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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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great spangled fritillary

June 12, 2026 by Dave Bonta

Breezy and warm. A chipmunk races down the driveway, trailed by a great-spangled fritillary. A few small scraps of cloud pass overhead.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags chipmunk, clouds, great spangled fritillary
July 12, 2016 by Dave Bonta

The random yet purposeful flight of a great-spangled fritillary. The wind dies and a piece of thistle down descends straight into the yard.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags bull thistle, great spangled fritillary, wind
June 14, 2016 by Dave Bonta

A cricket in the wall chirps more quickly now that the sun is on it. I sneeze and he falls silent. A great spangled fritillary careens past.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags crickets, great spangled fritillary
June 26, 2015 by Dave Bonta

Gray sky in which the sun slowly surfaces like a carp in a murky pond. Rain-slick leaves glisten. A great spangled fritillary zigzags past.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags clouds, great spangled fritillary, rain 1 Comment
June 16, 2015 by Dave Bonta

A great spangled fritillary lands in the grass, folds its orange wings shut and turns into a dead leaf, barely moving for the next hour.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags great spangled fritillary
June 24, 2010 by Dave Bonta

Sunny, hot and windy—an odd combination. The forest murmurs like surf on a hot day at the beach. An orange butterfly zooms past at 60 mph.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags great spangled fritillary 2 Comments

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On This Day

  • September 28, 2025
    Mist dissipating into blue. The walnut trees on the north side of the house are now nearly bare, even as the one on the south side is still more green than yellow. The sun briefly blazes through a new hole in the hillside canopy.
  • September 28, 2024
    Before daybreak, the crooning and snarling of raccoons up in the woods. In the silent aftermath, something large and dead crashes down.
  • September 28, 2023
    Clear and cold, with sound out of the east: the rumble and squeal of a slow freight train. Jays jeer. A wren puts the kettle on.
  • September 28, 2022
    Overcast, windy and cold at dawn. Soft thuds as the black walnut tree releases its ordnance onto the road.
  • September 28, 2021
    Thunderstorm at dawn; I rush through my shower so I can watch the rain. With each lightning flash, raindrops falling from the eaves become momentary suns.

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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