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
Across the pond
beneath where the white stems of three birches diverge
at the point of a promontory next the water
I see two or three small maples
already scarlet.
The first thistle-down
floats on the smooth lake surface
full of reflections . . .
a delicate hint
of the approaching autumn
the ripening year.
A misty morning followed by a still, cloudy, misty day, through which has fallen a very little rain this forenoon already. September 1, 1854
Along river to E. Hosmer’s. A very little mizzling. September 1, 1854
I see a fine (reddish) topped grass in low lands, whitened like a thin veil with what it has caught of this dewy rain. It wets my feet much. September 1, 1854
Viewed from the hilltop, [Walden] reflects the color of the sky. Beyond the deep reflecting surface, near the shore, it is a vivid green. September 1, 1852
Paddling over it, I see large schools of perch only an inch long, yet easily distinguished by their transverse bars. September 1, 1852
High blackberries are still in their prime on Lee's Cliff. September 1, 1857
Excepting the vacciniums, now past prime and drying up, the cherries and elder berries are the two prevailing fruits now. September 1, 1859
The very dense clusters of the smilacina berries, finely purple-dotted on a pearly ground, are very interesting; also the smaller and similar clusters of the two-leaved convallaria. Many of the last and a few of the first are already turned red, clear semilucent red. They have a pleasant sweetish taste. September 1, 1856
The spikenard berries in the shade at Saw Mill have but just begun to turn. September 1, 1859
A few medeola berries ripe. September 1. 1856
Then there is the mottled fruit of the clustered Solomon's-seal. September 1, 1851
The Polygonatum biflorum with its row of bluish-green berries (the blue a bloom), pendulous from the axils of the recurved stem, apparently now in its prime. September 1, 1859
Smooth sumach probably hardly ripe yet generally. September 1, 1859
Smooth sumach probably hardly ripe yet generally. September 1, 1859
Red choke-berry ripe. September 1, 1859
Cohush berries appear now to be in their prime, and arum berries, and red choke-berries, which last further up in this swamp, with their peculiar glossy red and squarish form, are really very handsome. September 1, 1856
The fruit of the arum is the most remarkable that I see this afternoon, such its brilliancy, color, and form; perhaps in prime now. It is among the most easily detected now on the floor of the swamp, its bright- scarlet cone above the fallen and withered leaves . . . The scarlet fruit of the arum spots the swamp floor. September 1, 1859
The Cornus sericea berries are now in prime, of different shades of blue, lighter or darker, and bluish white. They are so abundant as to be a great ornament to our causeways and riverside. The white berried, too, is now in prime. September 1, 1854
The Viburnum dentatum berries are smaller and duller. September 1, 1854
The Viburnum Lentago are just fairly begun to have purple cheeks. September 1, 1854
The elder-berry cyme, held erect, is of very regular form, four principal divisions drooping toward each quarter around an upright central one. Are said to make a good dye. They fill your basket quickly, the cymes are so large and lie up so light. September 1, 1859
We had remarked on the general scarcity and silence of the birds, but when we came to the localities of these fruits, there again we found the berry-eating birds assembled, — young (?) orioles and bluebirds at the elder-berries. September 1, 1859
Now see many birds about E. Hubbard's elder hedge, — bobolinks, kingbirds, pigeon woodpeckers, — and not elsewhere. September 1, 1860
In the sprout-land behind Britton's Camp, I came to a small black cherry full of fruit, and then, for the first time for a long while, I see and hear cherry-birds — their shrill and fine seringo — and the note of robins, which of late are scarce. September 1, 1859
We sit near the tree and listen to the now unusual sounds of these birds . . . The cherry-birds and robins seem to know the locality of every wild cherry in the town. You are as sure to find them on them now, as bees and butterflies on the thistles. September 1, 1859
See how artfully the seed of a cherry is placed in order that a bird may be compelled to transport it. September 1, 1860
Cherries are especially birds' food, and . . . I shall think the birds have the best right to them. September 1, 1860
Now I notice a few faint-chipping sparrows, busily picking the seeds of weeds in the garden. September 1, 1854
Cistus flowers well out again in the old camp path, now nearly all grown up. I notice that the birches have sprung up in close, straight rows in the old ruts there. September 1, 1856
D. umbellatus, perhaps in prime or approaching it, but not much seen. September 1, 1856
The Aster Tradescanti is perhaps beginning to whiten the shores on moist banks. September 1, 1854
A. longifolius, hardly one seen yet September 1, 1856
Aster longifolius well out. September 1, 1858
Aster miser not long, but the leaves turned red. September 1, 1858
Solidago latifolia not out quite. . . I think it stands about thus with asters and golden- ods now . . . September 1, 1856
Solidago latifolia not out quite. . . I think it stands about thus with asters and golden- ods now . . . September 1, 1856
Ranunculus repens in bloom — as if begun again ? — at the violet wood-sorrel spring. September 1, 1858
