First, the approach to the pool. Use your cautious, worm-stalking, one-spurt-at-a-time approach, cuz that’s what you got. Then the plunge. Nice! Don’t forget the ears. Rest. It’s important to rest. Catch your […]
Robin Takes a Bath
How to Ask a Question of the Earth (and how to hear the answer)
Let’s be practical. Things are what they are. If you ask a question of the earth, you need to place something in the earth. It will answer, according to what you have […]
The Okanagan’s Dirty Secret
Is it the Dirty Laundry Winery? No. That’s actually a little bit of colonial Canadian culture using the Okanagan to market Canada to itself by romanticizing prostitution. That’s easy. No, no, I mean […]
Girls Fun Day Out in the Okanagan Snow
Wanna have some fun in the snow? Well, if you’re human, sledding is great. Bit of a bumpy ride down, and watch for the cacti under the snow and broken off volcano […]
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 […]
The Old Swimming Hole
So much for a high water year. But if you were a duck, eh!
The Purpose of Education and Indigenous Identity
Welcome to the Wallula Gap. That’s the impounded Columbia River, in its old bed there. The gap between the cliffs is so narrow that the 300 foot deep flood wave from the melting ice age that […]
Water and Air Pollution in the Okanagan Valley
This is the bottom of Okanagan Lake, in 15 centimetres of water, in Vernon, on a public beach. I know the green stuff is algae, that shouldn’t be there, but what is […]
Grass and Poetry in Cascadia
The grass is a cultural being. So are cat tails and so is poetry. Talk about a rhyme scheme, eh! First, the grass. Not only does it have its own culture, but […]
The Illahie: the Braided Country
Here’s an old word: illahie. Here’s what it looks like to me today: Well, that’s a teeny tiny bit of it. If you look it up in a Chinook Wawa dictionary… …the […]
