Mother is not just a noun, a person/thing/place, an identity (and a vexed one at that.) It's also a verb. An action word. A gesture. The act of birthing, creating, tending. (And you don't need to be a woman, to identify as a woman, to have given birth, to practice mothering.) Interestingly, in the UK, Mother's … Continue reading Mother is a verb

When there are only a handful of fluent language speakers left alive in your community, and your language is your access to your culture, your identity, your values, (everything that was forcibly and violently and unfairly stripped from you), and those language speakers are all over 70, and the ones most likely to die from … Continue reading Seton Lake beaches and boat launch closed to the general public as part of measures to prevent the spread of COVID19

Tune in to Facebook this afternoon at 4pm, and we'll check in with Village of Pemberton Mayor Mike Richman, on what the province's announcements this week mean here on the ground. It's an experiment! and a foray into new technological grounds, with two camera-resistant people... so there might be some gremlins, but after a quick … Continue reading In this together: the Wellness Almanac live-chats with Mayor Mike Richman, on Facebook at 4pm

The provincial government is calling this the Summer of Renewal. At her daily briefing on Monday, provincial health officer Dr Bonnie Henry said that our goal in the next months is "to learn to live with this virus in a safe way that protects people. This year in BC, with so much unknown, is going … Continue reading Imagine how we might look back on this moment… as a blip, a pain in the ass, the start of a crisis, or the Great Realisation

Emma Cox is the program manager for the Squamish Food Bank. In this video, she explains the big increase in demand for services the past few weeks - in Squamish, before COVID19, they would typically provide 60 hampers every two weeks to people needing assistance. That has grown to almost 200 hampers each week - … Continue reading This #GivingTuesdayNow, give a little foodbank love

For the past month, Pemberton local Shelley Tsujimara took her Excel sheet wizardry to the task of tracking what local businesses were open,and what adjusted services they were offering. It's a fantastic resource and now it's even easier to check in on what's happening and where you can source things (without buying on Amazon, because, … Continue reading What’s Currently Open in Pemberton?: Free app makes it easy to find out what local businesses are up to

The other morning, my kid woke up with an idea in his mind. Literally, the first words out of his mouth, still prone and pyjama-clad, were: “I’m going to make an Inukshuk. Where’s the LEGO?” As someone who enters the day like a hard drive in need of defragmentation, files all scattered and hard to … Continue reading Life is now a million LEGO pieces and it’s okay to name this loss

The first week of April sent John Tschopp out with his camera, to the serenade of frog song. The Mountain Bluebirds are competing with the Tree Swallows for the perfect nest box. Not far away was an American Kestrel in his wedding suit. A hint from a neighbor gave me a chance for some pictures … Continue reading Spring songs – birds spotted in April

The Squamish Food Policy Council, as part of  Squamish CAN (Climate Action Network) is working on a regional online map of food assets. A food asset is a place where people can grow, prepare, share, buy, receive or learn about food. Community organizations and schools are included because they are places where community members can … Continue reading Help map our region’s food assets

What do you do when Mom is a former nature-camp teacher and you're home-schooling? Go foraging for nettles and learn about how plaintain and dock can treat stings. Thanks for sharing your forest know-how, Felix and friends.