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  • Thursday November 05, 2015

Thursday November 05, 2015

Dave Bonta November 5, 2015

Warm morning after a cold night, and the oaks are shedding leaves: a dry sound as they hit lower branches, like the ticking of many clocks.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged fall foliage, oaks, red oak, scarlet oak
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On this date

    February 3, 2022

    Cold but not freezing mizzle. Two pileated woodpeckers work the woods' edge, tilting their heads to the side between taps. A flock of juncos. …

    February 3, 2021

    This is winter as I remember it from my childhood: more than a foot of drifting snow at 20°F. The Carolina wren is singing under the house. …

    February 3, 2020

    Sunny and warm. The snow is reduced to patches in the woods. In front of the house, a Carolina wren shrieks abuse at my brother the birder. …

    February 3, 2019

    Patches of bare yard dug up by deer. Patches of blue sky which the sun now and then pops through. The drip drip of meltwater from the roof. …

    February 3, 2018

    Silence broken only by the wind for many minutes, until the fire alarm goes off in town: once, twice, three times rising from moan to wail. …

    February 3, 2017

    A long log has slid down so that it rests like a seesaw on the top of the road bank. Tree shadows on the snow darken and grow faint again. …

    February 3, 2015

    Birds flutter back and forth across the yard to drink the dark water of the spring. The frigid air glitters with scattered snowflakes. …

    February 3, 2014

    It's snowing; the bergamot heads wear new, conical caps. A mourning dove flies past the porch on nearly silent wings, headed for the pines. …

    February 3, 2013

    A squirrel leaps through the snow-laden lilac up by the other house, chasing the juncos. Their high, tinny alarm-calls sound like laughter. …

    February 3, 2012

    Is it overcast or sunny, warm or cold? I don't even notice. The line crew is back, and they've chainsawed the top off a dwarf pear tree. …

    February 3, 2011

    A thin snowdrift has taken refuge on the porch, covering all but the outermost foot. My old broom sheds pieces of straw with every pass. …

    February 3, 2010

    A new half-inch of snow. The wind brings traffic noise from over the ridge and the nasal calls of a chickadee. A tree cracks its knuckles. …

    February 3, 2009

    At half-light, small explosions of wings and twittering from around the side of the house as birds leave their roosts in the cedar tree. …

    February 3, 2008

    A clear sunrise, and every twig and blade of grass still wearing its coat of ice. Two titmice drone back and forth amid the glitter. …

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Related book

Cover of Ice Mountain with a linocut of a big ridgetop tree.

What I do after I sit on the porch. One winter and spring's daily walks distilled into short poems with linocut illustrations by Beth Adams.

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