Frontier thinking. Everything you do happens at the place where your ideas meet your idea of the world. This is the time of year when the farm machines roll full-tilt out of winter hibernation. At least, that’s how Andrew Budgell speaks of it. Co-owner of Laughing Crow Organics, one of Pemberton’s small scale organic mixed…
Nina Caprez: Sorry, not sorry.
In Nina Caprez’ instagram profile, she describes herself as a “Sponsored athlete, life artist with a free spirit.” I had the chance to interview her for Arc’teryx. This story ran on Arcteryx’s Bird Blog in late March 2019. Nina Caprez is a straight-talking weapon of a climber who is not ashamed to have big goals. That makes…
Uncontainable
Soundtrack: This time last year, I was writing obituaries. I wrote a lot of them. This month, I’ve been grateful for the ability of other people to put some of the grief and loss swirling through our community into words. It’s the thing about loss – it knocks the wind out of you, and with…
Paolo Marazzi: profiling a spiderman
What matters most is to wake up in in the morning, still exhausted, in a place few others have been before. Because you will have been part of the stunning view, not on the other side watching from a viewpoint. This profile of Italian guide and pro climber, Paolo Marazzi, was first featured on the Arc’teryx blog…
Are you smarter than a tree?
It didn’t weird Dr Suzanne Simard out, when I told her I talk to trees. Dr Simard is a professor of forest ecology with UBC and the researcher behind the viral TED talk that introduced the general public to the idea that trees communicate with other trees, and share information, carbon, energy, in collaboration with…
How an unlikely couple of craft cider makers started Squamish’s Northyards Cider Co
This is one of the best dharma (finding your calling) stories ever. It was a treat to connect with Alison and Kathleen of Northyards Cider, to hear how they came to start a craft cidery in Squamish. I definitely need to do more thorough research in the tasting room, though. In the meantime, this story…
Crowning a “junk” tree with overdue appreciation
“What’s this?” asked my clutter-resistant husband, observing the giant mason jar of oily plant matter on the counter. “Ohh, it’s medicine! It’s called Balm of Gilead,” I explained. “Oh. But what is it?” “Cottonwood tips in oil.” “Hmm. And what’s it good for treating?” he asked, in an impressively neutral manner, eyes scanning to the…
Craft cider: here’s to a drink that literally grows on trees
“You know that rule in skiing or biking where you don’t look at the tree you’re trying to avoid?” says Kathleen van der Ree, one half of Squamish’s Northyards Cider Co (and a partner with law firm Race and Co “on the side”.) Having grown up in a family of restauranteurs, van der Ree spent…
Where wonder takes up residence
There is a place where you don’t need words to make deep deep sense of the world. Kera Willis’ Mountain Horse School is a gateway to that place. Kera Willis has a secret agenda. In any of her students – whether they’re a child coming under the guise of taking horse-riding lessons or attending a…
Coming down from Treeline
Can a quiet and deeply thoughtful piece of film provoke radical action? Jordan Manley’s Treeline makes the case. This morning, on my way home from the school bus-stop, I detoured via a small patch of Douglas-Fir – the grandfather tree, called Srap7ul, in Ucwalmictws, the language of the Lil’wat Nation, meaning “something standing upright.” I found a…
