Rock falls are earth. They power complex communities. Beautifully. They speak of gravity and sun and air, and bring them to life. Soil is what water leaves. Dirt is tillage. It is time […]
The Difference Between Earth, Soil and Dirt
The Black Cherries of Winter
It is the time of year when colour leaves the valley. The red choke cherries of summer are black. The skies are grey. The sun we knew in summer is gone. This […]
Three Ways to Make Soil
One: You will need a poplar tree to drop yellow leaves on the ground. Leave them. Let it rain, freeze, thaw and snow in intervals. Two months later, drop one green leaf on top. […]
Grass and Poetry in Cascadia
The grass is a cultural being. So are cat tails and so is poetry. Talk about a rhyme scheme, eh! First, the grass. Not only does it have its own culture, but […]
The Beauty of Spring in November
In November, in Cascadia, it is springtime, whether you are in the wetlands on an island in the ocean … Oyster Bay, Vancouver Island … or far inland, in the grasslands, where […]
Only a German, Eh?
I’d like to show you some photos today, from a country that does not exist. This is the German colony that formed in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia after the First […]
There’s More Than One Way to Find the Light
Creating a tension with gravity is key. Blue-bunched wheat grass and big sage.
What Do You Call a Photograph When It’s Not Made With Light?
Photography: writing with light. A more anglo-saxon suggestion is sun print. There’s more to them than prints on paper. See that? That snow buckwheat is light written or (im)printed on metamorphic bedrock, or, actually, […]
Winter is Here
It’s not just that winter is coming. Its first breath is as much winter as its depths. We remember ourselves in it. We rise up out of the grass.
Teaching Gravity in a 21st Century Classroom
First, two pictures of gravity. I don’t mean the effects of gravity. I mean gravity. Gravity is not mathematics. It’s either here in these pine cones or it doesn’t exist. Water carries […]
Okanagan Okanogan 