At 6:00 – A walk to the Dutchman’s – Sunburst under long bank of Clouds – Down Painter road which is lit up with romantic orange – To see sunlit Dutchman’s from shadowed road reminds me of boyhood rambles Up Cigar mountain – Sun boiling on edge of distant purple hill – In Hayfields at summit – Hasten to the Chestnuts – Sun just dipping below hill –
Mosquitos airdancing against the afterglow fill the air with a thin tinny hum; wood-thrush yodels from dense treed hillside below cowbell. At dusk a whip-poor-will came out & perched on a dead branch on the ground flying up from time to time after insects with a soft velvety flight peculiar to night birds – Nearby another calls star thing by clear – nighthawk chirps harshly-overhead – Down into valley – the Moon & afterglow mingle. Yarrow meadows here – moonlit – To north a long streak of fog commense to arise, looking like a great silver lake – the afterglow gleams above –
Thru dense oats damp with fog – Frog blungs animals splashing in water – Sandpiper starts the moonlit silence Reflection of moon in water
Enter fog bank – fog casts halo around moon – The fog glows as if lit up from within Covered Bridge – Immensity of valley in moonlight – Along cool shadowed road – A wonderful walk –
Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, July 22, 1915