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Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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mink

December 2, 2017 by Dave Bonta

Heavy frost. When the sun strikes it, a faint mist rises from the yard. My father stops the car in the road to say he’s just seen a mink.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags frost, mink, mist
November 19, 2013 by Dave Bonta

A mink hunts in the creek-side meadow, weaving through currant bushes where juncos bathe and groom, neither paying attention to the other.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black currants, juncos, mink 1 Comment
November 12, 2013 by Dave Bonta

The first half-inch of snow. A mink appears along the creek, looping over and under the snow-laden grass like a dark needle and thread.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags mink, snow, stream 1 Comment
October 11, 2012 by Dave Bonta

A large, dark weasel flushes a rabbit from cover and stops, rearing up on its hind legs: mink! We stare at each other with mutual disbelief.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cottontail, mink 1 Comment

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On This Day

  • October 30, 2025
    Hard rain easing off by mid-morning. The sky brightens. A junco by the springhouse warbles its most complex song.
  • October 30, 2024
    Dawn. High in a red oak crown an acorn lets go, tapping the branches on its way down like a blind man’s cane.
  • October 30, 2022
    Late in rising, I’m grateful to the oaks for still holding leaves—I don’t need sunglasses. My brother texts: Savannah sparrows in the field!
  • October 30, 2021
    Fog. A squirrel is peeling ribbons of bark from the branches of the big tulip tree. And all these years I’ve been blaming porcupines!
  • October 30, 2020
    Five minutes after I check the weather app to verify it’s going to stay cloudy, the sun comes out. The damp forest glistens like a salamander.

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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