At the time of year when the first flowers sport stinkbugs … … and the aspens put out their first leaves, untouched yet by leaf-ming worms… … and cedar bugs frisk about […]
Northern Pocket Gopher Makes the World
The Japanese Okanagan
During World War II, most British Columbians of Japanese Ancestry were robbed of their belongings, their homes and their liberty and interred in concentration camps in the B.C. Interior. In Vernon, a […]
Big Ears for Big Sagebrush
The Big Sage blossoms with its scrubby flower stalks in the fall. There’s not great colour in them, but they do stick way up high. I’ve wondered about that often, with thoughts […]
Rejoicing with the Gardener
Ah, Autumn! Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. And one lone Bramley hanging out with her friends. The front garden beside them is putting on a fall show. Vetch is dragging the old […]
Aesthetic Mindfulness
Sympathetic magic is a complex term for a simple phenomena: in pre-Enlightenment culture, the power of objects was believed to derive from similarities between them; knowledge of these similarities, and the ordering […]
Great Big Sky Full of Stars
Wild Blue Flax. Remember sunset? And full spring sun? Now it’s time to be awake in your heart. Night night.
It’s Getting Crowded Out There!
Welcome to the wavy leafed thistle, the bunchgrass thistle.Beloved of insects. Often because it’s the only native flower left. But also because it provides a solid landing pad. Very kind. And it’s […]
Cascadia’s Flower
In Lewiston, Idaho, the mariposa lilies are beautiful. In Chelan, Washington, they are different altogether. And here in the North Okanagan, they have two shades. First, the lilac, slightly brighter than in […]
Julia’s Sunflower Has a Visitor
Julia Aleynikova is a young poet from the north east Ural mountains, who gave me six sunflower to plant while she went to Minsk for the summer. Her poem “Lady Fallen to Earth” […]
Fun With Pollen
Ah, the pollen of May. You can cover yourself with it and then launch yourself into open space … Wild Bee Leaving Its Salsify Feast (Click to see her golden mask.) You […]
