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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

  • October 22, 2025
    Wind breaking up the yellow-bellied clouds. Tulip tree samaras spin like the blades of invisible helicopters—a whole squadron headed out into the meadow.
  • October 22, 2024
    Orange light seeps down the western ridge. The half moon high overhead has been abandoned by its entourage of stars. A crow sits in a newly bare walnut tree, yelling.
  • October 22, 2023
    After a windy night, the forest is looking decidedly threadbare in its coat of many colors, illuminated each time the sun finds a hole in the clouds.
  • October 22, 2022
    Clear and still. I watch the sun inch through the half-turned canopies of the oaks. A chipmunk begins his morning chant.
  • October 22, 2021
    Gloomy with a few drops of rain. I spot a new-to-me Virginia creeper six feet from the porch: that crimson.

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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