The Canadian stretch of the Okanagan-Okanogan is not just the northern tip of a vast intermountain grassland created by the pressure effects of wet air being desiccated on its rise over the […]
Colonialism and the University in the Okanagan
Pollination Dance
When one insect …. … crawls, buzzed on nectar … …out of a mariposa lily and flies off to the next flower … Zebra Wasp Takes Wing … another insect that was over […]
Mariposa Lily and Her Gardener
The mariposa lily and sweat bee dance is late this year, by calendar reckoning, but just on time by the measurement of sun and rain.I’m thrilled that they are here!
Abandoning Wildness
Mourning Cloak drinking at the mud hole (leaking pipe)… Western Swallowtail in the vetch (feral forage crop). Old one at the watering hole (irrigation leakage and trail flood.) Things have come […]
When a Noxious Weed is Our Hope for Salvation
Welcome to the Scotch Thistle. She’s a beautiful thing, don’t you think?The British Columbia Ministry of the Environment has listed it as one of our most noxious (i.e. disgusting) weeds. Aw. Look […]
Butterflies in the Grass
Dusk is a good time to walk. The insects are few, but they are slow. Here’s a western swallowtail on the trail up to the vineyard and the grassland and oilmen’s […]
Blood of the Earth
I live in the country of the Columbia River, above the lake that spills into one of its tributaries, the Okanogan River. In this country, there are many rivers like the Okanagan, such […]
Help! What Is This Insect??????
It’s flat, it’s hairy, it’s about a centimetre long. It’s not very fast. I saw one three years ago. It died. I wish this one would leave my tarp and go somewhere […]
Wild and Domestic Bees
Grassland bee (note the pollen)…. Apostemon Bee on a Mariposa Lily (Bella Vista) Most people here don’t know these beauties exist, and by that I mean both the flower and the bee. […]
Okanagan Easter Meditation
This is what Easter looks like here. Do you see that? Yeah, no people. Canada is an urban country. It views its land as a resource, to be used to create more urban space. […]
Okanagan Okanogan 