The maple-tops begin to look red now with the growing keys

May 6. 

May 6 2017

P. M. – To Nut Meadow Brook and Corner Spring.

Choice plum in gardens.

The Salix alba is conspicuous and interesting in the landscape now, some bright yellow, truly golden (staminate?), some greenish, filling the air of causeways with a sweet scent.

The whole landscape is many shades greener for the rain, almost a blue green.

The leafing of the trees has commenced, and the forms of some, accordingly, begin to be defined.

Some, however, like the large maples, elms, etc., look heavy and are defined by their samaræ and not yet by their leaves, which are not comparatively forward.

I perceive the strong odor of horse-mint, rising dark above the brooks.

Hear the loud echoing note of the peet-weet-weet-weet-weet.

Viola cucullata at John Hosmer's ditch by Clamshell Hill.

Four large robin's eggs in an apple tree.

A ground-bird's nest with eggs.

Equisetum sylvaticum in front of Hosmer's Gorge.

I have seen no ducks since I returned from Haverhill on the 29th April.

There are pretty large leaves on the young red maples (which have no flowers), disposed crosswise, as well as on the sugar maple, but not so with larger flowering maples.

The maple-tops begin to look red now with the growing keys, at a distance, — crescents of red.

Uvularia sessilifolia just begun.

Common knawel, apparently for some time, though Bigelow says July (?).

Those long spear-shaped buds of the viburnum have expanded into dark but handsome leaves rather early; probably Viburnum nudum.

As I walk through the village at evening, when the air is still damp after the rainy morning, I perceive and am exhilarated by the sweet scent of expanding leaves.

The woods are beginning to be in the gray now; leaves and flower- buds generally expanding, covered with a mealy or downy web (which now reminds me of those plants like gnaphalium, swathed in cotton), a clean dirt, which whitens the coat of the walker.


H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 6, 1853

There are pretty large leaves on the young red maples.The maple-tops begin to look red now with the growing keys. See May 9, 1855 ("A large red maple just begun to leaf - its keys an inch and a half long.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, The Red Maple

Those long spear-shaped buds of the viburnum have expanded into dark but handsome leaves rather early. See April 30, 1859 ("The viburnum buds are so large and long, like a spear-head, that they are conspicuous the moment their two leafets diverge and they are lit up by the sun. They unfold their wings like insects and arriving warblers.")

Four large robin's eggs in an apple tree. See May 6. 1855 (''A robin’s nest with two eggs, betrayed by peeping.") See also A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Robins in
Spring

I perceive and am exhilarated by the sweet scent of expanding leaves. See May 16, 1854 ("A sweet scent fills the air from the expanding leafets. The earth is all fragrant as one flower."); May 18, 1851 ("There is a peculiar freshness about the landscape; you scent the fragrance of new leaves,")

Devil's-needles hovering with rustling wing

June 23

Sultry  dogdayish weather, with moist mists or low clouds hanging about, the first of this kind we have had . . . a fresh, cool moisture and a suffocating heat are strangely mingled

Devil's-needles of various kinds abundant, now perhaps as much as ever. Some smaller ones a brilliant green with black wings. 

At Apple-Hollow Pond, the heart-leaf grows in small solid circles from a centre, now white with its small delicate flowers somewhat like minute water-lilies. Here are thousands of devil's-needles of all sizes hovering over the surface of this shallow pond in the woods, in pursuit of one another and their prey, and from time to tune alighting on the bushes around the shore, - I hear the rustling of their wings, - while swallows are darting about in a similar manner twenty feet higher.

There is another small, shallow Heart-leaf Pond, west of White, which countless devil's-needles are hovering over with rustling wing, and swallows and pewees no doubt are on hand. 

That very handsome cove in White Pond at the south end, surrounded by woods. Looking down on it through the woods in middle of this sultry dogdayish afternoon, the water is a misty bluish-green. 

I every year, as to-day, observe the sweet, refreshing fragrance of the swamp-pink, when threading the woods and swamps in hot weather. It is positively cool. Now in its prime. 

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 23, 1853

Devil's-needles of various kinds abundant, . . .thousands of devil's-needles of all sizes hovering over the surface of this shallow pond in the woods,. . . - I hear the rustling of their wings. . . See June 19, 1860 ("The devil's-needles now abound in wood-paths and about the Ripple Lakes. Even if your eyes were shut you would know they were there, hearing the rustling of their wings as they flit by in pursuit of one another.") See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau,, the Devil's-needle.

In middle of this sultry dogdayish afternoon, the water is a misty bluish-green. See January 24, 1852 ("Walden and White Ponds are a vitreous greenish blue, like patches of the winter sky seen in the west before sundown.")

June 23. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, June 23

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Devil's-needles hovering with rustling wing

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

After leaf-out. Another season of spring.

May 25.

May 25, 2013

Steady fisherman's rain, without wind, straight down, flooding the ground and spattering on it, beating off the apple blossoms.

Within the last week or so the grass and leaves have grown many shades darker, and if we had leaped from last Wednesday to this, we should have been startled by the change - the dark bluish green of rank grass especially. 

How rapidly the young twigs shoot - the herbs, trees, shrubs no sooner leaf out than they shoot forward surprisingly, as if they had acquired a head by being repressed so long. They do not grow nearly so rapidly at any other season. 

Many do most of their growing for the year in a week or two at this season. They shoot - they spring - and the rest of the Year they harden and mature, and perhaps have a second spring in the latter part of summer or in the fall.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, May 25, 1853

Within the last week or so the grass and leaves have grown many shades darker. See May 25, 1860 ("The earth wears a new and greener vest.")

Many do most of their growing for the year in a week or two at this season. They shoot See.May 15, 1859 ("Very properly these are called shoots. This plant has, perhaps, in four or five days accomplished one fourth part its whole summer's growth.")