Worked again on the “Heaven's Declare ----" principally on the woods in Sirius - It seems better but it cannot be judged until the sky is carried further. [Burchfield later retitled the work Orion in Winter.]
Zero this morning; the casement windows by the bed heavily coated with beautiful fern-like frost. When the sun first appeared, the frost turned a delicate salmon pink, which gradually as it grew brighter became yellower and clearer, with vivid cold blue shadows from the poplar tree...
Before I started work in the studio, I started answering the red-bird which was singing somewhere near Orchard Avenue.
What thoughts of spring, the beating of a carpet really does conjure in the mind of the hearer! This is but naturally the case. The beating of a carpet, and the hammering of a carpenter are elements of spring to me just as much as is the call of the cardinal, or meadowlark, though perhaps not so inspiring and sweet...
Mild, partly cloudy, and intervals of sunshine
Snowdrop in bud in front of studio —
After church — to the Meibohms’ new home in the country — (S.E. of E.A, on a side road from the Strykersville Rd (78) —
Freezing rain in the night, which remained mostly on the trees – the evergreens especially beautiful with their whitish glistening needles against the dark gray eastern sky – From the east not far away came to the song of the red bird. Two crows flapped by headed south – sinister dark shapes –
Another wonderful day. The morning dawns clear with an orange glow precluding the dazzling sun. It is a fine sap-day. Noonwards the sweeps of clouds commences; they are whiter and fleecier that yesterday’s.
High wind and drifting snow with heavy overcast skies all week—
Worked on “Star in the Woods” bringing it somewhat to a finish in two days. Since it was to express dreams of & longing for spring, I felt I should do it in the midst of a blizzard and not wait for actual spring.
Warm brilliant Sun—vast open stretches—streets running with glittering water — cool air as if swept off of vast ice-fields — the sun a blinding diamond shape and things are coal black looking south...
I wonder if it would be possible to single out any one day – a event in a day, and say “This is the first sign of Spring”...