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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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cold

November 20, 2022 by Dave Bonta

As cold as yesterday but with orange-bellied clouds and a wind. A tulip tree seed helicopters into the yard and rises up over the house.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags clouds, cold, sunrise, tulip tree, wind
November 19, 2022 by Dave Bonta

The wind dropped in the night—and so did the mercury. It’s quiet. A squirrel chisels open a walnut. The cold creeps in through layers of clothing.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cold, gray squirrel
November 18, 2022 by Dave Bonta

January weather, blustery and cold—and just as in January, two gray squirrels play amorous hide-and-seek on the trunk of the big tulip poplar.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cold, gray squirrel, wind
November 17, 2022 by Dave Bonta

-3C/27F with a wind. A hunter’s pickup rumbles past. A flock of small birds flies in a tight, silent cluster over the treetops.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cold, hunters, wind
November 9, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Clear and cold. With the power out, morning is a logistical challenge, but when I have the time to sit, the sparrows are singing as usual.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cold, power outages
October 28, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Cold and mostly overcast, but the rising sun strikes my face a full hour earlier due to overnight thinning of the leaves.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags clouds, cold, sunrise
October 21, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Two degrees below freezing and clear at sunrise. A falling tulip tree leaf lands with an audible tick.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cold, fall foliage, sunrise, tulip tree
October 18, 2022 by Dave Bonta

A cold and windy dawn. The crescent moon drowns in a sorcery of pink.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags clouds, cold, dawn, sunrise, wind 2 Comments
October 9, 2022 by Dave Bonta

One degree above freezing at sunrise. A breeze reshuffles the walnut leaves on the porch. I find small patches of frost up by the barn.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cold, frost, wind
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 23, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Windy and cold (40F/5C). A sudden outpouring of Canada goose music. The sun comes out from behind the only cloud.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Canada geese, clouds, cold
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
August 13, 2022 by Dave Bonta

45F/7C at sunrise. I carry a chair up into the woods, watch sunlight seep down the oaks with color commentary by a red-eyed vireo.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cold, red-eyed vireo, sunrise
July 26, 2022 by Dave Bonta

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.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, black locust, cold, sunrise
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On This Day

  • March 28, 2025
    Sunrise from under a lid of cloud turning the ridge orange. The robin sings a few bars. A propellor plane fades into the distance.
  • March 28, 2024
    A band of salmon-colored cloud above the horizon half an hour past sunrise. From the top branch of a walnut tree, a brown-headed cowbird sings…
  • March 28, 2023
    Rain easing off by mid-morning. The sun comes half-way out in the mirrors of raindrops dangling from branches, the forest like a pop-up gallery of…
  • March 28, 2022
    Bitter cold at sunrise. The usual singers are subdued, except for one dove. The occasional bang of heartwood split by ice.
  • March 28, 2021
    Rain and the first daffodils: April has come early. Fog appears and disappears among the trees. The robin unspools a silver thread of song.

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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