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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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bees

July 23, 2021 by Dave Bonta

A large native bee lands on a porch column to groom her antennae. A black ant races back and forth brandishing a dead ant like a flag.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags ants, bees
September 15, 2017 by Dave Bonta

The corpse of a bee hangs six feet above the garden, swaddled in webbing. Inside its fence, the amelanchier sprout is starting to redden.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags bees, shadbush, spiderwebs 1 Comment
August 29, 2014 by Dave Bonta

In the shadows of the trees, the grass bent low by dew. From the sunlit meadow, the drone of cold-hardy bumblebees servicing the goldenrod.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags bees, bumblebees, dew, goldenrod 1 Comment
August 24, 2014 by Dave Bonta

A large spider rappels sideways across the yard on an invisible thread, while a bee struggles to maintain its balance on the porch rail.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags bees, spiders 1 Comment
April 28, 2014 by Dave Bonta

On the myrtle flowers, nothing but native bees. The sun fades. A black-throated green warbler calls, switching between its two buzzy songs.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags bees, black-throated green warbler, myrtle

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On This Day

  • March 26, 2025
    A few degrees above freezing at sunrise. A titmouse’s monotonous song. The clouds turn orange and drift off like boats into the blue.
  • March 26, 2024
    Red spreading from the clouds to the western ridge. Robin, cardinal, phoebe: the early-spring trio, joined by a downy woodpecker on percussion with a high-pitched…
  • March 26, 2023
    Robins have joined the dawn chorus to dramatic effect; the hollow’s echo chamber throbs with birdsong. The first vulture of the day soars past a…
  • March 26, 2022
    Heavy clouds except where the sun glimmers through. Snowflakes. The robin’s bright warble.
  • March 26, 2021
    Sunny and warm with high winds, as if March’s proverbial lion and lamb were the same. Trees sway drunkenly. Their dead shed leaves rise up.

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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