It used to be that Canada geese, those endearing and silly honkers, flew south to the United States for the winter, and then came back north. Now they honk around the Okanagan […]
Climate Change? Not This Time
When Trees are Weeds: Truth and Reconciliation from the Ground Up
Yesterday I started a meditation on classicism, and how the cultures within Canada have some choices, given German experience with the power, failure and abuse of classical models as a means of […]
Law and Order in Germany and Canada: Classical Culture Part 1
Classical culture, eh. The founding myths of a country. Every country needs one. Germany’s experience with finding one (well, several, over time)( has great relevance to Canada today (and given the American […]
A New National Park Reserve for the Okanagan Similkameen?
Here’s my grandfather Bruno Leipe, c. 1963, looking down from above Cawston Creek over the middle Similkameen Valley. This area is part of a proposed National Park Reserve, in partnership with the […]
Goethe: Poet, Scientist, Admistrator — and our Contemporary?
I’ve mentioned before how the princes of Germany used to study poetry in order to effectively run their countries. 21st Century, Post-Communist Up-date, Dornburg an Der Saale This wasn’t a matter of […]
The Beach at Dusk
After the bold statement, the exploration. Canada is a colony and its poetry, science, transportation structures and administration are colonial. OK, that’s the statement. Now for the niggly bits. They concern themselves […]
Shadows, Holes, Poetry and the Art of Speaking as the Earth
Last night I wrote a post and then deleted it by trying to save some notes for today, which seemed clever, but was just, well, not. Let’s have a look state of […]
Magpie’s Thoughts on Land Claims
Middle Class Country: an American pop culture project. Dude Ranch Country: an older American pop culture project. Spiritual Country: a Chinese-European folk cultural project. Artistic Country: an American cultural export installation. […]
How to Make a City Indigenous, Even if You’re Lazy, Eh
Let’s go downtown as if we lived here. Let’s look at Canada through the lens of the story it tells in the Syilx illahie (illahie is Pacific Slope trade jargon for “story” […]
Learning to Live in Time: A Journey into Indigenous Agriculture
It is an intriguing question that sits in my house today: What does agriculture look like when conducted in “time” rather than in “space”. To show you how hard this is, here […]
Okanagan Okanogan 