There’s nothing like using life forms as decoration. It just brings nature close, mmm! The logic is astonishingly clever, too: functional architecture leads to the sense that one is living in an […]
Many Worlds
Ever since Apollo astronauts sent back a picture of the blue earth hanging in space, it has been easy to imagine the earth as a drop of water in the emptiness: tiny, […]
Choke Cherries and Pinot Noir
I think it’s time to liberate the things of the world. Choke Cherries, Unite! Yup, as humans we’re used to talking about things with words, but here in the Okanagan Okanogan we […]
The Language of Magic
In Germany, if one of these fellow travellers crosses your path, it’s a witch and you’re done for. In England, you salute them, to avoid bad luck. Here in the land of […]
Flower Maps
What is a flower? Ah, we might as well ask what is a man or a woman or a society. That’s the way with humans. They leave maps, trails, and footsteps. Some […]
Going to School
Alrighty then, so you want to go to school? Do you want to go here? Students all in Rows and Pruned to Canes and Spurs Because they don’t grow well in this climate, […]
Apple Hunting with Bears
Last fall, I was driving past Ewing, on the west side of Okanagan Lake, when I slammed on the brakes. This is what caught my eye: First Growth Apple Orchard Gone to […]
The Garden and the University
Here’s one of the gardens at the University of British Columbia Okanagan Campus, right smack dab in the middle of the grasslands of Ellison, north of Kelowna. Given that the American half […]
Art & Urban Renewal
Today, an idea that I’ve brought back to the valley from my years in Campbell River, on Vancouver Island, where the sculptor and painter Ken Blackburn has worked for years to free […]
Getting Out of Town
History eventually becomes the present. For instance, to look back to the day when the entire Okanagan was a part of Oregon and the only business going was the raising of cattle […]
Okanagan Okanogan 