, when spring comes. February 18, 1852

The curls of the yellow birch bark form more or less parallel straight lines up and down on all sides of the tree, like parted hair blown aside by the wind, or as when a vest bursts and blows open. February 18, 1854

February 18, 2013

Ground nearly bare of snow. February 18, 1851

Now for the ﬁrst time decidedly there is something spring-suggesting in the air and light. Though not particularly warm, the light of the sun (now travelling so much higher) on the russet ﬁelds, —the ground being nearly all bare, —and on the sand and the pines, is suddenly yellower. It is the earliest day-breaking of the year. February 18, 1855

I listen ever for something springlike in the notes of birds, some peculiar tinkling notes. February 18, 1855

The snow is nearly all gone, and it is so warm and springlike that I walk over to the hill, listening for spring birds. February 18, 1857

I am excited by this wonderful air and go listening for the note of the bluebird or other comer. The very grain of the air seems to have undergone a change and is ready to split into the form of the bluebird's warble. February 18, 1857

When I step out into the yard I hear that earliest spring note from some bird, perhaps a pigeon woodpecker (or can it be a nuthatch, whose ordinary note I hear?), the rapid whar whar, whar whar, whar whar, which I have so often heard before any other note. February 18, 1857

I hear that geese went over Cambridge last night. February 18, 1857

Sometimes, when I go forth at 2 P.M. there is scarcely a cloud in the sky, but soon one will appear in the west and steadily advance and expand itself, and so change the whole character of the afternoon and of my thoughts. February 18, 1860

*****