Have you ever hiked to the top of a ten-thousand foot mountain? Stood eye-to-eye with a cougar, bear or deer? Sat down on a road to protect your watershed? Made a fire by rubbing sticks together?

Whether you have done these things or not, my hope is to give you a glimpse at nature's vast beauty: with nature photos from the Canadian wilderness, essays from the B.C. interior rainforest, articles on environmental protection and nonviolence, and poetry from the heart of a natural lifestyle.

There's more than one wilderness adventure here, and more than one appeal for ecology. Indeed, more than one voice calling for more than a politics of survival. I invite you to join my quest for a deeper understanding and appreciation of what it is to live a natural life.

--Nowick Gray

>> Nature slideshows and photo galleriesc

Forest Walks and Other Breathing Exercises - by Nowick Gray

Deep Summer - a true tale of sun and moon, 3 bears and a man, paradise and the fall

The Meaning of Life - a walk through the meadow grass

False Forks and Empty Graves - portents and choices on a dark day in March

The Homeland - back to the tropical forest of now

The Curtain of Trees - caught in the human drama

Climbing Mount Cooper - rock and snow, pride and mortality

Before the World Burns - at a primitive skills gathering

No More - walking meditation on ethics of logging

Entering the Tunnel - telescope seeks light through current forest impasse...

Of Ducks, Trucks and Bucks - tweaking the homestead economy

Suite Talk - poetic notes from the forest

Most of the above selections now appear (with other essays and stories) in the 2014 collection, My Country: Essays and Stories from the Edge of Wilderness.

>> Download now for Kindle <<

Cougar Suite: CatTracks

Visit from a Young Cougar

Cat Tracks - at a fresh kill

Cliffhanger: from the cougar's journal

CatScat: the wanderer

Reflections in melting snow