Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

9. beautiful of all constellations, had risen three-quarters above the horizon. By this time, it was almost completely dark, and the North-east sky, from the zenith downwards was like a fountain of stars – Pegasus, Andromeda, Cepheus, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Taurus, Auriga – The air was so clear, that Procyon was visible the instant it rose above the horizon –

     Had I been able to reach a phone, (to allay my family’s worries) I would have stayed longer, at least until Sirius had risen. But the thought that Bertha might be imagining some calamity had befallen me, obtruded on my mood, until I must needs tear myself away.

     I called home at Varysburg. Most of the way home, I watched Venus slowly setting in the S.W.

     Tuesday, I set out with the intention of going to the spot where I spent the previous evening, to make a painting. I went out by way of Cowlesville, + Attica, and South of Attica to the Attica Reservoir Rd.

     Parked on a dirt road near the reservoir, and took a walk down to the water, and along its edge. It was warmer on this day, with a fine strong SW wind. The air + sunlight were so fine that any thoughts of painting seemed futile.

     Lunch by the Four Maples, overlooking a wide valley to the south filled with woods containing many fine trees, which in the sunlit haze overlapped each other like the scales of pine-cones. –The ground streaming with countless spider-silk strands of shimmering and trembling