In books, irony is delightful. In the world, not always quite so much. As I pointed out a couple weeks back, a new biological weapon against Spotted Knapweed, the plant that Satan […]
Oops a Daisy
Sprouting a Future Without Water
This beautiful valley is running out of water. There are many culprits, and not all of them the usual suspects. Today, I’d like to talk about one small solution, which entails using […]
For the Love of Weeds
There is a group of plants that produce food, require little or no irrigation, little care, and are open to be shared by human and animal grazers. They are called weeds. They […]
The Other Side of the Coin, or Where Did All the Indians Go?
One thing about life in the Still Wild West is that there are always multiple stories. For example, yesterday I told a story about my vision of the land, which unites both aboriginal […]
Ingrowth
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 […]
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 […]
Okanagan Okanogan 