The tiger lily is native to china. In China, the roots are eaten like potatoes. The Columbia lily is native to Cascadia. Source. So, that makes an interesting confluence of cultures possible. […]
Tiger Lilies: a Bridge Between Worlds
The Muddy Okanogan
Move over, Mississippi! Why is our beautiful clean river, the Okanogan, so brown when it hits the blue Columbia?* The Crossing This image was taken from the site of the old Hudson […]
Walnut, Our Ancestor
While bears were breeding apples tens of thousands of years ago in the apple forests of Khazakstan, down south in Kyrgyzstan, humans were living in walnut forests and breeding walnuts. Here are […]
Weeds, Nature, Erosion and Hope. With a Fly, too.
Plants don’t grow in dirt. Well, maybe snow buckwheat. The old glacial river eddy (above) high above Priest Valley had its gravel bed stripped away fifteen years ago. So far, nothing has […]
What a Difference One Birch Tree Makes in the World
White ash scribbler! Gardom Lake Compare the language of the poplar, which is less process and more about repetition and echo. And the firs and cottonwoods? Well. What benders. Firs dark, cottonwoods […]
How a Wasp Killer Survives a Summer Rain Storm
It takes no shelter… …but it does what it does best: hang on.
Pan Becomes the Green Man
In early June, I showed you a picture of Pan, as he has showed up in the North Okanagan. There are other images. Here’s the link. Well, look at him now! Now […]
An American Town in Canada
In Okanagan Falls, water is life, but doodads help. And a failed real estate development that hit a hundred feet of post-glacial sand and went back to Calgary, that’s fun. This is […]
What Colour is a Cattail, Anyway?
If you would like to visit the sun, I suggest a late afternoon walk facing west in mid-August. Keep the water at your side and watch where you’re going! But, what colour […]
What Colour is Big Sagebrush?
Great Basin Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), a member of the aster family, rolls across the hills of my country. You could say that where it is home so am I. Not just the […]
