When a house is built on a grassland hill to lure retirement and holiday property investments (golf membership thrown in, and a “vineyard to age gracefully in” and what a view) and […]
Buddha’s Secret Army
Birds Made of Light
Humans are living creatures, which I think is pretty grand. I hope we can keep it that way. There are some side effects of living, though. For one, it makes us likely […]
Okanagan Land Claim Twist
Here in the desert, we have been blessed with 135 kilometres of fossilized glacial water. In the summers, when the stuff warms up, people play and splash about, especially people who have […]
A New Season
It’s not spring, not exactly. It’s something else. Things are warming up. Here we are at the frozen North Arm of Okanagan Lake … Leads Opening in the Ice Those are holiday […]
Reverse Nunataks
A nunatak is an unglaciated island of stone and a few survivor species in the midst of a glacial landscape. Recent studies in Sweden have shown that some Swedish spruce trees survived […]
Ingrowth
This is not a forest clearing: Weeds in the Grass, Ewing Pines and firs are invasive species here. This is not a forest: Young Trees There’s not a tree here older than […]
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 […]
Wild Humans, Tame Horses, Brother Deer
In some ways of thinking, it’s not just humans who are persons. In ways that have worked well during the greater part of the life of our species on this planet, this […]
There’s Gold in The Hills
By accident, we have turned our hills into giant gold sluices. Road Gutter, Okanagan Landing Note how it very efficiently sorts gravel out from water. The water is lost to the ecosystem, […]
Pussy Willows and Land for All
Welcome to the road ditch: a prime spring habitat. First, to an Okanagan Indian Band ditch… Pussy Willow Preparing to Bloom Imagine the sound of cars roaring past behind your back, and […]
