Feb. 15, 1855 - All day a steady, warm, imprisoning rain carrying off the snow, not unmusical on my roof. It is a rare time for the student and reader who cannot go abroad in the afternoon, provided he can keep awake, for we are wont to be drowsy as cats in such weather. Without, it is not walking but wading. It is so long since I have heard it that the steady, soaking, rushing sound of the rain on the shingles is musical. The fire needs no replenishing, and we save our fuel. It seems like a distant forerunner of spring -- Henry D. Thoreau

Journal of a Sabbatical

February 15, 1999

a distant forerunner of spring

February 15

Riverside Park - Haverhill
16 common goldenye
2 mallards 

West Newbury
103 Canada geese
46 mallards
1 northern mockingbird
2 common mergansers
6 ring billed gulls
1 common goldeneye
1 common merganser

Salisbury Beach
hordes of common eiders
5 seals
2 Coast Guard boats

Chain Bridge
1 great black backed gull
hordes of mallards
2 common goldeneye

Yesterday's chill didn't last long. It's another exquisite spring day and there is no way I am going to stay indoors for anything. Another tour de Merrimack and another visit to the Chain Bridge are in order. No bald eagles today, but plenty of goldeneye, mallards, geese, etc.

I got a late start on the tour de Merrimack because I couldn't go without my coffee, and I ran into Tom at Starbucks. We chatted for about an hour or so - no worries about the parking meters because of the holiday. We talked a lot about Thoreau. Tom's a bit of an Emerson scholar too. BTW, I finally found that botanical index to Thoreau's journal I mentioned and with the help of that and my trusty Field Guide to New England, found out that pigweed is what I've always heard called lamb's quarters. Anyway, I was telling Tom about the seasonal edition of Thoreau's journal and he thought I should look for the other seasons. I think Winter may be the only one still around, though.

As is often the case, we got onto the subject of Ned - in particular the California show biz Ned vs. the East Coast Ned we know and love. Tom and Julie watched Dick Tracy on tv last night and spotted Ned (he played a radio announcer - and Madonna sings one of his songs). So that's how the subject came up. But what we both got a kick out of is that a group of Andover school kids were asked to name their most admired adults and one kid named Ned. Ned does song writing workshops with the kids at the congregation and he volunteers at the school library, so it's not totally off the wall that some kid would admire him, but the kid specifically mentioned his performance in Dick Tracy. Guess I gotta go rent Dick Tracy one of these days. All this talk about Ned did not cause him to materialize this time 'cuz they're in Florida for school vacation week. Apparently Tom's powers to make Ned appear don't extend across state lines.

After all this I only had a few hours of light left but made the most of it. I sat to finish a coffee from Perfecto's at Riverside Park and watched common goldeneye doing their acrobatic mating display. I still can't get over how the males can stretch their necks like that. They look like contortionists from a bizarre circus. They sure know spring is just around the corner.

I spent a long time at the Chain Bridge at the end of my expedition, looking at the fading afternoon light on the huge trees. There weren't a whole lot of birds around so I could really take in the giant twisted shapes of the old dead trees (ghosts of trees?) and the immensity of the living pine trees. I tromped around in the salt marsh a little and got my shoes kinda muddy, but I really took in the beauty of the place. It's one of those places that time stands still even within ear shot of rush hour traffic. By the time the sun set over the bridge, I felt satisfied that I'd used the last nice day productively.