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Writing With the Land
Writing literature in the contemporary world is largely about reflecting on, amplifying and extending the traditions of literature. Mostly, these traditions are interpreted as the stories of individual...
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Birds at Work
Want to get your colour palette right? Follow the birds! They make art, too. Staghorn Sumac Think of it like a paintbrush. And what do the birds make of it? Jackson Pollock, move over. The kings are...
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Ten More New Commercial Fruit Crops for the Okanagan
Yesterday, I started putting the practical side of this blog into order. I started with ten new fruit crops that could restart a failing economy unable to retrain its young people, to innovate, or to...
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Fooling Around With the Seasons or Plant Sex 101
It’s October 20th… that’s Autumn, right? Best to ask the sumacs. They know. Here are the males, in their finery of feathers. And the females just down the road. Not just plumage, but drupes, too, this...
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Red and Not Dead
Are sumac drupes cast into snow by birds random? No. Are rowan berries random? No. Are yellow dock seeds cast onto the snow by wind random? Are the scales of the bark of a ponderosa pine tree random?...
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Ethnobotanical Knowledge: The Language of Science Part 2
Remember? Yesterday I pointed out that each of the plants below, although far apart in botanical class-action, share the power of redness, which arises at different points on each plant, stem, leaf and...
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I Love Sumac
That’s just the way it is. What’s not to love with music like this? Autumn: Sumac Time When you see that colour bleeding up the scree slopes until it brushes the snow, ah, then you know you are home.
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Photography and Human Survival
Pretty sumac leaves, huh. Look again below. Culturally, in Canada, people have the right to cut sumacs down like this and stack them up beside the street so they look like this the whole winter...
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It’s Mango Time!
We love you, stag horn sumac. But we love you, smooth sumac more. Oh, Staghorn, you come from Virginia. You knew Hiawatha in your youth. But smooth sumac, daughter of this land, we love you more....
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Of Cashews and Creativity
This is a cashew. Staghorn Sumac This is a cashew. Really. Source. This is a cashew: Poison Ivy There are many other cashews in the world. Mangos … … and pistachios … … for instance. In reaction to...
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Ripeness
It’s not something to eat. It is a way. I’m following it for a bit. If I lose a few words for a few days for the next few weeks, talk to the master. He knows the paths.
View ArticleSo Many Shades of Green!
Sumac turning before its time, in the smoky sun. I’d say she’s done this before.
View ArticleDo It Yourself Totem Pole in the North Okanagan
If you plant it, they will come. The mid-morning bird gets the worm, but does he fly back to the nest with it, puff, puff, puff? No, he does not. He makes […]
View ArticleAt the Edge of Colour There is More Than Light
The camera deceives. It captures light and gives the illusion of having captured sight. The difference is illuminating. Have a look at this stag horn sumac. Not only is it a pattern […]
View ArticleMaking Spaces for All
Here’s an intriguing balance at work. Meet the staghorn sumac, and its friend the pussy willow. Both of them put hairs on their bodies to stay warm. Both of them have leaves, […]
View ArticleNot Fractals but Maples: the New Math
Mathematics is great. I love it. But I think it has too much power. For instance, the maple below is not solely a function of mathematics. To say it was would be […]
View ArticleWhat is Thinking?
Is contemplation, preparation, memory and readiness thinking, like this: or is it something that comes before muscular action, which it holds in readiness, like this: Note that the muscles are visibly...
View ArticleThe Not-So-Solid Earth
Here, right at the join between Fairview and Sicamous bedrocks, the floor of our Earth, the ground we stand on, shows just how unsolid it is. “Bedrock” conjures up stability, but look […]
View ArticleDancing the New Year Home
In thickness, there is a way through. Plum thicket. In the darkness, there is light. Plum thicket. Even the darkness is light. Plum thicket. Even the light is darkness. Russian olive. Even […]
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