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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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hornet

June 10, 2016 by Dave Bonta

Batting away a hornet hovering next to my legs—the softness of its wings. A chipmunk adds its metronome to the chorus of bird calls.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags chipmunks, hornet, yellowjacket
April 25, 2016 by Dave Bonta

High clouds spread and thicken—slow yeast in a blue bowl. A hornet hovers behind my head, buzzing like an alarm clock I can’t turn off.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags clouds, hornet 1 Comment
September 22, 2013 by Dave Bonta

The hornets stream in and out of their hole in the garden, departing to the south, returning from the east. A towhee calling in the dogwood.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags garden, hornet, silky dogwood, towhee, yellowjacket
August 27, 2013 by Dave Bonta

A hornet nuzzles my arm like a hoverfly but doesn’t sting. In the garden, the buzz of hummingbirds dueling over scraps of bloom.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags garden, hornet, ruby-throated hummingbird, yellowjacket 2 Comments
August 22, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Weeding the garden is never dull. Yesterday morning a milk snake writhed around my wrist; today, hornets boil up and sting my hand.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags garden, hornet, milk snake, yellowjacket 1 Comment
May 22, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Warm and humid. A hornet inspecting the porch on foot pauses in front of my sandals, waving her antennae like Geiger counter wands.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags hornet, humidity 1 Comment

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On This Day

  • December 3, 2024
    A stray snowflake wanders down from the pink clouds, itself still white. Doves flock to the birdseed on my mother’s back porch—the silvery whistles of…
  • December 3, 2023
    Steady rain. An hour past sunrise the sky brightens a little, and the trees in their green sleeves of lichen begin to glow.
  • December 3, 2022
    Cold rain. Four chickadees in a high-speed chase around the yard pause in the lilac for a vociferous exchange of views.
  • December 3, 2021
    Clouds with blue veins and sunrise bellies. Two nuthatches trade harangues. A crow summons other crows to—I’m guessing—a fresh gut pile.
  • December 3, 2020
    Bright sun; the snow on the porch has shrunk to the railings’ shadows. That special word for wind in pines, sough: putting the ow back…

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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