Smoke has replaced the sky. It is the way of things. Here are the dry hills. Overgrazing, a reduction to three species, one native and two of which are as flammable as […]
Mule Deer, Gardener of the Sun
Look at the yellow dock gone to seed. Look at a mule deer plant it in the sun. There is balance in beauty and beauty in balance. Everything leaves its trace.
Water Traveling in Time and Space
One image three times… Wasp Drinking. Earth Drinking. Sun Drinking. … that’s the way it is on this planet. That’s the way it is.
Salmon On the Way to Sea
While making arrangements for my father’s funeral a week ago, I walked down at dawn to the mouth of Simm’s Creek, on Eastern Vancouver Island. No, this is not rain. Four years […]
Who Loves Lavender Now?
The queen of the hill, that’s who. Look at her blending in!
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 […]
The World According to Wild Mustard
What starts out cool and soft and evaporating out of stone … … leaves stone behind, warm and hard and singing in the wind. These are the mysteries.
How An Ecosystem Works: The Daisy Model
If you want to find beetles, give them a soft bed, the complementary shape to a beetle, and wait. They will come, because they made you that way.
Big Sage Doesn’t Know Autumn
She doesn’t know spring, summer or fall, drought or rain. She just knows the flow within twigs. Her connection with the earth is that sure and self-contained.
Okanagan Okanogan 