Nature

More tales of family fun and run-ins with nature at the cottage.

In the sequel to Cottage Daze, James Ross is back with more tales from the family cottage. Organized by nature’s changing seasons and containing sections covering nature, family, activity, and the cottage, Ross combines wry humour with a genuine love for adventure and respect for the natural world — although the local wild animal population can try his patience.



Ross’s anecdotes are full of good spirits and sound advice, whether he is describing a visit from his daughter’s special friend ("The Boyfriend Cometh"), the tricky practices of boating ("Dressing Up for Kayaking"), or encounters with wildlife both big and small ("The Frog Whisperer"). This book is the perfect companion to the time-honoured tradition of wilderness family getaways.

Whatever your interest may be, this month-by-month guide to the key natural events in Central and Eastern Ontario will let you know exactly what’s happening — and it’s often in your own backyard.

Nature’s Year is an almanac of key events in nature occurring in Central and Eastern Ontario, a region that extends from the Bruce Peninsula and Georgian Bay in the west to Ottawa and Cornwall in the east. The book is a chronicle of the passing seasons designed to inform cottagers, gardeners, photographers, suburban backyard birders, and nature enthusiasts alike as to what events in nature to expect each month of the year.

Whatever your interest may be — birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish, invertebrates, plants, fungi, weather, or the night sky — just turn to a given month and you’ll find a list of what’s happening, often right in your own backyard. This book will also provide a reassuring measure of order and predictability to nature and help the reader become more attentive to and appreciative of the many wonders of the natural world that surround us in this exceptional region of Ontario.

From prospectors to politicians, promoters to profiteers, New Westminster's known them all. It is Western Canada's oldest city, aptly named by Queen Victoria as the first capital of the new colony of British Columbia. On the mighty Fraser River, it has survived gold rushes, loss of capital status, fire, flood, the Depression, and two world wars.

This collection of illuminating black and white photographs, artwork, and text shows how its tenacious citizens have thrived. It follows the city's festivals, traditions, organizations, people, and neighbourhoods. The city has both witnessed and been the centre of the fascinating events that shaped B.C. This multifaceted photographic history album depicts almost 150 years of the City of New Westminster.

Before becoming the oil capital of the nation, Calgary was a nineteenth-century boomtown in the heart of Alberta. The roots of great prosperity were growing, despite the fact that politicians and the general public believed the West was best left to the trapper and trader.

Nurtured by a sense of vision and the sweat of good old-fashioned hard work, Calgary grew, and has now blossomed into a world-class cosmopolitan city noted for its burgeoning oil and gas industry, its famed Calgary Zoo, and of course, the Stampede. A Calgary Album is a sentimental journey into a cattle town that grew to be so much more. Through sixty-five glorious black and white photographs and engaging storytelling, the authors take the reader back to the time of the "real" cowboys, to the days when the streetcar seemed like science fiction, through the Depression, the great wars, the times of boom, bust, and recovery. We revisit the movers, the shakers, and the honourable everyday people who turned this "cow town" into a city worth bragging about.

Quetico Park in northwestern Ontario celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2009. Long-recognized as a gem among parks, Quetico contains some of the largest stands of old-growth red and white pine in Canada , as well as a diversity of fascinating lichens, carnivorous plants in specialized habitats.

The author presents an insightful look into Quetico's natural history as he examines the adapations that have allowed moose, white-tailed deer, wolves and other mammals to survive. The human history of the park is also explored, beginning with the Objiwa living there when the area was designated as a park, followed by accounts of trappers, loggers, miners, park rangers, and poachers.

Beginning with the retreat of the glaciers, the author combines his thorough research into Quetico's long and varied history with the threads of his own extensive involvement with the park. The result is a splendid tribute to a very special place.

On October 15, 1954, Hurricane Hazel battered southern Ontario, leaving in its wake a terrible toll: thousands homeless, million in property damage, and, worst of all, 81 people dead. Hazel destroyed bridges, submerged towns, and drowned unsuspecting Ontarians in their homes and cars. Raymore Drive in Weston was decimated when the Humber River swelled by eight feet, taking the lives of 32 residents in only one hour. In Etobicoke, five volunteer firemen drowned while trying to reach marooned motorists. Towns and villages from Toronto north to Timmins felt Hazel's fury.

