Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, July 27, 1930

The season nears August – cicadas drone in the murky heat of midday and at night the katydids are commencing —
The great gray sky of midsummer southeast dusk is reflected in the sullen creek, on whose banks stand black tree phantoms –
In the west the first moon sliver sinks in the heavy obscuring mists of the city –
To the southeast the sullen void of haze to the northwest the turgid heat-hazed city.
Automobiles like gigantic pestiferous insects buzz back and forth over the asphalt still soft & hot from the day’s heat –
Upstairs the children are quiet in their beds — the fans drone monotonously —
Yesterday and today the first great cloud phalanxes of Autumn have come down from the North, blown by a cool stiff wind. They are by far the most magnificent clouds I have ever seen — The sunlight is diffused thru them in a thousand variations some of them blinding dazzling white, others are pale mysterious lights — whole sections of the sky are massed over with great dark piles of clouds – they must be several miles in height and between their vast sides are great holes or inverted canyons thru which a gray light comes fading in infinite variations as it nears the cloud bases –
It is agonizing to look at them –
Charles E. Burchfield, July 27, 1930