I’ve never seen a mariposa lily growing uphill from a stone. Uphill from a sagebrush, yes, but not a stone. They need well-drained soil, which means they grow best where water, snow […]
The Day the Sky Came Down to Earth
The shallots I planted last July are blooming now, and replacing the lost nodding onions up on the hill. The sky has noticed. Welcome, Sky! These blue beauties were in the mariposa […]
Solar Tides
Morning Glory in the morning. Morning Glory in the evening. A Plant Doesn’t Have to Be Edible to Be Useful! If you plant morning glory (or let the weeds grow, as these […]
A Bee in the, um, Lettuce
Alfalfa flowers make exquisite salad, with a bright green flavour drenched in honey. Let us just give a little leeway to our fellow diners! There’s enough to share.
Please, Please, Please Don’t Plant That Lavender!
If you plant that lavender, the crab spiders will have nowhere to go, and they are the wolves of this ecosystem. Removing the top predator from a chain, in this case a […]
Not Just Another Pretty Face
A lovely day for bumble bees. The beauty hangout today is the vetch on the hill. Pretty nice for an escapee from a hay bale! And of course, the queen of the […]
In the Okanagan, the Pineapples are Ripe When the Snow Flies
Well, pineapple weed! All that cottonwood snow makes it hard to harvest! Or so it seems, but look! The pineapples are above the snow!
Do It Yourself Totem Pole in the North Okanagan
If you plant it, they will come. The mid-morning bird gets the worm, but does he fly back to the nest with it, puff, puff, puff? No, he does not. He makes […]
Beauty and the Bees
I spent the day yesterday at Tree to Me, an organic orchard in the Similkameen Valley. The apples were in bloom. Before grafting some apple trees and maintaining the grafts I put […]
Joy in the Week of Bees and Wind
When the wind is a bee. Filbert catkins, waiting for the wind. When a bee is the wind. Well, a wasp, but what a tiny beauty with her fur stole! […]
Okanagan Okanogan 