Blind Creek, “the place of yellow flowers”, might indicate “rabbit brush…” …the bright, feathered sage that catches the sun in October and draws in jewelled bee flies, with their dense, brightly-coloured fur […]
Climate Change in the North Okanagan
Human induced climate change is real, and its hurting humans, societies and the Earth. A lot of it is the result of atmospheric carbon. That’s the story that my city, Vernon, is […]
Rewilding Vineyards and Orchards in the Okanagan
The best intentions don’t always lead to the best results. Placing a vineyard or orchard next to a wild environment so that both farmed and non-farmed environments can exist and the farm […]
Gravity and Anti-Gravity Hard at It
Here’s some gravity at work. Some snow melt strikes a rock face and tears soil down with it. This is gravity working in open, unconstricted space. Note as well the salts on […]
Canada, in Context
First, a Canadian apple tree: Then a Welsh one. Then a Canadian one. Or a bunch, really. Then a Welsh one: Four years old, and the Canadian ones are dying.
The Sly Thing About Fossil Fuels and Farming
The Okanagan Valley is a great place for fences. The concept of taking common land and turning it into private land, and the dispossession of the land’s people that came with it, […]
Winter is Life not Death
Really. Really. These are effects created by winter heating, freezing and melting. In other words, the nutrients released by lichens in late winter are created by stones heating in the winter cold, […]
The Right Angle for Rocks: Building Resilience
Note how the two stones below differ. The one in the foreground is rich with lichen, and producing nutrients for life at its base. The one above it, in the upper left […]
Colonial and Non-colonial Water
As we work to free ourselves from the constrictions placed on the Earth by colonial understandings and allow it to come to life again, it’s good to remember that the very concept […]
Race and Apples 10: A Positive Future
This is the tenth of a series on race and apples in Northern Cascadia and the stresses this racial past places on food security and affordability, land access and environmental resilience. I […]
Okanagan Okanogan 