Nature didn’t always exist. Unlike most manufactured products, though, it wasn’t stamped out of a plastic mould in a factory in China, or even poured into a mould in an old factory […]
The Invention of Nature
Urban Planning Back to Basics
You know how when you’re making the run from the town you live in to the town you want to get to and there’s this great big empty space in between, and […]
Where Words Make Sense
Every day I rise 15 minutes earlier with the earlier sun. Today that was around 4:30 a.m. It’s not the light, but a different pull. When I draw the curtains, the sun […]
Canada in Turmoil
The 20th Century was supposed to belong to Canada, said former Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier. Well, that’s over. Now it is time for the earth. Okanagan Falls Vineyard in the Fall The […]
A Lesson from Iceland
When the vikings came to Iceland in the 10th Century, the place was rich with birch, willow and mountain ash forests. Eventually they burnt them all — to stay warm, to cook […]
Forests Are Sacred
Some forests are not planted to be logged. Here, for example, is a birch forest in Iceland, planted a century ago, with the express purpose of creating a country through poetry and […]
Looking for Light and Finding Darkness
The poet Goethe pointed out in his scientific exploration of colour that humans are capable of seeing in the dark, that colour and light are created in the human mind — that […]
The Beauty of Light in Water
Out of darkness, light. A few weeks back, I marvelled at water, and it’s here again, but look at it now … Stream Below the Hengifoss Flotsdalur, Iceland. Is it water? Is […]
Take: An Old Word Reborn
I am rediscovering old words and worlds here in Iceland. I can’t take the country home to Canada, but I can take this… Spring Colours at Littlifoss, Lagarfljotsdalur An inspiration […]
Haunted
In Iceland, there is so much to remind a man indigenous to the Okanagan grasslands that English is not always a colonial culture at odds with place but holds deep indigenous thought […]
Okanagan Okanogan 