Rain and fog and the ground white with slush. I try to remember the last time I saw a rabbit.
rain
February 21, 2023
Interval of sun on a rainy morning—the forest shines and steams. The distant yammering of a pileated. The interstate’s whine.
February 17, 2023
Wind and rain. In the gray-brown woods, two silent pileated woodpeckers flap from tree to tree, wings like a revelation in black and white.
February 16, 2023
No sign of the sun after a lurid dawn—the forecasted rain has its P.R. down. I can smell it. I listen for the first drops through a torrent of birdsong.
January 19, 2023
Steady, hard rain blurring the transition from night to day. How much silence there’d be if it were snow. How much more light.
January 17, 2023
Cold rain. The last scrap of December’s snow in the yard has shrunk to the size of a handkerchief. A back-and-forth between a titmouse and a chickadee.
January 3, 2023
Hard rain beginning to ease by late morning. Chirps and twitters become audible. The last patches of snow line the road like litter.
December 7, 2022
Thin fog/low clouds. It feels as if rain could start at any moment but does not. A Carolina wren nearly drowns out the sound of traffic.
December 6, 2022
In the cold drizzle, a squirrel looks less gray than silver, shining dully as she crouches under the fur umbrella of her tail.
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.
November 30, 2022
Rain-slick trees green with lichen dance in a puddle’s punctuated sky.
November 25, 2022
Warm rain. The snow has shrunk to a few scrofulous patches in the woods. Half an hour before sunrise, a bluebird is singing.
November 12, 2022
A lull in the rains. The transition from a watercolor world to pencil-brown and charcoal-gray is nearly complete.
November 11, 2022
Steady drumming of rain on the porch roof. Dark trunks disappearing into fog. A classic November day.