mountain laurel – The Morning Porch/Patio

Friday February 08, 2019

Dave Bonta February 8, 2019

Last night’s torrential rain has given way to wind, sunlight shimmering on the flooded stream and the waxy leaves of mountain laurel.

Dave Bonta February 20, 2017

Cloudless and still. Sun gleams on the laurel under the trees. I hear the crunch of footsteps on the gravel road from a hundred yards away.

Dave Bonta April 16, 2015

Two wild turkeys cross the road into the woods, their dark feathers shining in the sun as they disappear into the equally lustrous laurel.

Dave Bonta April 4, 2015

Fast moving cumulus clouds. When the sun comes out, it glistens on the mountain laurel leaves in the woods and in the yard, the periwinkle.

Dave Bonta March 31, 2014 1

On a bright morning, I can almost forget how many of the laurel bushes shining in the sun are sick and dying. A titmouse’s monotonous call.

Dave Bonta January 4, 2014 1

A high-pitched barking at sunrise. Three lost dogs come running through the mountain laurel, metal tags jangling around their necks.

Dave Bonta November 18, 2013 1

Shreds of clouds disintegrate as they drift toward the east. Sun on wind-tossed mountain laurel leaves—the whole hillside shimmers.

Dave Bonta April 3, 2013 1

All up the hillside, the glossy leaves of mountain laurel shimmer in the sun and wind. Minute snowflakes from who knows where pelt my cheek.

Dave Bonta March 16, 2013

During a lull in the snow, our neighbor drives past on the tractor. A deer leaps up from a patch of laurel, runs a few steps and stops.

Dave Bonta November 6, 2012 2

The first bright sun since the leaves came down. I’m dazzled by the hillside of gleaming laurel interspersed with white flashes—junco wings.