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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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fog

December 2, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Fog hides the sunrise, apart from a small opening on the ridgetop that fills with golden light. Then the gray curtain comes down again.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fog, sunrise
October 19, 2023 by Dave Bonta

One degree above freezing and very still. I add my breath to the ground fog rising through yellow leaves into the sunlight.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cold, fall foliage, fog
October 4, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Half moon high overhead at 5:00, half-illuminating the ground fog and darkening the shadows into which walnuts thud down.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, fog
October 3, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Moon above, mist below, and the treetops shot with sun. Jays call back and forth, acorns filling the pouches in their throats.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags blue jays, fog, moon
September 21, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Dawn: the red thread of a contrail fraying as it fades. Fog rises from the goldenrod, erasing the faint dot that must’ve been Mercury.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags dawn, fog, goldenrod, jet, Mercury
September 10, 2023 by Dave Bonta

The treetops are full of fog and small birds catching insects. Everything drips. A yellowjacket begins a slow inspection of the porch balustrade.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fall warblers, fog, yellowjacket
July 18, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Dawn fog loud with noise from the interstate, thanks to an inversion layer: it’s chilly for July. I don a flannel shirt and soon find myself daydreaming about autumn.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fog, I-99
July 15, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Fog lingering into mid-morning. Whatever the crows are up to, it involves a lot of begging sounds. The wild garlic heads are beginning to split.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, fog, wild garlic
July 7, 2023 by Dave Bonta

A foggy sunrise. The catbird circles the house, mimicking the Carolina wren on double speed.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags catbird, fog
June 26, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Thick fog. The wren sings from the other side of the house, seemingly unconcerned by losing two days’ labor when their unbalanced new nest fell out of the rafters.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren, fog
June 24, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Foggy at dawn for the wood thrush’s solo. The wild garlics are beginning to raise their egret heads.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags dawn, fog, garlic, wood thrush
June 16, 2023 by Dave Bonta

The soft noise of steady rain; birdcalls sound half-submerged. I watch wisps of cloud drift through the yard.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fog, rain
May 14, 2023 by Dave Bonta

A catbird running through his dawn monologue is drowned out by a whippoorwill. Fog forms in the lower hollow, extending a ghostly finger into the marsh.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags catbird, dawn, fog, whippoorwill
May 6, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Ground fog turns the field white at sunrise. A rabbit feeding at the edge of the driveway feels me watching and looks up, eyes unreadable as quicksand.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cottontail, fog, sunrise
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On This Day

  • November 2, 2025
    Clear and cold. The sun pops up—the pea in our daylight-savings shell game. A screech owl begins to trill.
  • November 2, 2024
    A screech owl trilling just before sunrise sets the small birds off. The forsythia at the woods’ edge is once again yellow. The clouds turn red.
  • November 2, 2023
    25F at sunrise. A ruffed grouse—the first I’ve seen since last winter—flushes from under the lilac. Perhaps the population is beginning to recover from West Nile Virus? I relish the small thunder of its wings.
  • November 2, 2022
    Sun through a scrim of cloud. From within a flame-leaved barberry bush, the crisp ticking of a junco.
  • November 2, 2021
    Two degrees above freezing with a dull gray sky—very Novemberish. Except the trees aren’t bare, the oaks yet to reach their peak of color.

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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