An old fir turns to the red of fire. It is dry as dust in the spring sun. But if you think it’s dead, well… … just add water. Shade helps. Without […]
Falling Helps
The Price for Speaking of the Land in English
Lines, flows, and waves crossing points of measurement or data are primary in contemporary understandings of language. The thought that goes from one point to another and makes a point, even wave […]
Farming the Atmosphere
Very slowly, and with great drama and beauty, the atmosphere breaks bedrock to bits. Why are we not farming the air? It is doing this everywhere, with a bit of help from […]
Changing the Climate One Porcupine at a Time
This is the closing of a series on mitigating climate change through local action. The Earth is very responsive. We can trust that. This estuary on Vernon Creek, for example, with its […]
Healing Climate Change in the Grasslands of the Okanagan
In the last couple of posts, I talked about the industrial, environmental and social costs of growing fruit in the Okanagan Valley. You can have a peek in this post: The True Costs […]
The Wind and the Grass Taking a Deer for a Walk Among the Dead
Snow, then sun, then snow, then wind, then sun, with both wind and sun coming in at a low angle, but not too much sun, turns the bunchgrass into a series of […]
Keeping Water
In the November sun, the mullein’s hairs soften its outline in the light. They hold the plant’s water and keep it from the sun. They keep it. In the December fog, the […]
A Poetics of the Earth
This is an indispensable book for all people in the Pacific Northwest. Whether we are gatherers, farmers, Indigenous or settler, poets, novelists or government planners, this is a book that shows us […]
Sheltering on the Open Range
Well, you can shelter in the strength of the Earth and shelter as well in how you read that as the balance that is often called beauty. Or you can shelter from it […]
The Long-Lived Annual Forests
Sure, some forests are 70 metres tall and live for 1,000 years. Some are 50 centimetres tall, maybe 60, and live for 6,000 years and counting. Both the words “grassland” and “forest” […]
Okanagan Okanogan 