After rain and cold, the snow is reduced to a thin crust on top of the leaf litter. It shatters with every waking footstep of the deer.
The view from my front porch every morning, in 140 or fewer characters
Monthly Archives: January 2008
Wind like a dozen freight trains thundering...
Wind like a dozen freight trains thundering in the ridgetop trees. I remember as a kid I would curl up under windy pines and dream of sleep.
Comments Off
Like a familiar word in the middle...
Like a familiar word in the middle of a speech in some other language: through the roar of traffic from over the ridge, a screech owl calls.
Tagged screech owl
Comments Off
White ground, gray sky, and the temperature...
White ground, gray sky, and the temperature just below freezing. The wind curls around the house like a dog’s tail. A flock of goldfinches.
Tagged goldfinches
Comments Off
Commotion among the pileated woodpeckers...
Commotion among the pileated woodpeckers: cackling, drumming. One swoops past and lands on the side of a tree with a magician’s flourish.
Tagged pileated woodpecker
Comments Off
It’s snowing: single flakes at...
It’s snowing: single flakes at first, then more and more clumps, some asymmetric enough to spin or spiral—tiny leaves from a vast tree.
Comments Off
Two pairs of doves fly into the top...
Two pairs of doves fly into the top of a tall locust and sit still as stones in the frigid wind, facing the pale moon, the crimson ridge.
Comments Off
A crow caws, and I’m struck by...
A crow caws, and I’m struck by how much it resembles a barking dog. More crows, and the impression persists: Arf arf arf! A murder of dogs.
At first light, few other sounds than...
At first light, few other sounds than the fluting of doves’ wings. I hold my head perfectly still to watch Venus moving through the trees.
Tagged Venus
Comments Off
Sun thinned by a fleet of clouds the...
Sun thinned by a fleet of clouds the color of dirty dishwater. The wind in the pines is virtually indistinguishable from distant traffic.
Comments Off
