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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

The Morning Porch
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black walnut

November 14, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Heavy cloud cover. A gray squirrel chiseling open a walnut squats on a low branch with its tail curled over its head for warmth.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, clouds, gray squirrel
October 2, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Light rain seasoning the breeze. A squirrel perched on a swaying limb chisels open a walnut—that haunted-house sound.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, gray squirrel, rain 2 Comments
September 28, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Overcast, windy and cold at dawn. Soft thuds as the black walnut tree releases its ordnance onto the road.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, clouds, cold, wind
September 24, 2022 by Dave Bonta

A couple of cold nights and the yellow has spread like a contagion through the birches. A squirrel hangs down among the green walnuts.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black birch, black walnut, fall foliage, gray squirrel
September 16, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Cold (46F) with thin, high clouds. Black walnuts knocking on the roof. A red-tailed hawk drops in to visit the squirrels.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, clouds, cold, red-tailed hawk
September 9, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Thick fog slowly infused with sunlight. A squirrel drops pieces of black walnut shell into the dew-soaked weeds.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, fog, gray squirrel
August 22, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Overcast with a shimmer of light rain. A red-eyed vireo still calls at the woods’ edge. The thud of a black walnut onto a roof.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, rain, red-eyed vireo
August 6, 2022 by Dave Bonta

The first yellow leaves on the walnuts: it’s late summer already. The fog hides trees and reveals old spiderwebs like messages in invisible ink.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, fog, spiderwebs
August 4, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Cool beginning to another scorcher. A fly goes for a walk down a porch column. The thud of a walnut on the road.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, flies
July 17, 2022 by Dave Bonta

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

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, firefly, rain 1 Comment
June 1, 2022June 1, 2022 by Dave Bonta

A black-and-white warbler probes the cracks between the floorboards for soft bits of grit and hair to line its nest, high in a walnut tree.*

*Or not. See here.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, black-and-white warbler
May 30, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Clear and cool. A gnatcatcher scoops a caterpillar off a walnut leaf and swipes it against a branch three times before swallowing.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, blue-gray gnatcatcher
February 4, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Dawn, and all the stream’s voices are raised. A squirrel finds a black walnut sticking out of a snowbank and races off with it.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, dawn, gray squirrel, stream
December 10, 2021 by Dave Bonta

Finches cluster high in a black birch, gorging in silence. A squirrel digs up a walnut and re-buries it on the other side of the road.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black birch, black walnut, gray squirrel
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On This Day

  • January 13, 2025
    Overcast and two degrees above freezing at dawn, the inversion layer bringing traffic noise from the valley to mingle with scattered chirps and the whistles…
  • January 13, 2024
    After a night of snow and rain, trees rock and clatter under orange clouds. The roof drips. Scattered flakes swirl past.
  • January 13, 2023
    Treetops rock and sway as the dawn sky shuffles patches of darkness and patches of light. The inevitable crow.
  • January 13, 2021
    Cold, gray, and still. Two squirrels attract small followings as they wander over the snowpack, a sign of seasonal heat building within.
  • January 13, 2020
    Quiet except for the distant whine of traffic on I-99 and some small bird chirping behind the oil tanks. The sun comes out for five…

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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