This is an awfully wonderful planet — sometimes delightfully so. Here is a typical reed dweller…

Red Winged Blackbird Giving Me the Eye

The weak colour of his wing patch indicates that he’s not feeling very dominant. Probably all the dogs and the fact that he’s at the end of the Vernon Airport runway. That’s Cessna angst in his eyes, good people.

And here is a typical water dweller …

Coot

Coots never touch shore. They even build their nests on floating reed islands, and swim around in circles in the fall, all the starry night long, to keep the water from freezing around them. If you’ve heard the phrase, “Crazy as a Coot”, don’t believe it. These guys and gals are smarter than all get out. A toast to the coots!

And here’s a typical tree dweller …

Northern Flicker

Happy in a bit of pretty Chinese greenery that has invaded the wetlands.

But what about this guy?

Muskrat Doing What Muskrats Do Best

This used to be a wetland. Now it’s a series of tiny ponds surrounded by mown grass, where people walk their very best friends, the ones with the bark at one end and the wag at the other and usually no leash in between. Still, this muskrat rules its little 700 square foot kingdom.

Thing is, this is its kingdom …

Did You Know that Muskrats Live in the Trees?

Move over beavers!

Of course, if you take more than three photos, they get wise to you …

Muskrat Descending to its Tree

and becoming the water.

In earth writing, things are exactly as they seem. The water is the unconscious. It is the place where real power takes place, and gravity and light mingle and flow, together…

Willow Tree Subconscious

It flows into you, while you flow into it.

And where do you go, together, pray tell?

Gulls on the Vernon Creek Estuary, Okanagan Lake

So why do humans abuse their subconscious and do this, hmmmmmmm?

Chopping up Eurasian Water Milfoil at the Vernon Creek Estuary (Okanagan Lake)

You do it so that people can go swimming without getting tangled in the invasive weeds. Note as well the forestry seed orchard planted on Syilx grasslands in the background.

Um, who is the invasive weed here?