This is not a forest clearing: Weeds in the Grass, Ewing Pines and firs are invasive species here. This is not a forest: Young Trees There’s not a tree here older than […]
Ingrowth
Apple Hunting with Bears
Last fall, I was driving past Ewing, on the west side of Okanagan Lake, when I slammed on the brakes. This is what caught my eye: First Growth Apple Orchard Gone to […]
Spring Carnival
The snow keeps falling.Just this last week, the British Columbia Winter Games came to Vernon. Hundreds of young athletes celebrated personal and community excellence. On those parts of the valley where humans […]
Eagle and Turtle
There’s an old Okanogan story about Eagle and Turtle. Here’s a simple version from Colville, Washington. A more complex version from the head of Okanagan Lake is embedded in an interview, here. In the […]
Snowing Fog
Now, this is a pretty fun kind of precipitation: tiny crystals of fog, that might add up to a centimetre after a day or two. But it looks pretty great on the […]
Burning Water
There are two major uses to which contemporary society puts the high country above the dry Okanagan Valley: water collection for settlement use, and forestry. As I suggested yesterday, the two are […]
Hills of Water
At first glance, the grassland slopes of the Okanagan and the Okanogan appear to have little to do with water. They look dry indeed, perhaps with the lightest scattering of snow. High […]
Whose Water?
The 2011 Ice Wine season looks like it’s going to be a long time coming yet, deep into January or even February 2012. Maybe it’s time to think of making a late […]
A Pruning Tip
This is the time of year when those pruning clippers and saws in the workshop start looking very attractive again. It’s such a great joy to go out in the cold and […]
The Glory of the Sun
Late in the year, when summer visitors are at home, the Okanagan light comes into its own. This is the season when the sun just crests the hills, blows in almost horizontally […]
Okanagan Okanogan 