There are two ways to melt snow. You can lay down fibres of grass, taller than the snow, which heat in the sun and cast shadows of heat on the snow. Or […]
Darwin Missed Out, Poor Guy
Flowers are lovely. Creatures come to settle in. The flower calls, and the world answers. It’s the same with the stalk. Those seeds aren’t going to be spread on their own! It’s […]
When Rainforest Trees Wander Over the Mountains
West of the mountains, Western Red Cedar bends with the wind and grows tall in the rain forests. East of the mountains, she bends with the snow and takes her sweet time. […]
Defying Gravity
Black Moss ( Bryoria fremontii) with water: an ancient syilx survival food. At a point there are attractions greater than attraction to the core of the earth. Here the molecular bonds of […]
Lessons On Blending In at a Stag Party in Coyote Country
You can hide behind stuff. Sure, you might get spotted, but I bet that most times you don’t. And, in the end, the sagebrush masks one’s intentions. In a landscape that’s a […]
The Flicker in the … Cold Mine?
The neighbourhood flicker is a handsome bird. And always watchful. We love our flicker! Especially in the orange light that breaks through the car exhaust that is the latest idea for this old […]
The Okanagan’s Dirty Secret
Is it the Dirty Laundry Winery? No. That’s actually a little bit of colonial Canadian culture using the Okanagan to market Canada to itself by romanticizing prostitution. That’s easy. No, no, I mean […]
Sweet Apricot Kernels
Move over California, with your water-hungry almonds. 4.5 litres of water to grow one almond? Ridiculous! We have apricots with sweet kernels here in the north, that can grow in the shrub […]
Getting Down to Some Serious Fun in the Kitchen
There are close to 20,000 acres of wine grapes planted in the ruins of the Okanagan Valley, immensely attractive to tourists and restauranteurs alike. The wine? Well, some is fine and most […]
Every Mound of Grass is a Greenhouse
I live in an exotic landscape on a planet whirling through solar space, in which every greenhouse has a heating system pointed straight at the sun, to melt water and get things […]
