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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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brown creeper

August 26, 2012October 31, 2010 by Dave Bonta

Below the porch, a dot of pink: a very late dame’s-rocket blooming the day after a hard frost. A brown creeper inspects a small walnut tree.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, brown creeper, dame's-rocket, frost
January 18, 2010 by Dave Bonta

The overcast sky looks the same, but the light turns from glow to dull in just 15 minutes. I watch a brown creeper but hear only nuthatches.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags brown creeper, white-breasted nuthatch
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On This Day

  • January 12, 2025
    Not far below freezing. The sun appears through a keyhole in the clouds. A gray squirrel reaches into the snow and extracts a black walnut.
  • January 12, 2024
    The Carolina wren who sleeps above my laundry-room door forms a one-bird cheering section for the sunrise. Then the cloud-lid closes, and only the creek…
  • January 12, 2023
    Fog prolongs the dawn well past sunrise. How long will squirrels keep scolding after a cat has slunk away? Ten minutes and counting.
  • January 12, 2021
    A mixed flock of winter birds flitting though the yard. The mockingbird comes flying over the house and joins them at a half-frozen seep.
  • January 12, 2020
    A yellow gash appears in the clouds to the east and heals up again. The cardinal attacks his reflection. Military jets howl over, unseen.

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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