Welcome to the Scotch Thistle. She’s a beautiful thing, don’t you think?The British Columbia Ministry of the Environment has listed it as one of our most noxious (i.e. disgusting) weeds. Aw. Look […]
When a Noxious Weed is Our Hope for Salvation
Raven is Still Talking
He talks like this (note the connections between the feathers and the voice) … … and he talks like this. (This is a bit of punctuation. We humans would take a breath at […]
Raven Talks
Here’s a raven I met on Wednesday. “It’s just a human projection, to say that ravens have intentions or speak,” someone told me on Thursday. Well, for humans who don’t live on […]
Butterflies in the Grass
Dusk is a good time to walk. The insects are few, but they are slow. Here’s a western swallowtail on the trail up to the vineyard and the grassland and oilmen’s […]
This is For My Grandmother
Martha (Marsel) Leipe liked to laugh and hum light opera tunes from the theatre group she was the secretary for, back in a country that doesn’t exist anymore. During all her years in […]
The Problem With Planting Exotic Trees in the Desert
Spider, hanging out. Home sweet home. John Day Painted Hills, Oregon Beetles, hanging out. Life on a pink earth. John Day Fossil Beds, Oregon Western box elder bug (juvenile) a long way […]
Human and Inhuman Environments
Where humans became human. Bella Vista Hills Imagine living here. It’s possible. Where humans became inhuman. Vernon Now, imagine living here. The temptation to pave the Bella Vista creek bed above would […]
Peaches: the Wandering Fruit
When the five civilized tribes were driven out of their homelands and into Indian Country in Oklahoma from 1831-1838, they left seeds of exotic persian apples given to them by Spanish Jesuits along their trails […]
Beyond Individual Identity
There are several ways to do write on rock. You can chisel into the rock with another rock: Petroglyph, Columbia Hills State Park You can write on the rock. She Who Watches, […]
Too Many Horses
The Yakama people have been living with horses for hundreds of years. In all that time, horses living wild on their land have been a part of their wealth. When settler culture […]
Okanagan Okanogan 