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Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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December 26, 2020 by Dave Bonta

The thermometer’s big red arrow is at -10°C. A downy woodpecker works the wood’s edge, exploring the bases of trees, chirping loudly.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cold, downy woodpecker
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On This Day

  • November 25, 2024
    Just as my moonlit shadow slips away into the dawn, the Carolina wrens who roost beside the laundry room door start up, with a brassy…
  • November 25, 2023
    Cold and still for the opening day of rifle season. Distant booms set the crows off. The sun is a bright smudge in a sky…
  • November 25, 2022
    Warm rain. The snow has shrunk to a few scrofulous patches in the woods. Half an hour before sunrise, a bluebird is singing.
  • November 25, 2021
    No frost for the first time in weeks. Sunrise hidden by clouds, signaled by a slight brightening and a lively exchange between three nuthatches.
  • November 25, 2020
    A rustling in the fallen leaves turns out to be the briefest of showers. The sky brightens. I practice looking at trees as if for…

See all...

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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