The cold has stopped the clock.

February 7

The coldest night for a long, long time. People dreaded to go to bed. The ground cracked in the night as if a powder-mill had blown up, and the timbers of the house also. 

Sheets froze stiff about the faces.  My pail of water was frozen in the morning so that I could not break it. The latches are white with frost, and every nail-head in entries, etc., has a white cap. 

Thermometer at about 7.30 A. M. gone into the bulb, -19° at least. 

The cold has stopped the clock. 

Though this day is at length more moderate than yesterday, it has got more into the houses and barns. Yesterday, the 6th, will be remembered as the cold Tuesday. 

The old folks still refer to the Cold Friday, when they sat before great fires of wood four feet long, with a fence of blankets behind them, and water froze on the mantelpiece. But they say this is as cold as that was.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 7, 1855


The coldest night for a long, long time. .See February 6, 1855 ("They say it did not rise above -6° to-day."); January 9, 1856 ("Probably it has been below zero for the greater part of the day."); January 23, 1857 ("I may safely say that -5° has been the highest temperature to-day”); February 8, 1861 ("Coldest day yet ; – 22 ° at least ( all we can read ), at 8 A. M., and, ( so far ) as I can learn, not above -6 ° all day.") Compare February 7, 1857 ("Another warm day, the snow fast going off. . . . The thermometer was at 52° when I came out at 3 p.m."

Cold Friday...  See January 11, 1857 ("Mother remembers the Cold Friday very well. She lived in the house where I was born. The people in the kitchen — Jack Garrison, Esther, and a Hardy girl — drew up close to the fire, but the dishes which the Hardy girl was washing froze as fast as she washed them, close to the fire. They managed to keep warm in the parlor by their great fires.") According to Historic Storms of New England 180 "January 19, 1810, is the date of the famous day known in the annals of New England as "Cold Friday." It was said to have been the severest day experienced here from the first settlement of the country to that time.”

It snowed Monday and a little bit each day and it is snowing lightly now we get out our snowshoes for the first time since December and hike up to the view I get winded making my own trail The snow is very light it is dark by the time we get up there and we use headlamps to return via the Undercliff trail the snow reflected in the light is dazzling watching it fall you can see the six sided crystals And anywhere you look you can find them on the hemlocks the side of the trail on your parka etc. six sided flat crystals like a myriad of mirrors It is a lot easier going down than up the temperature may be 16 to 20° We pull ice and snow off the dogs and dry them when we get back fairly early 7 o’clock

Dazzling in the light 

a myriad of mirrors 

six sided crystals.

February 7, 2015 zphx

Cold Tuesday.

February 6

The coldest morning this winter. Our thermometer stands at -14° at 9 A.M.; others, we hear, at 6 A.M. stood at -18°, at Gorham, N. H., -30°. 

There are no loiterers in the street, and the wheels of wood wagons squeak as they have not for a long time, —actually shriek. Frostwork keeps its place on the window within three feet of the stove all day in my chamber. 

At 4 P.M. the thermometer is at -10°; at six it is at -14°. I was walking at five, and found it stinging cold. It stung the face. 

The setting sun no sooner leaves our west windows than a solid but beautiful crystallization coats them. A solid sparkling field in the midst of each pane, with broad, flowing sheaves surrounding it. 

It has been a very mild as well as open winter up to this. 

At 9 o’clock P.M., thermometer at -16°. They say it did not rise above -6° to-day.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, February 6, 1855

Frostwork keeps its place on the window within three feet of the stove all day in my chamber. See February 5, 1855 ("It was quite cold last evening, and I saw the scuttle window reflecting the lamp from a myriad brilliant points when I went up to bed."); February 7, 1855 (" The latches are white with frost, and every nail-head in entries, etc., has a white cap. Thermometer at about 7.30 A. M. gone into the bulb, -19° at least. The cold has stopped the clock.") See also December 28, 1859 ("In the morning the windows are like ground glass (covered with frost), and we cannot see out."); January 4, 1856 ("It is snapping cold this night (10 P. M.). I see the frost on the windows sparkle as I go through the passageway with a light ")'; February 17, 1860 ("Grows colder yet at evening, and frost forms on the windows.")

The wheels of wood wagons squeak as they have not for a long time, —actually shriek. See February 6, 1854 ("The thermometer goes down to 19 ° below zero, and our shoes squeak on the snow.")

The coldest morning . . .They say it did not rise above -6° to-day. See January 23, 1857 ("I may safely say that -5° has been the highest temperature to-day”); February 7, 1855 ("Yesterday, the 6th, will be remembered as the cold Tuesday. The old folks still refer to the Cold Friday, when they sat before great fires of wood four feet long, with a fence of blankets behind them, and water froze on the mantelpiece. But they say this is as cold as that was.")

February  6. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau,  February 6

The coldest morning –

all day well below zero,

frostwork on windows.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Cold Tuesday.

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 © 2009-2025

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-550206

Below Zero

frost condenses patterns

cold glass

poems of the night