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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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fog

April 30, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Steady rain through the intense green of new leaves, softened by fog. A gray squirrel sits hunched over an acorn under the awning of its tail.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fog, gray squirrel, rain 1 Comment
April 29, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Thin fog full of goldfinch chatter and turkey gobbling. A rare red squirrel emerges from the woods and zips all around the springhouse.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American goldfinch, fog, red squirrel, wild turkey
April 16, 2023April 16, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Sun glimmering through fog as wild turkeys whine and gobble, mourning doves moan, and a red-winged blackbird sings in the marsh.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fog, mourning doves, red-winged blackbirds, sunrise, wild turkey
April 1, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Rain and fog linger from a pre-dawn thunderstorm as the sky brightens. The nasal calls of woodcocks mingle with a torrent of robin song.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American robin, dawn, fog, rain, woodcock
March 23, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Fog and scattered showers. The last few woodcock peents overlap with phoebes—two of them already, trying to out-sing each other.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fog, phoebe, rain, sunrise, woodcock
February 28, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Rain and fog and the ground white with slush. I try to remember the last time I saw a rabbit.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fog, rain, snow
February 23, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Mist rises from yesterday’s half inch of icy snow. A robin briefly joins the dawn chorus. The front-garden chipmunk returns from the woods with bulging cheeks.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American robin, chipmunks, fog, snow
January 30, 2023 by Dave Bonta

The snowpack is holey again. A sunrise sky is visible through the trees on the ridgetop for just a few minutes until the fog descends.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fog, snow, sunrise
January 12, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Fog prolongs the dawn well past sunrise. How long will squirrels keep scolding after a cat has slunk away? Ten minutes and counting.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cats, fog, gray squirrel, sunrise
December 7, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Thin fog/low clouds. It feels as if rain could start at any moment but does not. A Carolina wren nearly drowns out the sound of traffic.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren, fog, I-99, rain
November 11, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Steady drumming of rain on the porch roof. Dark trunks disappearing into fog. A classic November day.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fog, rain
October 25, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Overcast with fog that thins out for the purported sunrise. It’s warm enough that one tree cricket trills in the herb garden.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags clouds, crickets, fog, sunrise
September 17, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Thin fog at sunrise. A pileated woodpecker lands on the side of a tall locust tree and gets bum-rushed by a squirrel.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black locust, fog, gray squirrel, pileated woodpecker, sunrise
September 12, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Fog rising into the treetops. The garden chipmunk keeps me company, sitting on the end of the wall, scratching his belly.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags chipmunks, fog
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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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