Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, August 13, 1914

A cool clear morning. Invigoration. A peculiar elasticity to the air. There is no wind stirring the trees yet as we move about a brisk breeze strikes our faces - it is as tho (sic) our moving set the air in motion.

Noon brings a whitening of the sky & a mist in the air. The sunlight becomes mellower each day. If we may compare nature to a fruit,it is just commencing to “turn”

I can imagine no more miserable person than he who has attained his ideal.

Observe the vines. We have in our yard a hopvine, which climbs a pole before it attains the top it is fresh big & strong. Having come to the top the “shoots” wander aimlessly about & finally fall down, climb the pole again & so continue until nipped by the frost. The top is stunted, and I imagine the fruit is smaller than if the vine had been able to go on up. So, it is with the morning-glories.

We should then climb a pole whose top, if it has any, is so high in the blue that we will never reach it, lest we like the vine become stunted at the last.

The sun is peculiarly golden just at sunset. The level rays strike the sidewalk and turns it to a sheet of gold, they strike our concrete walk in such a manner as only to light up the minute crystals in it, that sparkle.

Went out about ten o’clock to view the night. The air is wonderfully clear as is shown by the myriads of stars visible tonight, whose brilliancy pierce the eye. I doubt not if could mount some high treeless hill where all is quiet, they would cast a shadow.

The “milky way” is plainly visible a streak of haze extending almost north & south, but a little diagonally from S.W. to N.E.

August is said to be the month of “falling stars”–I have looked up no reference on the subject - I saw three while I was standing here: short lived streaks of molten silver. We wonder at the silence of these stars.

Charles E Burchfield, August 13, 1914