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Reclaiming the Art of Living on the Earth

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We Got This Wrong
Glorious Sumac
The Weave of the Earth (Poetry in the Modern World Part 2)
Getting Our Land Back from the Pacific Northwest
New Water Collection Technologies for the Okanagan
Red Power
Reading the Land for Real
Raven Glee
Please, Please, Please Don't Plant That Lavender!
How to Read Your Mind

That Old Christmas Moon

By Harold Rhenisch on December 23, 2013 • ( 4 Comments )

Long before the world tree holding the stars … Straw Star from Dresden … as well as the planets …   Blown Glass Ball from the Ruhr Valley …on its branches, there […]

Some Clarity on Randomness

By Harold Rhenisch on December 20, 2013 • ( 2 Comments )

Randomness is one of the basic principles of contemporary culture. It underlies contemporary models of the universe from the very large (everything in space and time) to the very small (subatomic  effects). […]

Christmas Tomatoes

By Harold Rhenisch on December 20, 2013 • ( Leave a comment )

They’re not the biggest, they’re not the reddest, but they sure are the juiciest and most flavourful. Welcome to the last of the summer’s crop, in their place of honour in the […]

Red and Not Dead

By Harold Rhenisch on December 19, 2013 • ( 3 Comments )

Are sumac drupes cast into snow by birds random? No. Are rowan berries random? No. Are yellow dock seeds cast onto the snow by wind random? Are the scales of the bark […]

Water and Light, Part 2

By Harold Rhenisch on December 16, 2013 • ( 4 Comments )

This post is for anyone who loves to look at water or who enjoys being made out of the stuff, for Sigrun in Norway, who gets to live right beside it in […]

Water and Air

By Harold Rhenisch on December 16, 2013 • ( 2 Comments )

In water, things achieve a true essence… That’s because on the earth, the sun meets water. It creates trees, and those other trees, that are like looking at myself in a language […]

Put That Android Phone Down Right Now!

By Harold Rhenisch on December 15, 2013 • ( 1 Comment )

This is cool. Here’s a conscious moment at the mouth of Lower BX Creek… Willows Being Willows. Water Being Water. And here’s what the subconscious mind sees… The Sky is Water Do […]

Lake Shells (Not Sea Shells)

By Harold Rhenisch on December 14, 2013 • ( 2 Comments )

In salt water, there’s salt and beautiful purple mussels. That’s a fine and wonderful thing. In fresh water, though, such as Okanagan Lake here in the foggy mountains of winter, there are […]

Poisonous to Humans, Beloved of Birds and Bees

By Harold Rhenisch on December 14, 2013 • ( Leave a comment )

It’s good to know that some things aren’t for humans. It’s even better to know that humans plant these cranberry carageenas anyway, because they’re so pretty. A sense of beauty can save […]

The Waxwings are Here!

By Harold Rhenisch on December 12, 2013 • ( 7 Comments )

As the snow sifted down yesterday afternoon, the  waxwings appeared, just in time. They settled in the poplars down the road, looking like winter blossoms. These most wonderful birds devour all the […]

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The Okanagan in History: Table of Contents

This is a Blog about People in Place

I have worked here since 2011 telling stories of the Earth as preparation for a history of the Intermontane Grasslands of Central Cascadia and the rainswept coast that keeps them windy and dry. Now I am presenting this history, step by step, as I have learned it, often from the land itself. The history of this region includes the Canadian colonial space “The Okanagan Valley”, which lies over the land I live in above Canim Bay. The story stretches deep into the American West, into the US Civil War, the War of 1812, and the Louisiana Purchase, as well into the history of the Columbia District of the Hudson’s Bay Company. In all, the story spans the Chilcotin and Columbia volcanic plateaus and the basins that surround them. In this vast watershed lie homelands as old as 13,200 years (Sequim) and 16,200 years (Salmon River.) That’s how far we are walking together here, who are all the land speaking.

https://okanaganokanogan.com/harold-rhenischs-shop/ Click to buy my new book The Tree Whisperer, an extension of Thoreau's Wild Apples and a book about learning to write poetry by pruning fruit trees. Only Olaf Hauge, from Norway, and I have followed such a path.
  • We Got This Wrong
  • Glorious Sumac
  • The Weave of the Earth (Poetry in the Modern World Part 2)
  • Getting Our Land Back from the Pacific Northwest
  • New Water Collection Technologies for the Okanagan
  • Red Power
  • Reading the Land for Real
  • Raven Glee
  • Please, Please, Please Don't Plant That Lavender!
  • How to Read Your Mind

Jesmond Mountain, Where the Coast and the Grasslands Meet

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This is a blog about living in place.

News, politics, art, literature, commentary, and happenings of importance to the watershed and path of the Okanagan River, no matter how far it flows.
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