Well, this is a first. Oregano that has decided to go feral. Interestingly enough, it doesn’t look as burnable, in the short term, as this bunchgrass… … and about the same as […]
Fighting Fire With Weeds
A Walk in Nature
In the Okanagan, trails are wide. That way, people can use them as exercise routes. The idea is to get out into nature. More practically, the invasive weeds thrive so well that […]
Pigeons and Dates under the Rising Sun
Blessings. The darkness is falling back now. The sun is coming back. Look who showed up today in Penticton. What ancient symbols of renewal! A pigeon and Russian Olives (a kind of […]
Canada: Country of Weeds
Seriously. Here’s an image of the Grey Canal trail in the Okanagan Valley, the syilx homeland that Canada claimed as its own in 1871. Every single plant you see in this image, […]
One Bird Can Make Your Day
When is an invasive species not, well, an invasive species? Chinese Elm Fooling Around With Light and Shadow Because it Can I mean, a really invasive species, with a kazillion seeds that […]
Noxious Weeds? Don’t be Silly.
The scotch thistle is listed as a noxious weed in the Okanagan. The image below shows it after the first year of is growth. Now it’s ready to grow a tall stalk. […]
Robin Meets a Landscaping Mistake And Makes the Best of It, Gasp
So, plucking the haws, that’s the easy part. But they’re freaking ornamental haws, right, and they have weird stem bits. And even without stem things they’re too, gasp, cough cough, wheeze, big. […]
Beautiful Starlings
Isn’t it a bitter irony that these beautiful birds, starlings, an invasive species here, are called pests and are electrocuted for it by the hundreds of thousands … … by that other […]
Please, Please, Please Don’t Plant That Lavender!
If you plant that lavender, the crab spiders will have nowhere to go, and they are the wolves of this ecosystem. Removing the top predator from a chain, in this case a […]
So Many Shades of Green!
Sumac turning before its time, in the smoky sun. I’d say she’s done this before.
