Hansel in 1935 It begins with a grandfather taking a boy out into the garden. Then comes eight decades (and a bit more) of working with the earth to keep that moment […]
In Memory of Hans Rhenisch, Gardener, 1932-2017
No More Wild Fires Please
It is a catastrophic summer in the Interior of British Columbia. Close to 15,000 people have been evacuated from their communities. Indigenous communities who refuse to leave are isolated. Read about the […]
The Japanese Okanagan
During World War II, most British Columbians of Japanese Ancestry were robbed of their belongings, their homes and their liberty and interred in concentration camps in the B.C. Interior. In Vernon, a […]
A Summer Home for the Family, On Earth and in the Sky
Here we are in a community garden in Stein am Rhein, Switzerland, an old roman fortress, and before that a 4000-year-old settlement where Lake Constance becomes the Rhine. A shaded picnic bench […]
Quince Doesn’t Mind the Cold
Perhaps this is why she moved north long before peach and apricot, apple and pear, or maybe the monks who carried her along were big on thorns, blood and blooms. Symbolism can […]
The Snake and Turtle Trail
There is an ancient trail that comes in from spaxmən (Douglas Lake), crosses kɬúsx̌nítkw (Okanagan Lake) below, on the lower left … … and enters a tongue of land called “The Commonage”. The trail […]
The Pacific Northwest is Not the Southwest
Here’s a place. Squeezed in between the United States and Greenland. Canada. Best to stand right-way up. Lately, I’ve heard the strangest thing. I’ve heard that my part of the country… … […]
The Okanagan in the Year 11,748
This is pretty cool. It’s the Carte Des Nouvelles Decouvertes Au Nord de la Mer de Sud, Tant a l’Est de la Siberie et du Kamtchatcka, Qu’a l’Ouest de la Nouvelle France, drawn […]
Beavers and Trails in the North Okanagan
Here’s an observation about water. If I’m right, it’s pretty cool. So, have a look. This is a small part of the former Commonage Reserve, a wedge of land set aside for […]
The Private Landscapes of the Okanagan Valley
Here’s a healthy stand of bunchgrass, which I showed you a couple days ago. As I mentioned, the Okanagan Valley of the North Eastern Pacific Rim probably looked like this 200 years […]
Okanagan Okanogan 