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 […]
March is a Time of Passage, Not a Season
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 […]
If This is Not Autumn What Is It?
Spring. Autumn isn’t a season. It’s a mood within a cultural tradition, that views life as a flow out of the earth during certain degrees of tilt of its northern shoulder towards […]
In Praise of Great Basin Giant Rye Grass
It would be beautiful if we taught the children of the Okanagan and the Okanogan that in our country grass doesn’t compost and make food for worms. Actually, this is a story […]
Four Seasons at Once in the Valley
While the Okanogan and the Okanagan celebrate spring … … for some, really, the petals are withering away and it is early summer. For others it is fall. For yet others, it’s […]
