Thoreau writes in his journal:
The krigia has bloomed again The purple gerardia now fairly out, which I found almost out last Stunday in another place. Elder-berries begin to be ripe, bending their steins. I also see Viburnum dentatum berries just beginning to turn on one side. Their turning or ripening looks lilac decay,—a dark spot,—and so does the rarely ripe state of the naked viburnum and the sweet; but we truly regard it as a ripening still, and not falsely a decaying as when we describe the tint, of the autumnal foliage.
I think that within a week I have heard the alder cricket,—a clearer and shriller sound from the leaves in low grounds, a clear shrilling out of a cool moist shade, an autumnal sound. The year is in the grasp of the crickets . . .