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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

The Morning Porch
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September 24, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Rain in widely scattered drops, a light seasoning over everything. It intensifies; a half-molted walnut tree begins leafleting the yard. It tapers off. A squirrel chisels open a nut.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, gray squirrel, rain
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On This Day

  • December 12, 2024
    Bitter cold. A few small clouds turn brick-red. When the wind drops, there’s a staccato burst of pileated woodpecker alarm, answered only by a nuthatch.
  • December 12, 2023
    Waiting for dawn, I scan the holes in the clouds for meteors. The north side of the springhouse roof still wears a small blanket of…
  • December 12, 2022
    Heavily overcast sunrise; the only faint color comes from the ground. The great-horned owl falls silent as a nuthatch begins to call.
  • December 12, 2021
    After last night’s wind, the sky is clear, the forest has finally lost almost all its leaves, and there are several new creaks and groans.
  • December 12, 2020
    Three degrees above freezing, but it feels balmy. A downy woodpecker descends a maple trunk, chirping loudly with each downward hop.

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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.

Header image: detail from Paper Garden by Clive Hicks-Jenkins (used by permission)

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