Thoreau's Journal: 2-Feb-1854This from Greg's The Blog of Henry David Thoreau
The scream of the jay is a true winter sound. It is wholly without sentiment, and in harmony with winter. I stole up within five or six feet of a pitch pine behind which a downy woodpecker was pecking. From time to time he hopped round to the side and observed me without fear. They are confident birds, not easily scared, but incline to keep the other side of the bough to you, perhaps.
Already we begin to anticipate spring, and this is an important difference between this time and a month ago. We begin to say that the day is springlike.
Is not January the hardest month to get through? When you have weathered that, you get into the gulfstream of winter, nearer the shores of Spring.
6 comments:
I don't know. Generally speaking, I'm no big fan of February. As it wears on, I find that I have had enough of winter, but there's still plenty to go.
Nice photo! As you know, I don't care much for winter. All the winter months seem long to me.
But AC - Have you not noticed the light that persists? And each blessed day the sun stays with us a bit longer.
Yes Laurie - WAAAY too long.
I'm hunkered down with a book, "In Siberia", by Colin Thubron. I'm almost shivering while reading it. It refers to George Steller, the German naturalist, who was buried above the Tura river. He died at age 37. This brilliant man found the Steller's jay. We have them in our back yard in the spring.
Yes, and Thoreau also wrote, "We too have our thaws. They come to our January moods, when our ice cracks, and our sluices break loose. Thought that was frozen up under stern experience gushes forth in feeling and expression. There is a freshet which carries away dams of accumulated ice..." Spring, Cathy! If not outdoors, then in our spirits!
Lovely photo. It is nice to see that January light, when broken down, still has the colorful radiance that the world has lost.
All my best wishes for you and your family in February.
Tim
Post a Comment