When harvest season starts in the snow in late February, with crops planted in mid-August the year before, the valley’s true seasons reveal themselves quite simply. Spring, for instance, took place in […]
Summer Draws to a Close in the Okanagan
The Mingling Rivers of Life
Spring doesn’t come all at once. As this ravine in Vernon shows… “Spring” is the wrong concept entirely. Experience has to be selectively read in order for the concept to fit at all. […]
The Power of Shadows
Butterflies are shadows. Simple to prove. Here’s a leaf shading rock. And a whole flock of shadow butterflies. They’re not the only shadows. The Síya? twigs below are shadows of the past. […]
March is a Time of Passage, Not a Season
March is neither winter nor spring. Its weather is not its own. Anything can happen this month, and usually does. It’s best to call it an empty space that other seasons pass […]
Climate Change? Not This Time
It used to be that Canada geese, those endearing and silly honkers, flew south to the United States for the winter, and then came back north. Now they honk around the Okanagan […]
Spring for the Japanese Quince and Her Sisters
The double-flowered Japanese quince in front of my house is still dropping her leaves. She has also been bearing her scarcely open blossoms for weeks now. For her, winter is over. And […]
The Pheasants are Messing With You (and the Coyotes, Too)
Check out this ring-necked pheasant sneaking away from me through the sagebrush and wild roses. What a guy. But what an environment! We know pheasants mostly by their habit of bolting at […]
The Seasons of Fire and Water
Where water is, there is the absence of water. There is always water, hidden in life. There is never water hidden from life. Even in the absence of water, there is water. […]
Summer Poppies in the Okanagan
The rattles of summer! Westron Wind, when wilt thou blow, the small rain down can rain.
The Palette of Saskatoons Through the Year
Isn’t it very fine. There are the saskatoons of winter, with bark in a palette of rose and plum. Then there are the saskatoons of springtime. Look at their palette now! (This […]
