A View of the Bay: Collingwood and Beyond.

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Collingwood is a small town in south central Ontario, surrounded by a sprinkling of even smaller towns, rural villages, and farmland. It is sandwiched between the Blue Mountain ski hills and Georgian Bay.

In a leisurely ramble through the area, de Vissser and Ross stop to admire the scenery, take a peek at the tourist attractions, give a nod to the area’s history, and, generally, smell the apple blossoms.

If the book has a purpose it is probably to showcase the intrinsic calm and beauty of the Collingwood area. The work is pure prettiness, a coffee-table album of 150 pleasant views, lightly augmented with the fluff of 15 mini-essays. Unemployment, traffic, factories, pollution, and other realities are completely absent. Instead, the portrait shows the area in its Sunday best—white sand, lovingly restored buildings, sparkling water, pristine snow on the ski hills, orchards in bloom, glowing sunsets. The survey touches on the best known tourist attractions, such as the massive grain elevators, the longest freshwater beach in the world (Wasaga), the suspension bridge at the scenic caves, and the Creemore Springs microbrewery. Several 19th-century stately homes are featured, including one now used as a country inn and another that houses a ski academy. Landscapes include scenes of the Beaver Valley (part of a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve), a few farm scenes, often with horses, and orchard views.

The photographic work is of the highest quality and the text light and breezy. The result is an ideal souvenir, a tidy reminder of a vacation in the area, or a take-home memento for visitors.