The Sky and the Patio: An Ecology of Home

by Don Gayton

In 25 engaging essays, Summerland writer Don Gayton fuses the personal with the ecological to portray the geography and the natural and human history of his adopted Okanagan Valley homeland. Draft resister and professional ecologist by training, Don Gayton registers the complexity and interconnectedness of every living thing in his environment, from the rivers and lakes, to the plants and animals, and the human settlements along the Okanagan, Similkameen, and Columbia watercourses shaping his backyard. The Sky and the Patio describes the patterns made by iconic native species such as ponderosa pine, sagebruch and bunchgrass, the sockeye salmon and turtles, and the non-natives reshaping their the toadflax and knapweed, antelopebrush, horses and cattle --- and the grapevines, tomatoes and cannabis looking for a foothold today. Gayton tells us what we can learn from tree rings besides the tree's age; some fine points about firewood; and a little bit about Chinook wawa, and his own library of nature writing.

160 pages, Paperback

Published November 10, 2022

About the author

Don’s writing is inspired by unique and wide-ranging life experience. Growing up on the US west coast, he attends a multi-racial high school in Seattle, followed by a hitchhiking stint around Europe. After two years of university he joins the US Peace Corps, working with peasant farmers in rural Colombia. Returning to the US in the late Sixties, he joins student protest movements against the war in Vietnam. Finishing an undergraduate degree, he works on cattle ranches in eastern Washington. Persisting in his opposition to the Vietnam war and the draft, Gayton and his young family immigrate to Canada, beginning a new life in Saskatchewan. After finishing his Master's degree at the U of S, Don works with small farmers on the Indian Reserves.
In 1990 Don and his family move to Nelson, BC, where he works as a range manager for the BC Forest Service. During this time he deepens his lifelong association with grasslands, and acquires a new interest in fire ecology. After retiring and moving to Summerland, in the BC Okanagan, Don starts a new career as a consulting ecologist.
Don's first novel, Columbia Son, will be published in summer 2026.

Reviews

[Dave Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Don Gayton’s latest book – 'The Sky and the Patio (An Ecology of Home)' – I was immediately transported back to my home landscapes in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. I could smell the sagebrush, feel the jigsaw puzzle-like textures of Ponderosa Pine bark, and hear a meadowlark’s spring song from a roadside fence-post.

Gayton, with the eye of a scientist and the heart of a poet, has created a new series of beautifully written essays that explore our complex relationships with the natural world.

With great skill and a wonderful lyrical writing style, Gayton moves back and forth from a patio in his own backyard to the grasslands, waterways, and hillsides of the Okanagan valley. The title of the book comes from Argentinian poet Jorge Luis Borges who wrote:

The patio is the channel
down which the sky flows into the house

'The Sky and the Patio' is an enchanting, thought-provoking walk through subjects ranging from uncovering fire histories of western forests through scars in tree rings, turtles, sagebrush, sockeye, the chinook language, to Okanagan wines, John Muir and Henry David Thoreau and Loren Eiseley, Gayton’s own garden and yard, to the books that reside in what must be very impressive bookshelves in his home near Summerland. After each essay, I smiled, I pondered, and I felt an irresistible urge to pull field guides down from my own shelf to re-learn natural history lessons I once knew.

Each chapter begins with an item or experience from Gayton’s life – a hot-pad cut from the stem of a pine, a walk in a Kelowna park, a meal on the patio of salmon and bread and wine – then wanders into delightfully unexpected territory, as though that one item pushed him to an interconnected stream of consciousness.

I’ve been a fan of Gayton’s writing since I first read 'The Wheatgrass Mechanism: Science and Imagination in the Western Canadian Landscape' in the mid-1990’s. Since then, he’s written books of essays on landscapes, the Okanagan, gardening, kokanee, and he has shared parts of his ongoing life journal, including describing moments from his boyhood in the United States and the Peace Corps.

In 'The Sky and the Patio,' Gayton truly finds his stride, connecting with the landscapes he calls home in an engaging, captivating, and often humorous way.

It’s a book I enjoyed reading once, and it’s a book I will enjoy returning to, again and again.

[Vontel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mostly engaging book with autobiographical career & social commentary, particularly about the flora & fauna of the BC interior, with links to other parts of the continent.