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Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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finches

December 22, 2011 by Dave Bonta

Another gray morning. A groundhog on walkabout freezes every six feet, eyes quick and brown as the shadow of a fox. Finches’ squeaky calls.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags finches, groundhog 2 Comments
December 25, 2010 by Dave Bonta

A few flakes in the air. A gray squirrel wanders through the lilac branches, scattering a pair of juncos. The squeaky calls of finches.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags finches, juncos, lilac, snowflakes 4 Comments
February 4, 2010 by Dave Bonta

A cloudless morning. The squeaky chatter of winter finches, so forlorn on an overcast day, now seems like the sound of happiness itself.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags finches 1 Comment
February 1, 2010 by Dave Bonta

Wind and water, scattered chirps of winter finches, the sound of two freight trains going through the gap: exactly the music I needed.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags finches, train

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On This Day

  • November 8, 2025
    Mostly clear after last night’s rain. A flat-tire moon hangs low in the west. The wingbeats of a raven are, for a few moments, the loudest sound.
  • November 8, 2024
    Clear and cold. The red squirrel makes its usual racket while the gray squirrels leap silently through the treetops. The western ridge turns red.
  • November 8, 2023
    The sun clears the ridge and I’m blinded—the oaks are mostly bare now. Those that aren’t, glow red like a scattering of old barns.
  • November 8, 2022
    5:20. Bleary-eyed smudge of an eclipsed moon above the western ridge. 6:20. Pink clouds turn orange. The first song sparrow.
  • November 8, 2021
    Yet another bright blue October day a month late. The scarlet oak Dad and I planted 25 years ago is in its glory, redder than the sunrise.

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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