Grape growing has its rituals. If you’re going to take a plant that roots itself as it tumbles down hot volcanic soils on river banks in humid Europe and move it around […]
Voodoo Grapes in the Okanagan
The Turtle of Turtle Ridge
At some point, many years ago, someone built a turtle on Turtle Ridge, between Head of the Lake (yes, a turtle head) and Turtle Mountain, and left it for us to find […]
Let’s Cancel Christmas
I mean, really. A holiday that sees people putting spiritual wreathes on their doors, made out of the woven limbs of bushes in a prayer for coming spring, that sees them tossed […]
Too Much Sagebrush
As we have arranged our property ownership in such a way that we can’t move out of the path of necessary fire, we are going to have to cut this stuff out […]
Water, Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink
It has been a dry spring. The force of the winds hitting the Coast and Cascade Mountains is creating a stronger than normal mountain of lift to the east. Here’s how it […]
Never Too Old to Be Young!
That’s síya? for you. You go, girl!
Brave Bees… Perhaps
The balsam root blossoms on the hill were visited by these furry brown bees yesterday. These are the first bees I’ve seen on the flowers that were not shy. They wouldn’t scare. […]
The Last Great Grassland
Here under Cipak, the sacred mountain of the Similkameen, the maiden wearing her wedding veil at this time of year and the eastern toe of the Cascades, lies a grassland without weeds, […]
In the Grasslands, Tiny Effects Aren’t Tiny at All
When I was working on the Spirit in the Grass book with photographer Chris Harris, one of the ecologists on the project told me that the effects of sun and shadow at […]
