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 
His (distant) sister is walking through here most mornings, looking for a good place to give birth. I feel mean, chasing her away from the garden…
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I have too much salad in my garden right now. You might suggest she come this way. 😉
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Well, the thing is, she seems to prefer the sweet new growth on the roses (grown in the fenced vegetable garden for obvious reasons) to anything else. She stands by the fence, looking wistfully in. And the other day there was a bear in the garden, licking up fish compost. Spring…
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We looked after Henry the Egyptian Street Dog last spring, and he liked roses too…dug them up. No wonder roses have thorns!
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