Friday March 19, 2021

A ray of sun strikes the lilac, setting its yellow buds aglow. The sound of water gurgling under my yard. The back-and-forth of nuthatches.

On this date

October 2, 2021

Mares’ tails reddening in the east. The reedy songs of white-throated sparrows. A raven’s nasal croak. …

October 2, 2020

Walnuts crash down on the back roof. A raven comes croaking over the house, then returns a minute later, silent except for its wingbeats. …

October 2, 2018

Over at the neighbors', a chainsaw whines and grumbles through a tree, waves of noise rising and falling like the years. A distant crow. …

October 2, 2017

Another cold, clear morning. When the jays and squirrels stop yammering, the silence seems unusually thick. Then it hits me: no crickets. …

October 2, 2016

A pileated woodpecker lands on the dead elm with a rattle of wings, the elm swaying. Below in the lilac a titmouse hammers away at an acorn. …

October 2, 2015

Cold, overcast and dreary. A warbler on migration-layover darts through the porch, inches from my face—a flash of black and yellow. …

October 2, 2014

Another foggy morning. Beneath the orange leaves of the witch hazel in my garden, yellow blossoms are beginning to let down their wild hair. …

October 2, 2013

Sunny, warm, and quiet except for the distant wail of a locomotive, a phoebe calling at the woods' edge, a cricket, the rustling of leaves. …

October 2, 2012

The lilac trembles from rain without and a flock of migrant sparrows within. The stiltgrass in the yard seems redder than yesterday. * The Morning Porch will be on hiatus …

October 2, 2011

Colored leaves turn backwards in the cold wind—still the same pale green. A pileated woodpecker's distant chant. …

October 2, 2010

The witch hazel in my garden is just coming into bloom, yellow tentacles uncurling, the bunched nuts like maledictions waiting to burst. …

October 2, 2009

Cold drizzle. The burble of a song sparrow. A flycatcher of indeterminate species flutters up from the foxtail millet beside the stream. …

October 2, 2008

Overcast and gusty, a day for flying leaves: those that twirl, those that circle, those that flutter, those that tumble, those that sail. …