The autumnal dandelion is a prevailing flower now, but since it shuts up in the afternoon it might not be known as common unless you were out in the morning or in a dark afternoon. Now, at 11 a. m., it makes quite a show, yet at 2 p. m. I do not notice it. September 1, 1859
That reach in the road this side Britton's Camp might be called Nabalus Road, they are so abundant there. Some of them are fully six feet high, — a singularly tall and slender plant. September 1, 1859
At Botrychium Swamp, Nabalus altissimus. Of twenty plants (all in shade) only one out. September 1, 1858
Johnswort, the large and common, is about done. September 1, 1853
The Hieracium Canadense is, methinks, the largest and handsomest flower of its genus, large as the fall dandelion; the paniculatum the most delicate. September 1, 1853
Saw a red squirrel cutting off white pine cones. He had strewn the ground with them, as yet untouched, under the tree. September 1, 1853
Green white pine cones are thrown down. An unusual quantity of these have been stripped for some time past, and I see the ground about the bases of the trees strewn with them. September 1, 1859
Find a glow-worm of the common kind. Of two men, Dr. Bartlett and Charles Bowen, neither had ever seen it! September 1, 1858
Now, also, bright-colored fungi of various colors on the swamp floor begin to compete with these fruits. I see a green one. September 1, 1859
We go admiring the pure and delicate tints of fungi on the surface of the damp swamp . . . There are many very beautiful lemon- yellow ones of various forms, some shaped like buttons, some becoming finely scalloped on the edge, some club-shaped and hollow, of the most delicate and rare but decided tints, contrasting well with the decaying leaves about them. There are others also pure white, others a wholesome red, others brown, and some even a light indigo-blue above and beneath and throughout. September 1, 1856
When colors come to be taught in the schools, as they should be, both the prism (or the rainbow) and these fungi should be used by way of illustration, and if the pupil does not learn colors, he may learn fungi, which perhaps is better. September 1, 1856
When colors come to be taught in the schools, as they should be, both the prism (or the rainbow) and these fungi should be used by way of illustration, and if the pupil does not learn colors, he may learn fungi, which perhaps is better. September 1, 1856
Even this rain or mizzling brings down many leaves of elms and willows, etc.,—the first, to notice, since the fall of the birches which began so long ago. September 1, 1854
This is a very warm and serene evening, and the surface of the pond is perfectly smooth except where the skaters dimple it, for at equal intervals they are scattered over its whole extent, and, looking west, they make a fine sparkle in the sun. September 1, 1852
Here and there is a thistle-down floating on its surface, which the fishes dart at, and dimple the water, -- 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 1, 1852
Across the pond, beneath where the white stems of three birches diverge, at the point of a promontory next the water, I see two or three small maples already scarlet. 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. These white faery vessels are annually wafted over the cope of their sky. Bethink thyself, O man, when the first thistle-down is in the air. Buoyantly it floated high in air over hills and fields all day, and now, weighed down with evening dews, perchance, it sinks gently to the surface of the lake. Nothing can stay the thistle-down, but with September winds it unfailingly sets sail. The irresistible revolution of time. It but comes down upon the sea in its ship, and is still perchance wafted to the shore with its delicate sails. The thistle-down is in the air. Tell me, is thy fruit also there? Dost thou approach maturity? September 1, 1852
*****
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Seen from a Hillside
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Water-bug (Gyrinus) and Skaters (Hydrometridae)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The White Pines
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Viburnum lentago (nannyberry)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Elder-berries
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Blackberries
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Blueberries
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Arum Berries
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Solomon's Seal
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Cucumber Root (medeola)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Thistles
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Hawkweeds (hieracium)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, St. Johns-wort (Hypericum)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Autumnal Dandelion
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Chipping Sparrow
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Cherry-bird (cedar waxwing)
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Eastern Kingbird
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Young Birdsv
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, September
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Serene as the Sky
*****
August 4. 1854 ("The autumnal dandelion is now more common.")
