we prize any tenderness

Cats are skilled at finding warm places. Here Aji nests on moth-eaten sweaters tossed aside temporarily, (they now serve as yet another cat bed).

It's been bitter cold and icy for so long that I can't remember the last time I took a walk for pleasure. But there is bright sun today and so I will venture out, "go forth in winter" for a stroll before tomorrow's storm.

"If you are sick and despairing, go forth in winter and see the red alder catkins dangling at the extremity of the twigs all in the wintry air, like long, hard mulberries, promising a new spring and the fulfillment of all our hopes. We prize any tenderness, any softening in the winter, catkins, birds nests, insect life, etc."

 --Thoreau

I especially love the last sentence.

If you're wondering (like I was) what a red alder catkin is, see here.

irony abounds

I made a new etsy treasury, Wandering with Thoreau, (here). Thoreau via objects for sale. Is that weird? I'm sure he would think so. Of course the Thoreau Society store has a t-shirt bearing the quote "beware all enterprises requiring new clothes" as well as keychains, mugs, etc. commemorating the man known for "Simplify, simplify". 

When I visited Walden Pond I was moved to buy the "In Wilderness is the Preservation of the World" bumper sticker, but I can't bring myself to put it on my car. 

Source: etsy.com via country on Pinterest

Thoreau's cabin

I wrote about Thoreau's cabin in the early days of this blog. Rather than repeat, you can see that post here, and this post will focus on the site. When I visited Walden Pond last week (here) I saw the site of the original cabin. It's on a slope above the pond. Thoreau, grieving from the loss of his brother, decided he wanted to live a simple life in the woods and write a book. He was 27 when he built the cabin (in 1845) on land owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson.

This is the view today from the cabin site. He wrote his first book, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers while living there, as well as the first draft of Walden, his most well-known book.

 Stones mark where the cabin was originally thought to be, though later study sited it a short distance away. It was solitary, but not remote. He often walked into the village of Concord (less than 2 miles away) to visit friends and family.

I love these little sculptures built by visitors. 

They make me think of Scottish cairns. 

There are some in the water too. I saw a couple of teenage girls working on this one.

Thoreau studied nature closely, and started writing his journals while living at the cabin. The journals, which he wrote for the rest of his life, are filled with detailed observations of nature, and are used by scientists today. (See here.) It is said that he built the cabin to find a home and to find himself. It seems that he did both.

The cabin has inspired many people to build reproductions. You can see Thoreau's original list of building materials here. This company will build one for you, or sell you a kit so you can do it yourself. 

By the time I completed my walk around Walden Pond, I decided I need to build a little cabin in the Catskills. I think that will remain a fantasy. If you have small cabin fantasies you will enjoy this site. 

Jen

on Walden Pond

Walden Pond was larger than I expected--at 62 acres it looks like a lake. I walked the path that loops around it.

 A beach for families.

 A few kayakers.

Many semi-secluded areas where stone steps lead directly into the pond. Shirts and hats hang from branches, scattered books and shoes...a mother swims with her daughters at one, a pair of teenage girls at another, an elderly man, four guys with beer...each enjoying a secret place.

Swimming and floating and drifting...

I will write another time about Thoreau and his cabin, which is what I expected Walden Pond to be all about. What I found felt remote, serene, personal--like a lake in Maine or northern Vermont, though it is just a short distance from Boston.

Opal's garden

Thinking about the donkey Shelley wrote about here. She wants to be her fairy godmother (my words--she uses the more practical "sponsor") but is running into defensive small town bureaucrats (my words).

I have a free afternoon and am going to visit Walden Pond. Thoreau keeps coming into my life. I wrote about him here and here. I am embarrassed to say that I've tried to avoid him--too popular! too obvious! he's on coffee mugs and t-shirts! Reminds me of when I started college and thought I didn't need to take literature classes because I'd already read the books. Which reminds me of something Thoreau wrote:

The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or perchance a palace or temple on the earth, and at length the middle-aged man concludes to build a wood-shed with them.

And now I have a wood-shed to work on. I'll report back soon.

Jen

cottage pine furniture & Little Women

I got this dresser at auction a while back and finally took it to the store. It was hand built, probably around 1830, and the paint is original.

I love the little mountain scenes. 

There's a bed too:

Last winter I visited Orchard House, the home of the Alcott Family (Louisa May being the most famous).  They were a fascinating family--transcendentalists, progressive educators, artists, writers, vegetarians, friends of Emerson and Thoreau... The youngest daughter, May (Amy in Little Women) was a talented and accomplished artist; she did some wonderful drawings right on the walls--that's the kind of parents she had. Anyway, May had a bedroom set of cottage pine furniture similar to this. I loved the whole house; it's simple and comfortable. I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but it's a house that sheltered a family who read and laughed and told stories and put on plays and drew on the walls. I hope this dresser and bed go to a family like that.

wildflowers and walking

I know I've told you that most of our property in the Catskills is wooded ( here and here) and shady. But we do have a few sunny spots and the wildflowers were abundant last weekend.

I take a walk every morning before I go to the store, and every evening when I return. Nature is so restorative. Thoreau wrote a marvelous essay called Walking in 1862. I wrote a little bit about Thoreau here and quoted from Walking. Rather than repeat the same quote, here's a different passage (a bit lengthy, but worth it):

"I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least---and it is customarily more than that---sauntering through the woods ...When sometimes I am reminded that the mechanics and shopkeepers stay in their shops not only all the forenoon, but all the afternoon too, siting with crossed legs, so many of them---as if legs were made to sit upon, and not to stand or walk upon,---I think that they deserve some credit for not having all committed suicide long ago."


And how do you like this little pink chest? I put it in the store storage closet and filled the drawers with tacks, nails, picture hangers, etc. So much nicer than the plastic cups I was using.

sauntering and rambling

 

Thoreau's cabin on Walden Pond measured 10' x 15' and cost $28.12 to build. He lived there for two years, two weeks, and two days. 

It was furnished with a bed, a table, a small desk and lamp, and three chairs — “one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.”

The above are reproductions of the cabin that you can visit. The original was moved to a farm, used to store grain and gradually destroyed as its parts were used for other buildings. 

This is a picture of the original desk where he wrote Walden. It's at the Concord Museum where you aren't supposed to take pictures but I snuck this one with my camera phone. It's a wonderful shade of green.

I was thinking about Thoreau today when I went for a good walk for the first time in ages because it's been snowy and icy for months. In the essay Walking, Thoreau wrote : "I have met but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks,--who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering..." I love the word saunter. And also ramble.