There is an ancient trail that comes in from spaxmən (Douglas Lake), crosses kɬúsx̌nítkw (Okanagan Lake) below, on the lower left … … and enters a tongue of land called “The Commonage”. The trail […]
The Snake and Turtle Trail
Making Humans
On the shores of Kalamalka Lake there is an ancient village. It’s so old it has been forgotten. The people who live there now don’t know that the land that called them, […]
The Spirit Whale of the Okanagan
Here’s what might sound at first like a fantastical story, but it does end with a deeply practical point. I hope you enjoy it! To start, look at the spirit whale of […]
All the Ladies on the Hill Go Out for Lunch
The Bella Vista Mule Deer Does
Reviewing David Pitt-Brooke’s Walk Through the Grasslands
I spent the early winter reading a beautiful and, unfortunately, incomplete book: Crossing Home Ground, by David Pitt-Brooke. It records an epic walk through the grasslands of Southern British Columbia: my own […]
The Okanagan in the Year 11,748
This is pretty cool. It’s the Carte Des Nouvelles Decouvertes Au Nord de la Mer de Sud, Tant a l’Est de la Siberie et du Kamtchatcka, Qu’a l’Ouest de la Nouvelle France, drawn […]
Beavers and Trails in the North Okanagan
Here’s an observation about water. If I’m right, it’s pretty cool. So, have a look. This is a small part of the former Commonage Reserve, a wedge of land set aside for […]
The Lessons of Red Osier Dogwood
I went looking for light. In a grey world, it was all in the red osier dogwoods, stəktəkcxʷlɬp, the purifier, the beloved of moose. I spent some time with it as it turned […]
Sustaining the Okanagan 21: The City of the Okanagan
In keeping with my conviction that we would do better to build things than tear them down, I would like to propose a new form of civilization in the Okanagan Valley. By […]
How the British Columbia Government Looks After the Land and the Water
It doesn’t. If I look from my house towards the western shore of Okanagan Lake, I see this. The land has been burnt, slashed by logging roads, scarred by development and turned into an […]
Okanagan Okanogan 