Thoreau writes in his journal:
The golden willow catkins begin to fall; their prime is past. And buttercups and silvery cinquefoil, and the first apple blossoms, avid waving grass beginning to be tinged with sorrel, introduce us to a different season. The huckleberry, resinosa, its red flowers are open, in more favorable places several days earlier, probably; and the earliest shrub and red and black oaks in warm exposures may be set down to to-day. A red butterfly goes by . . .