Here is the local crowd in the pussy willow down the road at 2 pm yesterday. Bees, wild and domestic. Big honey bees, small solitary bees, and even a fly or two. […]
Helping the Bees
Climate, Wild Harvest and Human Life as Environments
More important as a food crop than the pretty yellow bell lily … …is desert parsley. She’s cream-coloured… … with short flower stalks, or tall ones… … or purple, when still half-closed… […]
Yellow Bells Arrive
Once an important food crop, yellow bells are now rare, yet continue to mark the exchange of water and heat in the soil and to mark what is still possible for renewal […]
The First Petal of the First Blossom of the Sun
It’s a good day for arrow-leafed balsam roots. They have come fast (in two days). If you hurry, there’s still time for some fine steamed sprouts. Their menthol flavour is not yet […]
The Glory That is Paul Terbasket’s Apricot Tree
In 1915, Paul Terbasket of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band was jailed for disobeying a foolish court order and watering his orchard. One apricot tree remains. His land is leased out to […]
Rising With the Trees
On the grasslands of the Similkameen, where the mountains are the sky, one forgets, at times, to pay attention to distance, but here is a reminder. Notice the remnants of a lakebed […]
Waiting for the Fire in Lake Country
So, here’s the deer, porcupine, snake and coyote trail going up the hill. The bear likes to stay down in the gully to the left. That’s a siya? bush, fruitful with berries […]
What is Medicine? What Isn’t?
In Western culture, artistically-prepared, purified products are medicine. They are designed to correct a deficiency or combat an invasion to the body’s temple. The natural state of this temple is one of […]
Sagebrush Buttercup’s Wisdom
It’s time for sagebrush buttercup. Look at her bloom, even though she started in November and got blasted by the deep cold of February. Sagebrush Buttercup with a precious ball of deer […]
The Exquisite Choreography of Natural Intelligence
Ah, the patterns of the snow and water in the grass as they blow around in the winds of the sun. Exquisite! The view south down the Similkameen But there’s something else […]
Okanagan Okanogan 