1852 in Thoreau’s Journal:

The birches at a distance appear as a thin green veil—in their expanding leaves.

1856 in Thoreau’s Journal:

Either nature may be changed or man. Some animals, as frogs or musquash are fitted to live in the marsh.

Only a portion of the earth is habitable by man. Is the earth improving or deteriorating in this respect? Does it require to be improved by the hands of man or is man to live more naturally and so more safely?

in Thoreau’s Journal:

For some reason I now remember the autumn….We remember the autumn to best advantage in the spring—the finest aroma of it reaches us then.

1852 in Thoreau’s Journal:

The gray-misty looking deciduous woods now appear to inbosom the evergreens which before stood out distinct—

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in Thoreau’s Journal:

 A fresh scent blows up from the meadows, the river rapidly going down….I am most impressed by the rapidity of the changes within a week…Methinks the scent is a more primitive inquisition than the eye.— more oracular and trust-worthy.  When I criticize my own writing I go by the scent, as it were. The scent reveals of course what is concealed from the other senses— By it I detect earthiness.

 in Thoreau’s Journal:

It is pleasant when the road winds along the side of a hill with a thin fringe of wood through which to look into the low land—

It furnishes both shade & frame for your pictures as this corner road.

 in Thoreau’s Journal:

A really warm day. I perspire in my thick coat….The maple-tops show red with their blossoms against the higher trees….The red maples & elms now covered with full rich [color] are now on the whole the most common & obvious blossoms. 

It is their season, and they are worthy of it…Every part of the world is beautiful today—

 in Thoreau’s Journal:

The male flowers of the maple look yellowish scarlet.  looking up to the sky.

May 3, 2018

 in Thoreau’s Journal:

How cheering & glorious any landscape viewed from an eminence!  For every one has its horizon & sky. It is so easy to take wide views.

Snow on the mts.  The wood thrush reminds me of cool mt. springs & morning walks.

 in Thoreau’s Journal:

The handsome blood red lackered?—marks on the edge & under the edge of the painted-tortoises shell—like the marks on a waiter—concentric—few colors like it in nature. This tortoise too like the guttata painted on these parts of its shell and on legs & tail in this style—but throat bright yellow stripes.  Sternum dull Yellowish or buff. It hisses like the spotted— Tortoises everywhere coupling— Is the male the large & flatter with depressed sternum—  It so seems? There is  some regularity in the guttatas spots—generally a straight row on back. Some of the spots are orange some times on the head. 

May 1, 2018

 in Thoreau’s Journal:

The smell of our fresh meadows—from which the flood has in some measure receded—reminds me of the scent of salt marshes to which it corresponds.  A coarse grass is starting up all the greener & more luxuriant for the freshet—1 foot high.

 in Thoreau’s Journal:

The neatly & closely folded plaited leaves of the hellebore are rather handsome objects now— As you pull them apart they emit a slight marshy scent some what like the skunk cabbage—  They are tender—& dewy within—folded fan-like.

 in Thoreau’s Journal:

The may-flower on the point of blossoming— I think I may say that it will blossom to-morrow. The blossoms of this plant are remarkably concealed beneath the leaves—perhaps for protection— It is singularly unpretending—not seeking to exhibit or display its simple beauty.

It is the most delicate flower both to eye & to scent as yet— Its weather worn leaves do not adorn it. If it had fresh spring leaves it would be more famous & sought after.

in Thoreau’s Journal:

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In the most favorable locality you will find flowers earlier than the May goers will believe.

in Thoreau’s Journal:

What they call April weather—threatening rain notwithstanding the late long continued rains—  Pm.  Rambled amid the shrub oak hills beyond Haden’s. Lay on the dead grass in a cup-like hollow sprinkled with half dead low shrub oaks— As I lie flat looking close in among the roots of the grass I perceive that its endless ribbon has pushed up about one inch & is green to that extent—such is the length to which the spring has gone here—though when you stand up the green is not perceptible.  It is a dull rain dropping & threatening afternoon.— inclining to drowsiness—

I feel as if I could go to sleep under a hedge—

The landscape wears a subdued tone—quite soothing to the feelings—no glaring colors.

 in Thoreau’s Journal:

The may flower is well budded & ready to blossom but not yet out—nor the Andromeda—nor saxifrage—nor violet that I can find. I am surprised to find the cowslip in full bloom at 2nd Div meadow.  numerous flowers. Growing in the water is not comparatively so backward this year perhaps. Its heart or kidney shaped crenate green leaves which had not freshly grown when I was here before have suddenly pushed up. The snows soon melted on this meadow. The horse tail too is ready to flower. And what is the low regular red-leaved & red rooted plant in the meadow with the cowslip? Yet we walk over snow & ice a long distance in the road here.

in Thoreau’s Journal:

The lilac-buds have looked as forward as any for many weeks—

 in Thoreau’s Journal:

The conditions of the fields has been been steadily improving for walkers—

 in Thoreau’s Journal:

From Cliffs see much snow on the mts.  The Pine on Lee’s shore of the Pond seen against the light water this cloudy weather—from part way down the cliff is an agreeable object to me.

When the outline & texture of white pine is thus seen against the water or the sky it is an affecting sight.