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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

  • September 30, 2025
    Sunrise brings birdsong: a Tennesee warbler’s blur of high notes answered by a towhee’s interrogatory tweet, and a white-throated sparrow’s “Oh, sweet Canada” giving way to the reedy whistles of cedar waxwings, tut-tutting robins, and a winter wren’s liquid braid.
  • September 30, 2024
    Rain. The rumble of a distant jet. A squirrel crouches on a limb with her tail over her head, chiseling open a walnut.
  • September 30, 2023
    A clearing sky. with traffic sound out of the east. Six geese coming flapping low over the trees, honking like lost Volvos.
  • September 30, 2022
    Overcast and cold. A furious back-and-forth of chainsaws from the powerline, where a crew works to refresh the century-old clearcut.
  • September 30, 2021
    Clear and still. A double splat of black walnuts onto the driveway. At the top of an oak, a crow grooms itself with a soft clicking sound.

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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