I have worked here since 2011 telling stories of the Earth as preparation for a history of the Intermontane Grasslands of Central Cascadia and the rainswept coast that keeps them windy and dry. Now I am presenting this history, step by step, as I have learned it, often from the land itself. The history of this region includes the Canadian colonial space “The Okanagan Valley”, which lies over the land I live in above Canim Bay. The story stretches deep into the American West, into the US Civil War, the War of 1812, and the Louisiana Purchase, as well into the history of the Columbia District of the Hudson’s Bay Company. In all, the story spans the Chilcotin and Columbia volcanic plateaus and the basins that surround them. In this vast watershed lie homelands as old as 13,200 years (Sequim) and 16,200 years (Salmon River.) That’s how far we are walking together here, who are all the land speaking.
Okanagan Okanogan 
She’s actually very beautiful, graceful. Lethal?
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Extremely graceful and beautiful, indeed. The photograph can’t capture the black shine, or the way she moves those long front legs. Lethal to people with heart, respiratory or nervous conditions. And to small children. They are everywhere. Next time you’re in the Nicola, I suggest you poke around in some irrigation tap boxes … you’re bound to find them, but rarely as big as this one. They don’t wander. They hunker down in a spot and stay there.
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Once, when we were camping at Monck Park, we went to a naturalist talk and the guy passed around a film canister (remember those???) with a female black widow in it. I remember the vivid red.
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Yes, it can be so red! I thought this one was gone, actually, but it seems she was just sleeping off the preying mantis that she ate.
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I feel a bit worried for that tiny male. The Black Widow got her name for a reason!
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He’s been there for months! If there’s enough to eat, he’ll be fine. Plus, he’s a very handsome dude, don’t you think?
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Reblogged this on Serena Maine.
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