First, plant some flowers. Watch them grow. Nice, eh! Bees will burrow into the soil and lay their eggs. Nicer yet! Voles will come and root around, as voles will do. By […]
Rototilling 101
Hunting the Porcupine
I went up the hill to find the porcupine. February, 2019 He likes it up there with the mountain ash. The way lies through a deer sleeping area. Here’s one of the […]
Winter Bees
Summer bees might be creatures of sun and flowers and air and light… Here is Next Summer … but that’s because they are preparing to be bees of soil and Earth and […]
Summer Draws to a Close in the Okanagan
When harvest season starts in the snow in late February, with crops planted in mid-August the year before, the valley’s true seasons reveal themselves quite simply. Spring, for instance, took place in […]
Mariposa Lily Has a Visitor (or two)
It’s always an adventure to see who comes to dance… … and then, after making the circuit … … half-drugged, stumbles out… Good times for all!
Evolution in Action
Not all invasive species are trouble. When the land is stripped of life and turned into dust, cheatgrass and sagebrush, the swallowtails seek out alfalfa that has escaped from nearby farms. Western […]
The Universe Underfoot
The mysteries of the universe are not mysterious. They tell their stories far and wide. Look at the infertile serviceberry fruits dropped for the mice on the deer and coyote trail up […]
Grass and Death and Life
Isn’t it about time to stop mowing our teachers down? Isn’t about time to honour the great libraries of the grass?
Big Black Bee
It’s a safe bet that this grassland bee didn’t evolve to harvest dandelion nectar. I’d say it’s improvising because its host is absent. A sitting duck for birds, too. Perhaps, though, it […]
Erosion Can be a Healing Force
The abandoned gravel pit. Note the erosion. Note how the rock is sorted down slope around a nascent stream channel. The clays have settled out of the water below where the land […]
