A severe winter persists.

March 9.

Thermometer at 2 P. M. 15°, sixteen inches of snow on a level in open fields, hard and dry, ice in Flint’s Pond two feet thick, and the aspect of the earth is that of the middle of January in a severe winter. Yet this is about the date that bluebirds arrive commonly.

A pail of water froze nearly half an inch thick in my chamber, with fire raked up. 

The train which should have got down last night did not arrive till this afternoon (Sunday), having stuck in a drift.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, March 9, 1856

This is about the date that bluebirds arrive commonly. See  March 9, 1852 (" I hear and see bluebirds, come with the warm wind.");   March 10, 1853 ("What was that sound that came on the softened air? It was the warble of the first bluebird from that scraggy apple orchard yonder. When this is heard, then has spring arrived."); March 7, 1854 ("Hear the first bluebird.");  March 9, 1859 (" C. says that he heard and saw a bluebird on the 7th, and R. W. E. the same. This was the day on which they were generally observed.");  March 10, 1856 ("A bluebird would look as much out of place now as the 10th of January. . . .It is hard to believe the records of previous years")

To Philadelphia

November 20.

7 A. M., to Boston; 9 A. M., Boston to New York, by express train, land route. Reached Canal Street at 5 P. M., or candle-light. Started for Philadelphia from foot of Liberty Street at 6 P. M., via Newark, etc., etc., Bordentown, etc., etc., Camden Ferry, to Philadelphia, all in the dark.  Arrive at 10 P.M.; time, four hours from New York, thirteen from Boston, fifteen from Concord.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, November 20, 1854

A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, November 20

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 ©  2009-2022