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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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Plummer’s Hollow

November 25, 2012November 25, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Two inches of fresh snow, and already the black cat is taking a shit in the middle of the driveway. Small pink clouds clutter up the sky.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow
November 24, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Mid-morning, and many of the feeder birds are sitting quietly in the treetops, silhouetted against the whitening sky. Bright smudge of sun.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow
November 23, 2008 by Dave Bonta

The moon inches upward through the trees with the earth’s glowing shadow between its horns. Two train whistles converge, one high, one low.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags chickadee, lilac, train, tufted titmouse
November 22, 2012November 22, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Snowflakes in the air: the small, light variety that fall at ten degrees below freezing. They drift sideways, glistening in the sun.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow
November 21, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Another half-inch of snow on the ground, on the porch, on the horizontal limbs at the forest edge: pale arms outstreched in the darkness.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow
November 20, 2012November 20, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Cold, gray, and windy, with a new half-inch of snow. The only flicker of warmth is a chickadee’s call—the pilot light in a stone-cold oven.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags chickadee
November 19, 2012November 19, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Clear sky, and the meadow white with frost: an almost-winter morning. Juncos forage at the edge of the woods, wings flashing in the sun.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags juncos
November 18, 2008 by Dave Bonta

A three-point buck emerges from the woods, hooves crunching through the icy seep, the sky pink behind him and ahead, the blood-red hill.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags gray squirrel
November 17, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Fresh snow, but not enough to turn the hillside white. Like an old man with bushy brows, the earth peeks out from under every arched leaf.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow
November 16, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Under the cover of high winds, the feral cat goes hunting without setting off the usual alarms. Airborne oak leaves ascend into the clouds.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cats
November 15, 2012November 15, 2008 by Dave Bonta

I sit in the dark listening to the downpour, trying to pick out all the different instruments: roof, road, weeds, trees, leaf litter, creek.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags stream
November 14, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Thick fog prolongs the dawn light for hours. A screech owl is answered by a pileated woodpecker, dirge giving way to second-line ululation.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fog, pileated woodpecker, screech owl
November 13, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Through a curtain of cold rain, the lilac’s thinning collection of stamps from the countries of summer, green-gold against the gray woods.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags lilac
November 12, 2012November 12, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Two white-tailed deer leap through the dried goldenrod and asters beyond the springhouse, surfacing, diving—dolphins in a brown sea.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags asters, deer, goldenrod, raven, springhouse
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On This Day

  • December 15, 2024
    Gray and still, except for the creek’s trickle. A squirrel dangles from a low branch of the springhouse tulip tree, trying in vain to tear…
  • December 15, 2023
    One degree above freezing as the tall pines fill with sun. Two crows emerge from the woods, yelling about some old deer guts that must…
  • December 15, 2021
    Patchy frost: the myrtle leaves that are dusted with it versus those that just have white edging. A chickadee is getting the gang together.
  • December 15, 2020
    Cold and quiet at sunrise. I walk to the ridgetop, clutching my thermos mug. Snow lingers in dips and hollows where the sun can’t reach.
  • December 15, 2019
    The alarm call of a Carolina wren spreads to other wrens, other birds, a growing agitation that for a second flutters even in my chest.

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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