After the storm, people walked the now-surreal streets of their towns: cars upside-down and wrapped in power lines, iceboxes and dead cows hanging from trees, houses flattened, toys and furniture floating down the street.

On the 50th anniversary of the storm, Jim Gifford has captured that fatal night in the voices of those who survived it, from residents who lived along the surging Humber River to a policeman who rescued families from their rooftops to firemen and Boy Scouts who searched for victims along the riverbanks. Including more than 100 never-before-published photographs, Hurricane Hazel: Canada's Storm of the Century documents one of the worst natural disasters in Canadian history.

Charles G.D. Roberts’s fame rests on a series of very popular animal stories.

Charles G.D. Roberts was a distinguished writer of his time who published more than forty volumes of poetry, romance fiction, and nature writing – making him one of the most popular writers of his time. He pioneered the animal story in which he went beyond surface elements of nature and endowed his animal "characters" with qualities of feeling and intelligence that brought them closer to their human cousins. Roberts’ career as a writer transcended his Canadian roots and he was internationally known and popular in America and England.

What was particularly appreciated by his readers was Roberts’ close observation of nature and his efforts to endow animals with emotions and understand their mental processes. By 1932, Kindred of the Wild had been re-issued twenty-three times, attesting to its ongoing appeal. Roberts was knighted for his contribution to literature and his services in the Allied cause in the First World War.

Ebb and Flow was named one of 2007's "best science books" by Peter Calamai, science editor of the Toronto Star [Dec. 30, 2007]. He calls it a "wonderful resource book…. Tom Koppel seems to have visited or read about every place with unusual tides and water currents, yet he wears this scholarship lightly."

Tides have shaped our world. They have carved out shorelines, transformed early life on Earth, and altered the course of human civilization. Tides frustrated Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, and aided General MacArthur. They govern the way our planet moves, provide us with an alternative source of energy, and may be aggravating global climate change.

Drawing on science, history, and personal memories, Koppel's fascinating book engages and enlightens, demonstrating that a subject we take for granted affects all our lives. He weaves together three grand narratives, exploring how tides impact coasts and marine life, how they have altered human history and development, and how science has striven to understand the surprisingly complex way in which tides actually work.

Short-listed for the 2002 Saskatchewan Book Awards for Best Non-Fiction and Best Book

The stories in Coming Home are as surprising as the landscape of Saskatchewan itself and as varied as its weather. Through the author's reminiscences, we experience prairie life as it was more than sixty years ago, and as it is today. A rich cast of characters appears - neighbours, drunks, misfits - all with a place in the story. These are the tales of a father who lived hard, failed often, and was loved much, of a mother who was an artist at heart but became a teacher and farmer's wife through circumstance. We visit a prairie dance hall with a floor that rests on horsehair, encounter death, baptize a child, participate in a nude massage. We view sex from a farm boy's perspective, learn of home brew and cabbage rolls, eat breakfast with friends, and meet the author's favourite waitress. A sense of awe and wonder emerges through encounters with the land and the unfolding of the changing seasons.

Here you will find a wealth of information on the fauna, flora, and natural wonders of the Kawarthas.

The Kawarthas sit astride the Canadian Shield and fertile lands to the south. This is cottage country a place where people are closer to nature and where children and adults remark on the sightings of animals, birds, and butterflies from windows and lakeside chairs and ask questions about what they see. This book is a valuable asset and will answer many of these questions. It offers an alternative to a shelf of field guides and deals with what can be expected in a relatively small but uniquely rich environment close to home. Nature in the Kawarthas presents a wealth of information about the birds, mammals, insects, flowers, reptiles, and amphibians that inhabit this special area. It discusses rare habitats and the behaviours of animals ranging from frogs to birds of prey. A Places to Go section recommends the best areas to visit to explore the natural wonders of this amazing region and its treasure of wild biodiversity. It is a true layman’s guide to nature in the Kawarthas.

The Peterborough Field Naturalists (PFN) is a registered charity and active club in Peterborough, Ontario, that dates back to 1940. The authors include knowledgeable naturalists, teachers, and university and ministry professionals in a wide variety of wildlife fields. Their goal is to know, appreciate, and conserve nature in all its forms.