Author: mgalletti22

This was my second time visiting Brown’s Bog, this time was a much different experience. I visited here last year with two other friends,  during late spring, before the chaos of finals.  The land was much more colorful and filled with vegetation. This time visiting, ice covered the plants in the bog, with this though came a greater more dusk view of the kettle hole lake. There was little focus this time on the flowers and plant life but more on the glacier made hole. It’s a shame this kettle hole lake will disappear in the future.

On page 142 of my copy of the book, it is 1845 nearing the end of March and Thoreau is starting the process of building his small house, he first asks to borrow an axe. The owner of this axe states that the axe was “the apple of his eye.” Thoreau then simply projects that, “It is difficult to begin without borrowing” Thoreau then goes down to the woods by the dark icy pond, these woods are filled with youthful tall arrowy white pines and hickories. Here he cuts down the trees and collected timber for the construction of his home.

While reading this I thought of how he was not only borrowing the axe from the man, but also from nature.  Chopping down wood for his home he essentially killed many trees for the purpose of shelter I felt as if the concept of borrowing from nature was present.