So, what of it, eh. If settlement had taken a different turn and adapted to local cultural knowledge and traditions, and “colonialism” wasn’t even a word, what would we see if we […]
Weaving the Environment
Water in Fire Country
The Okanogan River (left) Entering the Columbia At the mouth of the Okanogan River, which begins with snow melting on the rocks above my house in mid-winter, water is privately owned, whether […]
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 […]
Beautiful Old Tree
Peaches are scrubby little bushes from the Gobi Desert, that live to be fifteen years old, more or less, before they succumb to their many fragilities. Here’s one I’ve been caring for […]
A Canadian Education
Canada is a big country. Here’s a tiny piece of it in the west. What you’re looking at is a bit of a collision between a volcano and a seabed off the […]
The Mystery of Clouds and Ice
Clouds are water vapour held up by air, and are named after clods, or lumps of earth. Ice floes are clods of ice held up by water. But in the world of […]
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 […]
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 Pacific Northwest is Not the Southwest
Here’s a place. Squeezed in between the United States and Greenland. Canada. Best to stand right-way up. Lately, I’ve heard the strangest thing. I’ve heard that my part of the country… … […]
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 […]
Okanagan Okanogan 