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Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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October 8, 2025

Dave Bonta October 8, 2025 0

Early-morning rain past, a chill breeze stirs in the tulip poplar beside the springhouse, four-lobed leaves waving like jazz hands on a thousand-armed bodhisattva, some green, some yellow.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged rain, tulip tree, wind

October 8, 2024

Dave Bonta October 8, 2024

Clear and cold. The red squirrel I’ve been hearing scold finally appears, racing up a bare walnut tree just as a deer hunter drags the first kill of the season out of the woods.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged black walnut, deer, red squirrel

October 8, 2023

Dave Bonta October 8, 2023

Windy and cold. In the wall of leaves at the woods’ edge, the first few fragments of what will be my winter sky.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged fall foliage, wind

October 8, 2022

Dave Bonta October 8, 2022

Cold, clear, and quiet. The wind has almost died. Through yellow leaves, just a bit more sky.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged fall foliage

October 8, 2021

Dave Bonta October 8, 2021

Fog at sunrise. A doe leads her two grown fawns to the wild apple tree—an exuberant clatter of hooves.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged apples, deer, fog, sunrise

October 8, 2020

Dave Bonta October 8, 2020

A classic October morning, bright and crisp. The black cat slinks down the driveway, stepping between the fat fallen walnuts.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged black walnut, cats

October 8, 2018

Dave Bonta October 8, 2018

Fog and a fine drizzle. A monarch butterfly, oranger than any leaf in view, glides past in the wrong direction. The cheep cheep of a peeper.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged fog, monarch butterfly, rain, spring peeper

October 8, 2017

Dave Bonta October 8, 2017

The goldenrod is all brown, but each breeze sprinkles it with yellow from the woods. The last hornet returns to her ghost town of a nest.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged bald-faced hornet, fall foliage, goldenrod

October 8, 2016

Dave Bonta October 8, 2016

It’s pouring. Lichens glow on rain-dark trees, pale blue and green rashes. Through a thickening carpet of fallen leaves, the bright moss.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged lichen, moss, rain

October 8, 2015

Dave Bonta October 8, 2015

A sharp-shinned hawk keeps chasing flickers in the yard; they yell at the effrontery and circle right back each time. A wren chatters alarm.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged accipiter, Carolina wren, flicker, sharp-shinned hawk

October 8, 2014

Dave Bonta October 8, 2014

Wind tosses the leaves that last night were glistening in the moonlight. A blue jay does its red-tailed hawk imitation, but nobody’s fooled.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged blue jays, moon, wind

October 8, 2013

Dave Bonta October 8, 2013 2

Clear and cold. The leaves at the end of the porch have gathered into a dense crowd, as if for warmth. A raven’s distant croak.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged raven

October 8, 2010

Dave Bonta October 8, 2010

Cold as it is, the birds seem to avoid the sun. In one shadow, a wren putt-putts. In another, a song sparrow shakes water from his wings.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged Carolina wren, song sparrow

October 8, 2008

Dave Bonta October 8, 2008

Clouds at dawn change from red to orange to pale yellow, like black gum trees in reverse. A towhee lands in the lilac—a splash of rose.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged lilac, towhee

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On This Day

  • October 8, 2024
    Clear and cold. The red squirrel I’ve been hearing scold finally appears, racing up a bare walnut tree just as a deer hunter drags the…
  • October 8, 2023
    Windy and cold. In the wall of leaves at the woods’ edge, the first few fragments of what will be my winter sky.
  • October 8, 2022
    Cold, clear, and quiet. The wind has almost died. Through yellow leaves, just a bit more sky.
  • October 8, 2021
    Fog at sunrise. A doe leads her two grown fawns to the wild apple tree—an exuberant clatter of hooves.
  • October 8, 2020
    A classic October morning, bright and crisp. The black cat slinks down the driveway, stepping between the fat fallen walnuts.

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.

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Detail from Paper Garden by Clive Hicks-Jenkins (used by permission)

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