This is water. It is called Okanagan Lake. In Icelandic, where indigenous European language survives, it is a vatn, specifically a space of free water. Of that, it is a special form, […]
The Bounty of Water in a Dry Country
The Private Landscapes of the Okanagan Valley
Here’s a healthy stand of bunchgrass, which I showed you a couple days ago. As I mentioned, the Okanagan Valley of the North Eastern Pacific Rim probably looked like this 200 years […]
The Okanagan’s Missing Water
Here it is. Blue Bunch Wheatgrass This 10-year-old re-seeded slope shows the likely historical condition of the valley under Syilx stewardship. This grass is very much alive. The valley hasn’t looked like […]
The People of the Grass
Just look at this Great Basin Giant Wild Rye in the late November sun. It’s growing up the hill from my house, in land set aside for new houses. Actually, it was […]
Whatever Happened to the VW Hippy Van?
Borgarnes, Iceland. If you are over 50, you will find your childhood there. If younger, your pink parents.
Sustaining the Okanagan 20: Tourism Lessons from Iceland
Winter or summer, Icelanders send the 7 tourists for every Icelander out to see “nature.” Icelanders have noticed that people from other countries get a kick out of this kind of thing, […]
The Okanagan 55,000,000 Years Ago
Before glaciation, the smooth, rounded hills of the Okanagan … … were a series of cinder cones and stratovolcanoes rising above a 100 kilometre slip along (across) a deep fault. Perhaps […]
Holiday Cultures Compared
This is Icelandic holiday culture. A lava field, a cliff, a waterfall and thou in a little summer house. In the Okanagan, holiday culture is about making and spending money, usually involving […]
A Walk in the Fog
Boundaries show the limits of consciousness. When they are foggy, magic happens. Look how this grove inhabits the fuzzy boundary of the fog. It holds to itself and yet extends, not only […]
Trees Know More
Until we are among them, then we know more, too. These ancient celtic forests in the Jura are still home after a couple thousand years. That kind of deep knowledge attests to […]
Okanagan Okanogan 