Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

12.                April 24, 1934 –

At noon by bus to Jamison Road and East to skunk-cabbage swamp. A cold day with angry lowering clouds, and a stiff wind out of the south-west. Wander around awhile in the lush swamp, sketching skunk-cabbage. I gathered a few to take home with me, that were especially beautiful & large. One was a deep red-violet shading off into a sooty black. Up over hills & northward to the woods. More trees have been cut here, and great piles of cord-wood lay around, much of it beech, the rich yellow ends contrasting beautifully with the smoky-blue bark. This woods with its unusually large trees has a grand, religious feeling, a great dignity and feel of primitiveness –

East of here to explore a swamp that attracted me. It, like the other, was full of skunk-cabbages. There were many uprooted trees here, the trunks of which were rotted and covered in places with a rich green moss, and in others where the bark had fallen away, the smooth bone-like trunks lay exposed shading from a bone-white to a deep sienna.

East, across road, & still further east thru an evergreen nursery to explore a woods; on the northern banks of a hollow, the matted leaves had still that flattened mildewed look which they have when snow-banks or ice masses have but recently disappeared. Make notes of fallen trees. Then back to road, which runs into Stolle Rd, which I follow westward. The wind sharp & cold, and I have to walk briskly. In [sic] Bullis road to Elma. In one place Bullis road dips