When the rail line along Kalamalka Lake was decommissioned, communities along the trail came together to purchase the land and turn it into a four-season lake-side trail. Preparation work included ripping out […]
Becoming History in the Okanagan
Murdering Geese for Tourists. It’s What We Do.
These geese. Come June, they will be herded with kayaks, put on a truck, killed, and dumped in the landfill. These geese: On a beach that has silted in with road sand […]
The Gift Culture of the Grasslands
Flax is beautiful. The seeds grow heavy and lower the seed to the ground. Mice eat the seed there. And then it lifts up again, through the snow! These aren’t seeds that […]
Rototilling 101
First, plant some flowers. Watch them grow. Nice, eh! Bees will burrow into the soil and lay their eggs. Nicer yet! Voles will come and root around, as voles will do. By […]
Bunch Grass Doesn’t Stabilize Slopes
Blue bunch wheatgrass has been used to stabilize slopes in The Rise subdivision here in Vernon. The goal was to do so in an environmentally-friendly manner, to compensate for irreplaceable habitat lost […]
Whole Worlds Hidden from the Settler Gaze
Under the snow, it’s spring. Under stone, it’s the same. Where the sun intensifies and molten water collects, it’s spring. This is when the rock is mined for nutrients that feed the […]
The Dance of the Deer and the Pines
Oyama Not only is every ponderosa pine here a vertical column, rather than a star of branches as it appears to human eyes, and not only does it create a zone under […]
Pigeons and Dates under the Rising Sun
Blessings. The darkness is falling back now. The sun is coming back. Look who showed up today in Penticton. What ancient symbols of renewal! A pigeon and Russian Olives (a kind of […]
Okanagan Architecture: Fake or Real?
Fake: Thank You to the Globe and Mail Real: Here, a closeup, so you can admire the finer touches. Got that? No? Here’s another fake: Well, lots of room to park tractors […]
Settlers on the Beach
Every winter, Okanagan Lake piles up leaves, wood, reeds, weeds, shells and feathers on the shore, high and low, bringing life to the dead strand line, building a forest. Every spring, the […]
Okanagan Okanogan 