Like all sunflowers, balsam roots bloom in rings, from the outside in, like this. Here’s a bumblebee showing her technique for working this kind of flower. Here’s the brown bee […]
A Bee for Every Flower?
I Am Never Alone
The ravens make a point of flying overhead and saying “Kalook!”, the flickers make a point of keeping me in sight, as they flit from tree to tree up the slope and […]
Why Did the Garter Snake Cross the Road?
It’s a spring thing, I think.
Slowing Down the Garden
Some gardens are meant to be seen at speed. But if you go by foot, they reveal new faces. Call it spring plum snow. Drifting. Piling up. […]
Bad UFO Landing Sites
Weaver Ant Hill. Danger of death by nibbling. Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Extreme warning: sturgeon fishermen. Highway 97. Splat. Bonneville Dam. Too many hooks.Black Hole. Too scary.Chinese Elm Flowers. Danger of tangling the […]
Reading Ants
It’s spring and the weaver ants are rising from their hills. I’ve been reading them. Here in the warm afternoon sun, the centre of their hill is black, while they descend into […]
Living on a Sphere
If the earth were flat, she would be half as much fun. The grassy slope would always have the same orientation to the sun, for one thing. With a tilted earth, sometimes […]
Of Mice and Men
Under the snowdrifts, mice ate between the thorns. On the Columbia River, men try to catch their salmon in the same way. In the second image, however, you can see […]
Why Do Some Fire Hydrants Play Cowboys and Mexicans?
Russian thistle was one of the first weeds from the Russian steppes to destroy the grasslands of the North American West. It became one of the dominant characters in Country & Western music, […]
Okanagan Traffic
That one catkin on the right seems especially grid-locked.
Okanagan Okanogan 