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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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gray squirrel

January 7, 2023 by Dave Bonta

Overcast and quiet, with a fresh dusting of snow. A squirrel loses its nerve and backs off from a death-defying leap.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags gray squirrel, snow
December 29, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Sunrise stains the western ridge barn-red as the dawn chorus of crows rises to a cacophony. High in a walnut tree, a squirrel is licking its genitals.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, black walnut, gray squirrel, sunrise
December 6, 2022 by Dave Bonta

In the cold drizzle, a squirrel looks less gray than silver, shining dully as she crouches under the fur umbrella of her tail.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags gray squirrel, rain
December 2, 2022 by Dave Bonta

The frosted meadow glitters in the sun. A scrabbling of squirrel claws on bark. Off to the south, a raven croaks; to the north, crows.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American crow, frost, gray squirrel, raven 1 Comment
November 28, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Mostly overcast and quiet, apart from the wind. A squirrel with an acorn in her mouth pauses for a split second at the end of a branch, then leaps.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags clouds, gray squirrel, 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 14, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Heavy cloud cover. A gray squirrel chiseling open a walnut squats on a low branch with its tail curled over its head for warmth.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, clouds, gray squirrel
October 2, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Light rain seasoning the breeze. A squirrel perched on a swaying limb chisels open a walnut—that haunted-house sound.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, gray squirrel, rain 2 Comments
October 1, 2022 by Dave Bonta

A mid-morning break in the rain. The sun almost comes out. From up in the woods, the shrill panic of a squirrel just missed by a hawk.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags gray squirrel, rain
September 24, 2022 by Dave Bonta

A couple of cold nights and the yellow has spread like a contagion through the birches. A squirrel hangs down among the green walnuts.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black birch, black walnut, fall foliage, gray squirrel
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 9, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Thick fog slowly infused with sunlight. A squirrel drops pieces of black walnut shell into the dew-soaked weeds.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, fog, gray squirrel
August 30, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Out before sunrise to watch a thunderstorm that never appears. The clouds half-clear. Squirrels go about their business.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags clouds, gray squirrel
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On This Day

  • August 28, 2025
    Cold and clear, autumnal weather continues, with a heavy inversion layer that makes the interstate sound as if it’s just above the barn. Dew drips from the roof.
  • August 28, 2024
    Warm and humid, with a sickle moon high overhead. I battle mosquitos in between reading about eastern equine encephalitis on my phone.
  • August 28, 2023
    Gray rain clouds thickening towards 8:00. It’s very still; long moments go by without a single bird call. A beetle finds its way to the butterfly weed.
  • August 28, 2021
    The fog slowly lifts, except where it’s been trapped by funnel spider webs. The cardinal’s cheer seems a bit misplaced.
  • August 28, 2016
    A warm morning, and all I hear are the birds of winter: chickadee, nuthatch, pileated woodpecker. A dead cranefly dangles from a spiderweb.

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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