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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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Saturday July 30, 2022

Dave Bonta July 30, 2022 0

Cool and crystal-clear. A wood thrush sings as if it’s still nesting season. The western ridge turns red.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged sunrise, wood thrush

Friday July 29, 2022

Dave Bonta July 29, 2022 0

Bleary sun. Tree leaves are all astir, but not by much. Those birds who still sing make it sound perfunctory.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged wind

Thursday July 28, 2022

Dave Bonta July 28, 2022 0

Cool, overcast, and humid. A breeze brings the smell of ozone and a hush of rain finishing its journey down from the trees.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged clouds, rain

Wednesday July 27, 2022

Dave Bonta July 27, 2022 0

Sun rising into clouds. The mob of wild garlic heads in the meadow are beginning to shed their white hoods.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged clouds, sunrise, wild garlic

Tuesday July 26, 2022

Dave Bonta July 26, 2022 0

It’s actually cold—54F/12C! A crow at the top of the tallest locust where the sun strikes has one thing to say and she is saying it.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged black locust, cold, crows, sunrise

Monday July 25, 2022

Dave Bonta July 25, 2022 0

The sky never gets fully light before thunder starts to rumble. Now it’s getting dark again. The birds fall silent.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged thunder, thunderstorms

Sunday July 24, 2022

Dave Bonta July 24, 2022 0

Hazy but not yet hot. Hummingbirds circle the soapwort patch, as if following the red threads of bindweed.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged bindweed, bouncing bet, ruby-throated hummingbird

Saturday July 23, 2022

Dave Bonta July 23, 2022 0

Every time I look up from my book, more sunlight has infiltrated the forest like bright rungs of a ladder. A raven clears its throat.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged raven, sunrise

Friday July 22, 2022

Dave Bonta July 22, 2022 0

Chimney swifts circle high overhead as the last bats head home. The sun rising through small clouds is crowned by dark spokes.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged bats, chimney swifts, sunrise

Thursday July 21, 2022

Dave Bonta July 21, 2022 0

A few minutes before sunrise. Goldfinch chatter. A half-slice of moon hangs in the east like an icon of wintry cool.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged American goldfinch, moon, sunrise

Wednesday July 20, 2022

Dave Bonta July 20, 2022 0

Cool at sunrise with a restless breeze. The big tulip tree at the woods’ edge drops a few more drought-yellowed leaves.

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

Monday July 18, 2022

Dave Bonta July 18, 2022 0

Fifteen hours of off-and-on rain and everything looks greener. The big red maple that just finished dying sheds a chunk of rotten wood.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged rain, red maple

Sunday July 17, 2022

Dave Bonta July 17, 2022 1

Another phantom shower, existing only on the weather app. A firefly wanders past, looking for a walnut leaf to spend the day under.

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

Saturday July 16, 2022

Dave Bonta July 16, 2022 0

Heavily overcast; on the weather app, it’s raining. The sky lightens; on the weather app, bright sunshine. From Mom’s house, the measured tones of Morning Edition.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged clouds, NPR, rain, weather app

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On this date

    August 15, 2021

    Ten minutes before first light, the first distant, barking dog. Ten minutes before that, a barred owl’s cackle. …

    August 15, 2016

    Beads of rain that were shining moonlets 10 hours ago are now mere glitter. Night has shrunk to the dark iridescence in a butterfly's wing. …

    August 15, 2015

    Hazy and warm. As the sun climbs, the cicada chorus grows, and the field cricket in the garden chirps faster and faster. …

    August 15, 2014

    I marvel at how tall my tulip trees have grown, nonchalantly waving their leaves. "It was I who planted you! I who saved you from the deer!" …

    August 15, 2012

    cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket cricket CROW CROW CROW cricket cricket cricket crick …

    August 15, 2011

    A pileated woodpecker heading for the tall locusts lets out a whoop with every wingbeat, its crest like the bloody barb of a harpoon. …

    August 15, 2010

    A titmouse combs the dead cherry tree for insects, his black seed of an eye and wizard's cap bobbing as he snaps at shriveled leaves. …

    August 15, 2009

    A hummingbird defending her patch of soapwort buzzes an ovenbird, who walks back and forth on the cherry branches in his big pink feet. …

    August 15, 2008

    A still morning. Dew drips from the top roof onto the porch roof. Each birdcall—woodpecker, towhee, jay—is surrounded by acres of silence. …

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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.

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

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