Mrs. Sheldon was one of those unfortunate persons who can not only see faces and other objects where they are not, but also must insist on airing their “discoveries” and arguing about them.
Night clear and starry.
Tho evening spent riotously at King’s all of that falls away from my mind and only the impression of the afternoon remains.
I find that I am extremely absentminded on all things except those which I love — art, nature & music. I may walk along a street & see no one; but let a sparrow dart down from a building in pursuit of a moth, tho it be a little to one side & behind me, I see it. Whole conversations may go on without my ear catching a word. – The chewink cannot step on a leaf but what I hear it.
A cool rainy morning – clearing - vivid blue cold sky – reflected in pools + wet roofs – brilliant cold sunlight
Clouds! While other phenomena of nature delight us and arouse the poetry in us I do not believe anything quite stirs our imagination as do clouds...
A poplar tree, no matter how distant, may be discerned from all others. Saw one this morning quite aways off whose twinkle, lessened by distance, appeared as heat waves. All the coldness of the sky + wind + the freshness of the sunlight was in that tree.
Strange how Summer and Fall should meet all at once. Last night was deep August – stagnant, heavy, a huge thunderstorm booming to the North...
To Zimmerman Rd. to do the grasshopper picture...unpremeditated was the introduction of a yellow & black spider (Miranda) feeding on a grasshopper...
A fine clear, blue-skied day, with a cool wind from the N.E. – A few clouds in the morning but clearing in the afternoon.
Evening – Picnic on Lake Shore with Alspachs — they brought along fried chicken, & wieners which we roasted over a fire. – Wonderful sunset clouds – a storm to the north, A & I looking for agates -. As we were eating & twilight settled down, hundreds of night-hawks came, flying low over the lake after insects. A beautiful sight.
Summer attains its greatest dignity & power in August. In this dignity & power exist simultaneously a sinister quality, and a deeply mystical one.