August 10, 1853 (“The Ranunculus repens numerously out about Britton's Spring.”)
August 19, 1854 ("Many white birches long since lost the greater part of their leaves, which cover the ground, sere and brown as in autumn.")
August 19, 1852 ("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 22, 1852 ("The arum berries are mostly devoured, apparently by birds. . ..Perhaps fruits are colored like the trillium berry and the scarlet thorn to attract birds to them.")
August 28, 1856 ("The bright china-colored blue berries of the Cornus sericea begin to show themselves along the river").
August 29, 1854 ("Many birds nowadays resort to the wild black cherry tree, as here front of Tarbell's. I see them continually coming and going directly from and to a great distance, — cherry birds, robins, and kingbirds ")
August 30, 1853 ("Why so many asters and goldenrods now? The sun has shone on the earth, and the goldenrod is his fruit. The stars, too, have shone on it, and the asters are their fruit.")
August 31, 1856 ("The Cornus sericea, with its berries just turning, is generally a dull purple now ")
August 31, 1856 ("The Cornus sericea, with its berries just turning, is generally a dull purple now ")
September 2, 1854 ("The autumnal dandelion is conspicuous on the shore.")
September 2, 1853 ("The dense oval bunches of arum berries now startle the walker in swamps. They are a brilliant vermilion on a rich ground")
September 2, 1853 ("The medeola berries are now dull glossy and almost blue-black; about three, on slender threads one inch long, arising in the midst of the cup formed by the purple bases of the whorl of three upper leaves.")
September 3, 1853 ("Now is the season for those comparatively rare but beautiful wild berries which are not food for man.. . .Berries which are as beautiful as flowers, but far less known, the fruit of the flower.")
September 4, 1856 ("Splendid scarlet arum berries there now in prime.”)
September 4, 1857 ("Arum berries ripe.”)
September 8, 1856 ("Along this path observed the Nabalus altissimus, flowers in a long panicle of axillary and terminal branches, small-flowered, now in prime.”)
September 13, 1856 ("Surprised at the profusion of autumnal dandelions in their prime on the top of the hill")
September 16, 1857("I see green and closed cones beneath, which the squirrels have thrown down.")
September 13, 1856 ("Surprised at the profusion of autumnal dandelions in their prime on the top of the hill")
September 16, 1857("I see green and closed cones beneath, which the squirrels have thrown down.")
September 24, 1856 ("Arum berries still fresh")
September 28, 1856 ("The arum berries are still fresh and abundant, perhaps in their prime. A large cluster is two and a half inches long by two wide and rather flattish. . . . These singular vermilion-colored berries, about a hundred of them, surmount a purple bag on a peduncle six or eight inches long.")
January 15, 1858 ("Dr. Durkee . . .has not seen the common glow-worm . . . Showed to Agassiz, Gould, and Jackson, and it was new to them.”)
September 1, 2019
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, September 1
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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