From Charles Burchfield's Journals, January 7, 1916

In one of my imaginings today, I was making a trip thru the mountains en route to the Pacific, and suddenly it came to my mind to imagine a thunderstorm in the mountains; at once I saw this.

50. It was raining a torrent; above the edge of a distant dk blue range of mts, the sun was just setting; its light color the rain so that the mt, was streaked with gold; this lasted even when the sun barely showed. At the moment the sun disappeared, the gold streaks vanished, and a livid streak of lightning shot across the range, as if the mt had split revealing the flood of golden sky beyond, in the crevice.

51. A.M. for a walk. In fields before Bentley’s at sunrise. A filmy frost give the earth a whitish look. Already, it seemed like spring. From somewhere east, I imagined I caught the notes of a songsparrow. It was possible I did, but more improbable But I felt the same sensation as if I had. Thoreau said that after Dec 21, every which was not wintry, was like spring.