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Up Chute Creek
MELODY HESSING'S OKANAGAN IDYLL
» Wednesday 26 May 2010 | 5 pm
» Kalamalka Café, Okanagan College, Vernon
An informal afternoon hour showcasing ideas and people in the Okanagan creative economy. Join us as writer Melody Hessing shares stories of the changing ecological and social environment in the Okanagan, and presents what's been called "a wise, funny, heartfelt, smart, poetic memoir".
» $2 at the door. Refreshments are available at a modest cost.
» Please reserve a seat at this presentation HERE
Writer to Present Stirring Memoir About Life on the Edge of Fire
Wildfires in Wine Country? Vineyards and development ribbon Okanagan hillsides. But last summer again reminded us that we also live in a wildfire zone. Just uphill of urban growth and wineries, the forest interface merges human activity with natural habitat. This dry open landscape makes living in the Okanagan unique, but it also makes us vulnerable.
On Wednesday, May 26th at 5 pm the alternate weekly Okanagan Institute Showcase series at the Kalamalka Café, Okanagan College, Vernon presents Up Chute Creek: An Okanagan Idyll. Join us as writer Melody Hessing shares stories of the changing ecological and social environment in the Okanagan, and presents what's been called "a wise, funny, heartfelt, smart, poetic memoir".
In the early 1970's, Melody Hessing and her husband moved to Naramata and built a log house on a rugged piece of land under Okanagan Mountain. The "Granite Farm" was organic, with a shake roof, wood-fuelled stoves, and a composting toilet. "Back to the land" meant care-taking the natural environment by living lightly on the land. The Granite Farm was sited on bedrock, and unobtrusive in a sparse bunchgrass ponderosa landscape. There was little fuel to burn. Why would you worry about fire?
Just thirty years later, hundreds of Kelowna homes were annihilated by the 2003 Okanagan Mountain Park fire. The fire blazed to the Granite Farm's fenceline. And that's not all that's changed. The population of the Okanagan valley has almost tripled, the heat wave soars to new highs and water shortages are an issue. Biodiversity is endangered. The Okanagan is a valley of rapid transition.
 Up Chute Creek: An Okanagan Idyll is a story about building a house and making a life in a fire zone. This story raises many questions. Can we protect ourselves from the hazards of living in this natural setting? How can we better adapt to the natural forces of the dry Interior? What does wildfire teach us about the region in which we live?
Advance reviews of the book have been universally laudatory. Some examples:
"A wise, funny, heartfelt, smart, poetic memoir of a love affair with a wild, granite farm at the end of the road in Naramata. If you didn't love the Okanagan before you read this book, you will by the time you're done."
- Harold Rhenisch, author of Out of the Interior and The Wolves at Evelyn
 "For 30 years, my family has made a ritual pilgrimage to celebrate food's seasonality by picking cherries in the Okanagan Valley, the Garden "of Eatin" of this book. But in that time, the rural charm of this area has changed beyond recognition from the forces of development and growth. Up Chute Creek zip-lines readers through this region's environmental issues, from population growth and water shortage to a unique, but endangered ecology. No easy solutions, but what a ride!" - David Suzuki, author of The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature and host of CBC's The Nature of Things
Melody Hessing teaches Sociology at UBC, and has taught at Okanagan College and other post-secondary institutions in British Columbia. She has written academic books and articles on Canadian environmental policy. Her literary non-fiction writing has been published in several anthologies, and she was a finalist in the 2008 CBC literary competition.
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER ONLINE CLICK HERE
Up Chute Creek: An Okanagan Idyll takes place at the Kalamalka Café on the campus of Okanagan College in Vernon. This is the 3rd event the Institute has held there, and the 143th public presentation offered by the Okanagan Institute since 2007.
The Institute has played host to many Okanagan luminaries, including former deputy secretary general of Amnesty International Derek Evans, artists Lee Claremont and Gary Pearson, BC Book Award nominee Don Gayton, CBC Literary prize winner poet Harold Rhenisch, distinguished editor and author Jim Taylor, poet laureate and professor John Lent, creative entrepreneur Nikos Theodosakis, animator and filmmaker Jim Cliffe, community activist Don Elzer, dancer David LaHay, architect Jim Meiklejohn, culinary artist and writer Heidi Noble, broadcaster Marion Barschel and many others from a wide range of creative fields.
The Okanagan Institute is a group of creative professionals that has gathered around the goal of providing events, publications and services of interest to enquiring minds in the Okanagan. We partner with individuals, organizations, institutions and businesses to achieve optimal creative and social impact.
Our mission is to ignite cultural transformation, catalyze collaborative action, build networks and foster sustainable creative enterprises. We invite the participation by all members of the creative community.
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