“We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.”
 Ben Sweetland

I think a lot of people’s paths were brightened yesterday as the two torches exchanged their lights in the middle of our village!

Why not come and light another’s path and help to brighten your own on Monday morning February 8th. at 9:00am at the top of Oceanview Road.

We can be very energetic and go for a three and a half hour stroll or cut it short and be back at the café in one and a half hours!

Talking of villages and torches here’s an interesting little quote from Victor Hugo written in the 1800’s:

Do you have a Windows desktop or laptop PC that was fast when it was new, but has since slowed to a crawl?  Or one that is constantly popping up disk-full or error messages?  The usual cause of these problems is hard disks that fill up as you install applications and add data, or inefficient use of your PC’s available horsepower.   Before you replace that PC, try these fast and free cleanup and optimization steps.  Perform the steps in order (any step can be skipped), and reboot when prompted.  A caveat: there are as many cleanup routines as there are PC users.  I’ve refined the steps outlined here over the years.  They purposely don’t make major configuration changes or delete data, but are offered without warranty, for use at your own risk.  If in doubt, consult a specialist before making any changes to your PC. 

1.      Optimize available memory settings.  This step varies slightly between Windows versions and you may have to reach each function by a different route.  In Vista, for example, right-click Computer (on the desktop or from File Explorer), select Properties, click Advanced System Settings and select the Advanced tab.  Under Performance, click Settings.  Under Visual Effects, de-select all options except Smooth Edges of Screen Fonts.  Under the Advanced, Virtual Memory tabs, click Change, select Custom Size and set both Initial Size and Maximum Size of the paging file to the Recommended Total Paging File Size (found at the bottom of the window).  Select a single drive--other than c:\ if one is available--to hold the paging file.  OK all the way out, confirming changes. 

We all have free will and are able to make choices but do you realize that you are always at choice?

When we are experiencing an emotion, we have the choice whether to feel it or not, for most of us though we think that is how we feel period. So many of our emotional responses are based on past experiences or societal norms, we don’t have to feel sad becomes someone passes from this world, but people often think we are a bit strange if we don’t. I can be joyful that person is moving onto their next phase of soul existence; it is only how we choose to see things that has us choose an emotion to go with it.

I am not saying this is an easy topic and I am sure many of you will disagree with me, but being able to move to the idea that we are at choice gives us so much more power and so many more options on how we live our lives.

Thank you to the Historical Society for creating a photo gallery of the history of the Village of Lions Bay Councils, now hanging in Chambers. The photos were replicated by photographer and Historical Society member Sheila Blake. Each Council photo has been framed in beautiful oak frames that the Historical Society had in ‘stores’.

Sheila Blake did an amazing job, and with the assistance of her Historical Society Colleagues, the photos were hung in Chambers earlier in the fall. The Historical Society committed hours of time to locate, photograph and frame the photos, but hanging them alone took a full weekend day!

They look beautiful and provide such a sense of history ~ thank you, as Mayor and on behalf of all of Council, for your thoughtfulness in creating this initiative and taking it to such a very successful completion!

I want to say a very sincere sorry, but also a huge thank you to the Lions Bay Village Volunteer Fire Department.

Every year you are to check the batteries in your home fire alarm.  Yesterday we took the alarm system apart to check and suddenly the alarm went off.  I rushed over and turned off the alarm, thinking that I was able to get it off before the alarm company thought there was a problem.

Then stepped outside to do other things.  A few minutes later my daughter came running in screaming “Where are you, is your house on fire?
We heard the Fire Trucks roaring down the street.

Feeling completely mortified at the unnecessary chaos I had caused, I went out to meet the Volunteer Firemen and explained what had happened.  How very very fortunate we all are to have such devoted people volunteering to protect everyone of our properties, 24 - 7.  Saying Thank You seems somewhat inadequate.

Request to LBHS by John Dudley

There is a new initiative underway to improve inter-connectivity within the village.

We have a number of short existing trails and some new ones that will be opened in the not too distant future.

I have been asked by Councillor Ruth Simons if the Historical Society would help us with the naming of the existing trails which apart from the Pride Trail have always been nameless.

The main ones (trails)  in need of a name are as follows:
1, The new trail put in by Kiewit linking up Kelvin Grove to the main village.
2. The trail leading from just below Stewart Road to the new Centennial Trail
3 The trail leading from Isleview to Lions Bay Avenue,
4. The one from the end of Sunset to the tennis court.
5. The connector from the school parking lot to the Centennial trail.
6. The trail that leads from the New Centennial Trail up to the Lions Trail crossing Soundview.

The plan is to produce a Village map showing all our trails.
It would be useful to have them all named particularly for reference by E.S.S. and Search and Rescue

As some of our residents are aware, the Provincial Government’s cut backs have resulted in the total cancellation of the Library’s annual grant.  We have depended on this grant of $3500.00 per year to allow us to buy our books and supplies.  This means that we will have to find other methods of raising this short fall, be it through other grant applications, raising annual fees, donations etc, in order to keep the Library functioning. 

The Library has been part of Lions Bay for the last 28 years and while we have seen a drop in readership the past few years we sincerely hope that we can, by working to-gether, keep the doors open. We have a group of loyal members of all ages who experience the benefits of using the Library.                                                                                                          

We have also approached our Council to see if they would be able to assist with this problem as well but we all know that monies everywhere are in short supply.

We have been able to purchase some books for our new book section and suggest that we also look at reading some of our best known writers like McCall Smith, James Patterson, and Wilbur Smith. Also in non-fiction there are some wonderful real adventure stories available.  So come, visit us and go home with some of our books.