P.M. to Hamburg by trolley & walk over Chestnut Ridge & thence to Orchard Park—
Missing the Hamburg Car at City Line I started walking – a brilliant day after the heavy rainstorms of the day before – great dark gray clouds with blinding white tops. Fields rank with flowers – white daisies, buttercups purple-pink clover, deep orange hawkweed; the air was heavy with clover scent – the white daisies gave the fields a chalky look, as if whitewash spattered over the green—
The Polish Picnic – musicians playing some old-world dance music on accordions (?) – I stopped to listen – the people crowded under low maples talking & laughing made it gay – I had to admit to myself that jazz in spite of its ingenious novelties & clever imprudence, does not fit the outdoor picnic like this music did—
Down the N. Boston road to creek, where I turn off to strike the old railroad bed – along this creek I found wild iris still in bloom which took me back to the first time Bertha & I came thru here, 10 days after we were married. It was May 30, & the iris were in their prime.
I didn’t pick any iris here, thinking I would find mine in the swamp further down that flanks the railroad bed on both sides.
Charles E. Burchfield, June 26, 1927