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Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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winter cress

May 7, 2017 by Dave Bonta

‪The first dame’s-rocket are coming out: dabs of purple among the banks of winter cress and garlic mustard. Basically, it’s rocket season.‬

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags dame's-rocket, garlic mustard, winter cress
May 7, 2016 by Dave Bonta

All the tulip trees I’ve planted over the years are shimmering towers of pale green. A rabbit’s ears twitch in a patch of wild mustard.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cottontail, tulip tree, winter cress 1 Comment
May 18, 2015 by Dave Bonta

It’s wild mustard season, the yard dotted with purple dame’s-rocket, white garlic mustard, and among the cattails a riot of yellow rocket.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cattails, dame's-rocket, garlic mustard, winter cress

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On This Day

  • March 19, 2025
    Cool and clear. At sunrise a red squirrel appears on the end of my porch instead of the usual gray squirrel, spots me, and moves over to the stone wall where chipmunks always sit, nervously peering all about.
  • March 19, 2024
    Four hours before the equinox, the ground is white, with more snow swirling down. The miniature daffodils dangle from their stalks like deflated balloons.
  • March 19, 2023
    A dozen dead leaves circle the yard as the clouds’ bellies turn orange. A phoebe calls once, sotto voce, from a branch above the creek.
  • March 19, 2022
    Humid and cool. The sun keeps finding new holes in the clouds. The woodpeckers keep drumming.
  • March 19, 2021
    A ray of sun strikes the lilac, setting its yellow buds aglow. The sound of water gurgling under my yard. The back-and-forth of nuthatches.

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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