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My feet are practising their steps, gauging the slipperiness of wet lichen on rock and sounding each landing. As my stride shifts to a swing I realize I have a sharper sense of my place in the woods now. I am as taut and limber as a bow-string. I sense bears in the woods, weigh their threat and move on, glorying in the mosses beneath my feet ... We in the woods share fear. By grace of my fear, I am closer to predators and prey. The View From Foley Mountain is a celebration of the joy of living in harmony with the natural world.

In the 1880s the provincial government sent out teams of land surveyors to explore the northern Ontario hinterland. By rail, canoe and on foot they and their crews cut through the forests and across streams, establishing the boundaries for townships in preparation for settlement. Alexander Herkes Telfer was a member of the party led by the Haliburton surveyor Alexander Niven, who was responsible for running the lines for seven townships around the head of Lake Temiskaming. The child of Scottish immigrants who settled in Scarborough, Ontario, A.H.

Short-listed for the 2010 National Business Book Award Renowned author and journalist Sheila McLeod Arnopoulos uses her talent for investigative reporting to take us deep into the poorest villages in India. Yet, far from being passive victims of their circumstances, the women who live there have joined forces and are making astute use of microcredit to break the cycle of poverty. Microcredit was made famous by Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and consists of very small loans made primarily to women for the production of essential commodities or to start small businesses.

Manitoba's Hayes River runs over six hundred kilometers from near Norway House to Hudson Bay. On its rush to the sea, the Hayes races over forty-five rapids and waterfalls as it drops down from the Precambrian Shield to the Hudson Bay Lowlands. This great waterway, the largest naturally flowing river in Manitoba, served as the highway for settlers bound for the Red River colony, ferrying their worldly goods in York boats and canoes, struggling against the mighty currents.

What do experienced field naturalists discover when they explore the heavily populated Lake Ontario shoreline as if they were surveying a wilderness for the first time? In this beautifully illustrated book, Aleta Karstad takes you on a journey of discovery along the route of the Lake Ontario Waterfront Trail. Listening for calling frogs in spring, turning stones, sampling shoreline drift, identifying plants and animals, Karstad and her husband, herpetologist Frederick W. Schueler, discover a wealth of natural life, sometimes in unexpected places.

"I remember them as though they had happened yesterday." So writes author-naturalist Charles Sauriol in reference to his many memorable experiences within Toronto’s Don River Valley. From Scout outings in 1920 to pioneer cottaging, train excursions, maple syrup making, beekeeping and countless other activities, the author’s long association with the Don makes for fascinating reading in this sequel to his earlier book, Remembering the Don. Tales of the Don provides for Toronto residents and visitors alike a picture window through which they may see the valley as it was years ago.

Bustling station platforms, with quaint steamers nearby, often appear on early Sparrow Lake postcards. It was at the station that rail passengers were met and taken by boat to one of the over 20 hotels that once flourished in this holiday area. Such a trip could take about three hours on this roughly three-mile lake, bordering the southern Muskoka arm of the Canadian Shield.

In 1889, Broken Shackles was published in Toronto under the pseudonym of Glenelg. This very unique book, containing the recollections of a resident of Owen Sound, Ontario, an African American known as Old Man Henson, was one of the very few books that documented the journey to Canada from the perspective of a person of African descent. Now, over 112 years later, a new edition of Broken Shackles is available. Henson was a great storyteller and the spark of life shines through as he describes the horrors of slavery and his goal of escaping its tenacious hold.

Breakfast at the Hoito brings together a collection of stories and essays on the dreamlike world of Lake Superior’s north shore … on wilds and wildlife, people and places.Spend a day in the kitchen of the famed Hoito Restaurant in Thunder Bay. Discover the secret life of ravens; the passions of the blueberry picker; the thrills and fears of the novice ice climber.

Often seen as a magical paradise at the end of the world, Bhutan is inaccessible to most travellers. Set against the dramatic scenery of the Himalaya, this beguiling memoir recalls hardships and happiness in a land almost untouched by the West. When Britta Das goes to work as a physiotherapist in a remote village hospital, her good intentions are put to the test amid monsoons, fleas, and startling conditions. But as she visits homes in the mountains and learns the mysteries of Tantric Buddhism, the country captivates her very soul.