Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

Feb. 24 – Wed.
I wonder if it would be possible to single out any one day – a event in a day, and say “This is the first sign of Spring” (For time Spring has anything to do with the March Equinox) – Sometime early in January the gem of light under the eaves of a house at sunset will give you a subtle hint – More positive is, (as happened this year) a brilliant sunny day only in February when little hummocks of snow catch the sunlight in a blinding white glare, which is in violent contrast to rich cold blue shadows streaming, over the gray snow (gray because it revives the sunlight obligingly) – Another hint is the very smoke from a chimney looks against the pale afterglow in the sky on a midwinter day –
But these signs, defer it, if subtle, tho [sic] they be, did not prepare us for the three days just passed – bright sunny days, as if transplanted out of March. So warm was the sun (60° yesterday) that all the snow has disappeared except the great cakes of ice along the creek (deported by the suddenly falling waters) and the great rotten snow-banks in hollows and the depressions on the northern side of hills.
On Sunday morning at about 5:00 the ice in the creek commenced going out – I had heard the sound for several moments before I realized what it was. When I looked out – The eerie light