pear tree

4/17/2017

Dave Bonta April 17, 2017

‪I can’t see the pear tree behind the house, but from time to time a few petals flutter down among the cabbage white butterflies in the yard.‬

4/23/2016

Dave Bonta April 23, 2016 1

The black birches are in blossom—gray catkins dangling like understated feather boas. Nothing like the wild pear tree’s blaring white.

11/23/2015

Dave Bonta November 23, 2015

Bright and still; the meadow glitters with frost. Behind the house, a deer sniffs then licks a fallen pear and turns away.

12/20/2014

Dave Bonta December 20, 2014 1

Christmas Bird Count! Crow, junco, white-throated sparrow. Three chickadees, two nuthatches and a cardinal. Nothing in the damn pear tree.

5/11/2014

Dave Bonta May 11, 2014 1

The catbird is already in full throat at sunrise. Six deer graze in the meadow below the blossoming pear tree, muzzles dripping.

2/3/2012

Dave Bonta February 3, 2012 2

Is it overcast or sunny, warm or cold? I don’t even notice. The line crew is back, and they’ve chainsawed the top off a dwarf pear tree.

10/27/2011

Dave Bonta October 27, 2011 2

Deer circle the wild pear tree behind the house, rising high on their hind legs to reach the fruit. A crow jeers from a nearby walnut limb.

10/27/2011

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!
10/27/2011

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!
10/27/2011

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…
10/27/2011

October 30, 2018
Two tulip poplar leaves vibrate in a private wind: chickadees. The western ridge turns from blood-red to orange to yellow—autumn in reverse.
10/27/2011

October 30, 2017
High winds after a soaking rain. The fallen walnuts in the driveway have all turned black, soggy hulls sagging like bodies in a bog.
10/27/2011

October 30, 2016
Gray in the west, yellow in the east, blue overhead. A tiny sharp-shinned hawk lands in a yard tree and only one squirrel bothers to…
10/27/2011

October 30, 2015
A titmouse scolds something hidden among blood-red barberries. The dead stiltgrass twitches with a second life like hair on a corpse.
10/27/2011

October 30, 2014
The woods and fields are brown now, but the large lilac is still a wall of yellowed green, like faded posters for a long-gone fair.
10/27/2011

October 30, 2013
Juncos forage in the meadow, softly twittering. The dull booms of distant gunshots like great lead spikes being driven into the earth.
10/27/2011

October 30, 2012
Calm. Sandy’s center must be close. The top half of the dead elm tree has blown down, breaking the back of the old dog statue.

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