A Book of the Seasons, Signs of the Spring: The New Warmth of the Sun

No mortal is alert enough to be present at the first dawn of the spring. 

Henry Thoreau, March 17, 1857

 Perhaps what most moves us in winter 

is some reminiscence of far-off summer . . .  

It is in the cawing of the crow, the crowing of the cock, 

the warmth of the sun on our backs. 

Henry Thoreau

January 12, 1855

March 18,  2019

Sun now warm and bright

the walker goes home at eve 

to dream of summer.

March 18, 1853

January 31.  The wind is more southerly, and now the warmth of the sun prevails, and is felt on the back. The snow softens and melts. It is a beautiful clear and mild winter day. January 31, 1854

February 16.  The sun is most pleasantly warm on my cheek; the melting snow shines in the ruts; the cocks crow more than usual in barns; my greatcoat is an incumbrance. February 16, 1856

February 21. A warmth begins to be reflected from the partially dried ground here and there in the sun in sheltered places, very cheering to invalids who have weak lungs, who think they may weather it till summer now. Nature is more genial to them. February 21, 1855

February 23.   I have seen signs of the spring.  February 23, 1857

March 1. The sunlight looks and feels warm, and a fine vapor fills the lower atmosphere. I hear the phoebe or spring note of the chickadee, and the scream of the jay is perfectly repeated by the echo from a neighboring wood.  March 1, 1854

March 1.  The dusty banks of snow by the railroad reflect a wonderfully dazzling white due to the higher sun. March 1, 1855

March 4. The sun has got a new power in his rays after all, cold as the weather is. He could not have warmed me so much a month ago.March 4, 1852

March 8. There is something of spring in all seasons . . .Nowadays we separate the warmth of the sun from the cold of the wind and observe that the cold does not pervade all places, but being due to strong northwest winds, if we get into some sunny and sheltered nook where they do not penetrate, we quite forget how cold it is elsewhere.  March 8, 1860

March 15. This afternoon I throw off my outside coat. A mild spring day.  The air is full of bluebirds. . . . The villagers are out in the sun, and every man is happy whose work takes him outdoors.  March 15, 1852

March 15.  Notwithstanding this day is so cold that I keep my ears covered, the sidewalks melt in the sun, such is its altitude.  March 15, 1853

March 18. The season is so far advanced that the sun affects me as I have not been affected for a long time. I must go forth . . . All nature is thus forward to move with the revolution of the seasons . . . This the foreglow of the year, when the walker goes home at eve to dream of summer.  March 18, 1853

March 18.  Two little water-bugs . . . Notwithstanding the backwardness of the season, all the town still under deep snow and ice, here they are, in the first open and smooth water, governed by the altitude of the sun.  March 18, 1856

March 18.  My spirit is like a lit tree . . . Is it not the higher sun, and cleansed air, and greater animation of nature? There is a warmer red to the leaves of the shrub oak, and to the tail of the hawk circling over them. March 18, 1858

March 18. Examining the skunk-cabbage , now generally and abundantly in bloom . . . I hear the hum of honeybees  in the air, attracted by this flower . . . The first sunny and warmer day in March the honeybee leaves its home, probably a mile off, and wings its way to this warm bank. There is but one flower in bloom in the town, and this insect knows where to find it . . . No doubt this flower, too, has learned to expect its winged visitor knocking at its door in the spring. March 18, 1860

March 22.  The phenomena of an average March are increasing warmth . . .some calm and pleasant days reminding us of summer, with a blue haze or a thicker mist wreathing the woods at last, in which, perchance, we take off our coats awhile and sit without a fire a day. March 22, 1860

*****

See also Signs of the Spring:

• A Change in the Air
• A Sunny Nook in Spring
• Alder and Willow Catkins Expanding
• Braided Ripples of Melting Snow Shine in the Ruts
• Bright Blue Water
• Buzzing Flies
• Ducks Afar, Sailing on the Meadow
• Frogs, and Turtles Stirring
• Greening Grasses and Sedges
• Insects and Worms Come Forth and are Active
• Listening for the Bluebird
• March is famous for its Winds
• Mosses Bright Green
• Perla-like Insects Appear
• Red Maple Sap Flows
• Ripples made by Fishes
• Skunks Active
• The Anxious Peep of the Early Robin
• The Crowing of Cocks, the Cawing of Crows
• The Days have grown Sensibly Longer
• The Gobbling of Turkeys
• The Grackle Arrives
• The Hawks of March
• The Note of the Dark-eyed Junco Going Northward
• The Red-Wing Arrives
• The Skunk Cabbage Blooms
• The Softened Air of these Warm February Days
• The Song Sparrow Sings
• The Spring Note of the Chickadee
• The Spring Note of the Nuthatch
• The Striped Squirrel Comes Out
• The Water Bug (Gyrinus)
• Walking without Gloves
• Woodpeckers Tapping

 

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A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau,  Signs of the Spring: 

the new warmth of the sun 

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

tinyurl.com/HDTnewwarmth