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Showing posts with label Okanagan Valley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Okanagan Valley. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

O is for Oyama in BC's Okanagan Valley

Posted for
ABC Wednesday


Kalamalka Lake, left, and Wood Lake, right, are separated by a narrow strip of land, site of the BC community of Oyama, population 1000, named after Japanese Prince Iwao Oyama (1842-1916).
Richard Schear photo
Beautiful mixed flower and vegetable garden at Kenola Farm, Winfield, British Columbia.
C. Krebs photo

Oyama and Winfield, along with Carr's Landing and Okanagan Centre,
make up the area known as Lake Country, in the central Okanagan Valley.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

For Real Toads: Kenia's nature challenge


volcanic rock and shallow soil
delicate vegetation, easily bruised
spectacular view of town and lake
trees few and far between
ground soft with fallen needles—
gentle footfalls save the soil,
don’t damage plants

the mountain of our youth
we often climbed
but there were few of us,
few and far between

the fragile ecosystem
is threatened
by people who don’t love 
the mountain of our youth
will it die, our mountain?
will it live?

Posted in response to Kenia's challenge to the writers' group Imaginary Garden with Real Toads
Kenia introduced us to some of the work of Manoel de Barros, a great nature poet in her country of Brazil.
I could not write in the almost-inimitable style of Manoel de Barros, but Kenia asked us to write about our personal relationships with nature. 

Sunday, January 30, 2011

For Mellow Yellow Monday, I want to introduce my friend




                                                                                                                                              Photos of her garden by Carola Krebs
Old friends are often the best friends, and Carola is one of my oldest friends. You know what I mean, I've known her almost all my life. We have laughed and cried together, celebrated together and despaired together. We were in school together, and even though we haven't seen one another every year since then, we have never lost touch, thanks to her letter-writing abilities (before either of us had home computers or even dreamed of home computers). I remember when her sons were born, and when her grandsons were born. She and her husband Ken (whom she met when we were in grade 11 and he was an 'older' man by about 3 years) have a lovely 5-acre property on the hill above the town of Winfield in British Columbia's beautiful Okanagan Valley. Their house is more than 100 years old and they've lived there almost that long, it seems to me. Carola is a great gardener, a fabulous photographer, a creative cook, and a renowned talker. Did I say she's been bossing me around since high school? Well, I've tried to return the favor by suggesting she should look into blogging, but she is too busy being a hands-on grandmother, a talented seamstress, a wonderful quilter and, just recently, a creator of her own greeting cards. She belongs to a book club, plus she and Ken take courses at something she calls SLR. To me that means a camera, but Carola claims it also means Seniors Learning something-or-other. So she doesn't have time for blogging. Ain't that a shame?

Posted for Mellow Yellow Monday, hosted each week by Drowsey Monkey.
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