Nature is a grave. That is an important point of Christianity, but not of the intermontane cultures of the North American West. What is in the grave is another matter. That is […]
Whose Land is This Anyway?
No-one’s. The question is absurd. It’s not land. It’s earth. One can ask for room, not ownership. You can’t own Earth. She gives everyone room. A request for land is a request […]
A Short History of Whiteness in Cascadia
It’s not a physical thing. Apricot in Her White Gown White is a tricky, racial word. Here’s a small piece of a meditation on it from my book in progress, Commonage: The […]
We Are Not At War
When you live on the earth, in the earth and with the earth, culture is shared between creatures, their spirits and their energies, in a relationship built of balancing energy flows, always […]
Post-Racial Geography, an Introduction
This is not indigenous land. This is one of the main spiritual centres of my country, the Similkameen Valley. To call it indigenous, or native, land, is to adopt the words that […]
The Mysterious Similkameen
Here where the glaciers ground each other to a halt and ate down into the earth instead, the Apex volcanic complex meets the North Cascades. After so many millions of years, they’re […]
Apples Make Their Own Heat
Here’s my Spigold opening up last week. Note how the sun drew the leaves out quickly, but the flowers take their time, drawn out more slowly by the heat their fur traps […]
Gold Finch Gardeners and Foodies
A male and three female American goldfinches stopped by the other day. The females had a go at the red orach, this lovely salad amaranth. But who am I to complain? They […]
Every Apricot Begins Neither Male Nor Female
Those are for the bees, More important, is the ovary within its frilly, protective leaf, and the stamens attached to it. As you can see, they’re very much alive. It’s not the […]
The Sun by Any Other Name…
… is an apricot blossom. Look at the invisible sun cupped within those petals! Too bad it was opium traders who brought them to England from China and sold them as “fruit” […]
Okanagan Okanogan 