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Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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October 30, 2025

Dave Bonta October 30, 2025 0

Hard rain easing off by mid-morning. The sky brightens. A junco by the springhouse warbles its most complex song.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged junco, rain

October 30, 2024

Dave Bonta October 30, 2024 1

Dawn. High in a red oak crown an acorn lets go, tapping the branches on its way down like a blind man’s cane.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged dawn, red oak

October 30, 2022

Dave Bonta October 30, 2022 2

Late in rising, I’m grateful to the oaks for still holding leaves—I don’t need sunglasses. My brother texts: Savannah sparrows in the field!

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged fall foliage, Savannah sparrows

October 30, 2021

Dave Bonta October 30, 2021

Fog. A squirrel is peeling ribbons of bark from the branches of the big tulip tree. And all these years I’ve been blaming porcupines!

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged fog, gray squirrel, tulip tree

October 30, 2020

Dave Bonta October 30, 2020

Five minutes after I check the weather app to verify it’s going to stay cloudy, the sun comes out. The damp forest glistens like a salamander.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged clouds, rain

October 30, 2018

Dave Bonta October 30, 2018

Two tulip poplar leaves vibrate in a private wind: chickadees. The western ridge turns from blood-red to orange to yellow—autumn in reverse.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged chickadee, sunrise, tulip tree

October 30, 2017

Dave Bonta October 30, 2017

High winds after a soaking rain. The fallen walnuts in the driveway have all turned black, soggy hulls sagging like bodies in a bog.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged black walnut, rain, wind

October 30, 2016

Dave Bonta October 30, 2016

Gray in the west, yellow in the east, blue overhead. A tiny sharp-shinned hawk lands in a yard tree and only one squirrel bothers to scold.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged clouds, sharp-shinned hawk

October 30, 2015

Dave Bonta October 30, 2015

A titmouse scolds something hidden among blood-red barberries. The dead stiltgrass twitches with a second life like hair on a corpse.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged barberry, Japanese stiltgrass, tufted titmouse

October 30, 2014

Dave Bonta October 30, 2014 1

The woods and fields are brown now, but the large lilac is still a wall of yellowed green, like faded posters for a long-gone fair.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged fall foliage, lilac

October 30, 2013

Dave Bonta October 30, 2013

Juncos forage in the meadow, softly twittering. The dull booms of distant gunshots like great lead spikes being driven into the earth.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged juncos

October 30, 2012

Dave Bonta October 30, 2012 3

Calm. Sandy’s center must be close. The top half of the dead elm tree has blown down, breaking the back of the old dog statue.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged dog statue, elm, hurricane, wind

October 30, 2011

Dave Bonta October 30, 2011 1

Clumps of snow still dot the crowns of oaks—small clouds, a rain of angelic hats. Flaming orange and red leaves rattle in the wind.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged fall foliage, oaks, snow

October 30, 2010

Dave Bonta October 30, 2010

Now that summer’s past, the cardinal has gone back to harassing her reflection. The frost-whitened myrtle bed. A barberry turned to flame.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged barberry, cardinal, frost, myrtle

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On This Day

  • October 30, 2024
    Dawn. High in a red oak crown an acorn lets go, tapping the branches on its way down like a blind man’s cane.
  • October 30, 2022
    Late in rising, I’m grateful to the oaks for still holding leaves—I don’t need sunglasses. My brother texts: Savannah sparrows in the field!
  • October 30, 2021
    Fog. A squirrel is peeling ribbons of bark from the branches of the big tulip tree. And all these years I’ve been blaming porcupines!
  • October 30, 2020
    Five minutes after I check the weather app to verify it’s going to stay cloudy, the sun comes out. The damp forest glistens like a…
  • October 30, 2018
    Two tulip poplar leaves vibrate in a private wind: chickadees. The western ridge turns from blood-red to orange to yellow—autumn in reverse.

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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