It’s simply beautiful how it is done. First, water sorts out the finest grains of silt, and deposits them on the surface of low points in the earth, filling them in. Then […]
Alfalfa Walking
When you rely on animals brushing up against your seeds, or pecking at them, to knock them to the soil, it’s best to fall over with the weight of your flowers, so […]
Who Will Decide Claims for This Land
White folks make land claims, too, even right next to the sacred hills of the Sinlahekin. It’s not just for the Sinlahekin, or the Methow, over the hill in the distance. If […]
Weaving the Environment
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 […]
Indigenous Land Ownership Rules
The Snow Buckwheat Country: All at Once The Grass Country: One… …by… …one. It’s not indigenous if it isn’t expressing the energies of the land. The energies are there for all to […]
The End of White Privilege in the Okanagan
For about 125 years, my valley has been the setting for the creation of a White homeland. It started in a British Empire that was largely Asian, looking for a racial state […]
Loving That Lavender, or Eat Your Heart Out Monsanto
The mantids have found their home. They fit so well in this environment, I suspect we could breed them, using lavender. Perfume and pest control in one. Monsanto can’t do that.
In Memory of Hans Rhenisch, Gardener, 1932-2017
Hansel in 1935 It begins with a grandfather taking a boy out into the garden. Then comes eight decades (and a bit more) of working with the earth to keep that moment […]
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 […]
Midsummer Autumn
Celebrate the season! It’s a colour palette for rejoicing. Art without four seasons. Life without four seasons. Life with dozens, often two at the same time, passing through each other like clouds! […]
Okanagan Okanogan 