Even ladybird shows us the true nature of big sagebrush: it is fire, standing. Look at her flames and coals! Traditionally, big sage was used to start fires, even of wet wood, […]
Harvesting Fire
Weeds, Nature, Erosion and Hope. With a Fly, too.
Plants don’t grow in dirt. Well, maybe snow buckwheat. The old glacial river eddy (above) high above Priest Valley had its gravel bed stripped away fifteen years ago. So far, nothing has […]
How a Wasp Killer Survives a Summer Rain Storm
It takes no shelter… …but it does what it does best: hang on.
An American Town in Canada
In Okanagan Falls, water is life, but doodads help. And a failed real estate development that hit a hundred feet of post-glacial sand and went back to Calgary, that’s fun. This is […]
What Colour is Big Sagebrush?
Great Basin Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), a member of the aster family, rolls across the hills of my country. You could say that where it is home so am I. Not just the […]
When There is No Monarch Butterfly Anymore, Improvise
Nine years ago, I spotted a monarch larva on the milkweed up the hill, and even saw a monarch fluttering around. That was the last one. The milkweed continues to bloom, although […]
This Spiritual Land
The land is beautiful and sacred in these parts. It makes us want to enter it. John Day Painted Hills That’s because we are a migratory, hunting species, that responds both to […]
When Harvest Fills the Seasons
Look at the beautiful colours here, with wild rose and choke cherry and knapweed. These fruits are acidic and dry-to-the-taste. Only winter freezing sweetens them. In other words, in January they are […]
Green Summer Lightning
Energy building in the sky. Seven hours later, a bolt of lightning arced from the earth to meet it. It’s not so unusual. It happens all the time, in many forms.
What a Great Year for Bees!
Look what they’d done to the road cut above the hill. They’ve absolutely tilled it, digging nests. I my eight years walking this hill, I’ve never seen anything like it. Go, team! […]
Okanagan Okanogan 