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Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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July 29, 2010

Dave Bonta July 29, 2010

It starts to rain. A hover fly lands on the rim of my mug, its thin, yellow-banded abdomen twitching like a nervous and anorexic bee.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged syrphid fly

July 28, 2010

Dave Bonta July 28, 2010

A cyanide millipede—black segments edged in orange, yellow cilia undulating—flows through the garden like a dangerous amusement park ride.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged garden, millipede

July 27, 2010

Dave Bonta July 27, 2010

In the springhouse marsh, 13 cattail spikes are turning brown. When I go over for a closer look, a deer pops her head up, swivels her ears.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged cattails, deer, springhouse

July 26, 2010

Dave Bonta July 26, 2010

The small cross of a plane against the blue, its distant drone. A flicker climbing the dead elm loses his footing on a patch of sunlight.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged elm, flicker, plane

The vibrating of a dead branch… July 25, 2010

Dave Bonta July 25, 2010

The vibrating of a dead branch from which a bird has just flown. In a funnel spider web among the weeds, 14 raindrops from the last storm.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged funnel spider, spiders

July 24, 2010

Dave Bonta July 24, 2010

Three hummingbirds circle the blowsy remains of the bergamot at sunrise. One lands on a bare twig and grooms her breast feathers.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged bergamot, ruby-throated hummingbird

July 23, 2010

Dave Bonta July 23, 2010

Highway noise from over the ridge; a whiff of diesel. A downy woodpecker going up the dead elm passes a nuthatch going down.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged downy woodpecker, I-99, white-breasted nuthatch

July 22, 2010

Dave Bonta July 22, 2010 2

Two male towhees trade tweets from opposite sides of the yard. At the top of the dead cherry tree, a goldfinch swivels back and forth.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged American goldfinch, cherry tree, towhee

July 21, 2010

Dave Bonta July 21, 2010

The catnip’s in bloom beside the porch: clusters of tiny white blossoms dotted in purple, each with a front stoop to tempt passing bees.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged catnip

July 20, 2010

Dave Bonta July 20, 2010

Rain like a drunk at a broken piano whose green keys all play the same note. The hornets still hide their hoard in a gray paper sack.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged bald-faced hornet, rain

July 19, 2010

Dave Bonta July 19, 2010

A woodchuck waddles down the road, pausing every few feet to poke its head into the weeds. A fawn bleats up in the laurel. The sun goes in.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged deer, groundhog, mountain laurel

July 18, 2010

Dave Bonta July 18, 2010

A tiger swallowtail is laying eggs on the lilac and black cherry, dabbing each leaf with the tip of her abdomen, wings fighting the breeze.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged black cherry, lilac, tiger swallowtail butterfly

July 17, 2010

Dave Bonta July 17, 2010

The dawn chorus is quieter now, and at least half-catbird. A squirrel carries a leafy twig through the treetops at sunrise like a flag.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged catbird, gray squirrel

July 16, 2010

Dave Bonta July 16, 2010 2

A little wood satyr—brown butterfly with yellow-rimmed eyespots—lands on the glass door and pivots at the center of its reflection.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged little wood satyr

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On This Day

  • July 1, 2024
    Cold and partly cloudy. A hummingbird buzzes in to sip from the jewelweed below the porch, then up to forage for small invertebrates on the…
  • July 1, 2022
    I watch a new squirrel figure out the tree-to-tree route out of the woods, backtracking, sizing things up. The sun goes in.
  • July 1, 2016
    A brown thrasher sings behind the house, repeating each line as usual like a didactic jazz soloist. The sun struggles blearily to come out.
  • July 1, 2015
    The sun makes a brief appearance; a breeze picks up. The bluebottle fly moves to the lee side of the railing and rubs its forefeet…
  • July 1, 2012
    A thin bead curtain hangs from the walnut tree: tiny tussock moth caterpillars, curled tight as question marks, rappelling down to the road.

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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