Monday September 01, 2008

A cool, clear autumn morning. Every few minutes, another alarm call breaks the silence: pileated woodpecker. Bluejays. A frantic squirrel.

On this date

November 27, 2021

Overcast, so it's hard to tell exactly when moonlight gives way to dawn. A hunter's flashlight climbs the ridge and is lost among the trees. …

November 27, 2020

Gray skies for Black Friday. Shots ring out from the valley as deer hunters sight in their rifles in preparation for opening day tomorrow. …

November 27, 2019

Late morning, and it's still not fully light—the clouds are too heavy. The sound of rain on the dry leaves like fat sizzling in a fryer. …

November 27, 2018

Light snow powdering my black sleeves. I watch a nuthatch inspect each branch of a walnut, its sideways hop and dip when it finds a morsel. …

November 27, 2017

Bright sun, cold wind. The blaze-orange vests of two hunters walking up the road: a father and his daughter who's just shot her first deer. …

November 27, 2016

The sun half-emerges from the clouds, like a chick too weak to break the shell. A small woman walks up the road, led by a large brown dog. …

November 27, 2015

From the east, the pop-pop-pop of a rifle being sighted in for deer season. From the west, the roar of Black Friday traffic. Hunters, all. …

November 27, 2014

The deep quiet only heard on major holidays. With small puffs, snow is beginning to fall off branches, giving the trees a feathered look. …

November 27, 2013

Ice storm aftermath: bent trees and broken limbs that couldn't withstand the sky's smothering embrace. A tinny rattling when the wind blows. …

November 27, 2012

A voice woke me from a dream this morning, telling me there was snow on the ground—and there is! A Carolina wren trills from a snowy branch. …

November 27, 2011

Dawn gives a rust-red belly to the clouds. Over the stream, I'm astonished to hear the ethereal notes of a hermit thrush song. …

November 27, 2010

A scurf of snow in the north corner of the porch, and more flakes in the wind. A chickadee puffs out its feathers, fat as a baseball. …

November 27, 2009

A tulip poplar key helicopters past the porch, shook loose by a squirrel at the edge of the woods rummaging among the spikey cups of seeds. …

November 27, 2008

That drum so low it sounds as if it's in your head? A ruffed grouse, beating the air with its wings like one hand clapping. Or so they say. …

November 27, 2007

Shifting patterns of gray in a sky that has just stopped raining. A crow caws seven times. Suddenly everything acquires an orange tint. …

The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow