Bookshop Holiday ~ The Neat Little Bookshop is closed starting today for the week. Opening again on Wednesday, April 6. It is appropriate that we share some memorable moments from another holiday. In light of our upcoming national election:

Bellevue House, home to Canada's first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, is located in Kingston, Ontario.

Bookshop Holiday ~ The Neat Little Bookshop is closed starting today for the week. Opening again on Wednesday, April 6. See you then.

Photos by Lorna (For larger image, dble-click on photo.)

Word Watching ~

NAMBY-PAMBY ~ Generally, we think of a namby-pamby person as being weak, lacking drive but have you thought about the origin of this phrase? It is interesting ~ In the Dictionary of Quotations by Bergen Evans, find this quotation: "Let the verse the subject fit, Little subject, little wit. Namby-Pamby is your guide." ~ Henry Carey (1729) ~ Henry Carey who invented Namby-Pamby was a minor poet. Ambrose Phillips, Henry Carey and Alexander Pope all wrote pastorals. The public preferred the insipid verses of Philips whom Carey dubbed Namby-Pamby. The nickname struck the popular fancy and stays in our speech long after Carey and Philips have been forgotten. Dictionary of Quotations, Bergen Evans, Bonanza Books, Crown Publishers, Inc. U.S. (Editor's note: One long rambling paragraph above is the result of blogspot's sometimes-annoying little quirks.)

"In the highest civilization the book is still the highest delight."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) Letters and Social Aims, "Quotation and Originality" American philosopher best known for Transcendentalism.

Boy with Book

(Almost out from under the snow)

Canadian Springtime ~ Melting Snow and Sunshine

Earth Day

Tonight between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. city skylines and rural landscapes will be in darkness. Power will be out. Or will it? The percentage of power saved last year during Earth Day was less than the previous year. Has the public lost interest in Earth Day? The World Wildlife Fund optimistically predicts that 400 Canadian cities will participate this year, up from 300 last year. Raising awareness for climate change and conservation is every one's responsibility. Let's turn off the power wherever we can ~ it is only for one hour.

For Large Print, please click 3X on poster.

"All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking."

~ Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844 - 1900)

"In every walk with nature one receives more than he seeks."

~ John Muir, Scottish-born, American naturalist (1838 - 1914)

Photo: Bruce Trail, Caledon, ON, Lorna

Smile for Today:

William Allen White, the editor of the Emporia Gazette, Kansas, described his war against his staff's over-use of the word 'very' this way:

If you feel you must write 'very', write 'damn'. So, when the urge for emphasis is on him the reporter writes, 'It was a damn fine victory. I am damn tired but damn well ~ and damn excited.' Then because it is the Emporia Gazette, the sub-editor deletes the profanity and the quotation reads. 'It was a fine victory. I am tired but well ~ and excited.' That's how the Gazette attains its restrained, simple and forceful style.

Restrained, simple and forceful.

Writer's Guide and Index to English
Joan Harkness, Wise and Witty Observations of a Word Watcher, Andre Deutsch Ltd. 1998.

Think Spring !

Cayuga-On-The-Grand this morning.

(For our friends in Florida. Click 3X on Photo.)

Day of a THOUSAND Canoes

A Community Information Night will be held on

Thursday, April 7th, 2011, 5:30 - 8:00.

at the Golden Horseshoe Antique Society Parish Hall, Corner of Hwy. #54 & #9, York, ON.

A Grand Event like we have never seen before, Day of a Thousand Canoes, is planned for Saturday June 25th, 2011. This is a great opportunity for Haldimand residents, community groups and businesses to promote the Grand River and area. We all benefit from the right kind of tourist dollars spent here.

Be part of it. . . Canoes will launch in Caledonia at the fairgrounds and move down river through York to Cayuga with entertainment and event stops along the way to interact with the people and culture of Haldimand County.

Come out on April 7th, 5:30 - 8:00. Drop in anytime and tell us how you can be available to participate in a daylong festival. Spend a day outdoors. Can you paddle? Bar-B-Q? Tell historical river tales? Juggle? Sing? Dance? Let us know.

For more information and contacts, visit http://www.1000canoes.com/

William Biddle SPRING ART CLASSES
Starting Monday, April 11th. For more information:
905-701-6897
Gallery ~ 162 Queen St., Dunnville. Wed. - Sat. 9:00 - 4:00.


"Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day ~ like writing a poem, or saying a prayer."

~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906 -2001) American aviator, writer.

"Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted."

~ John Lennon (1940 -1980) British musician.

Prince William and Kate Middleton will marry at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011.

On display at The Neat Little Bookshop, Royalty Memorabilia including this 1982 teacup commemorating the birth of Charles and Diana's first born, Prince William.

For larger image, please dbl. click on photo.

Thought for Today:

"Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive, and widely effective mode of saying things, and hence its importance."

Matthew Arnold, Essays in Criticism, British poet (1822 - 1888)

Coming: On Thursday, April 21, 1:30 p.m., author and poet, Neil Paul. The Neat Little Bookshop welcomes you to a couple hours of poetry readings and discussion. Neil tells us that he has several new writings and of course, he always consents to requests for our favourites. Seen in the photo, Neil with long-time fan, Mrs. Huitema.

Tea, coffee and the bookstore butterscotch-crunchie cookies.

"Everybody's Irish on St. Patty's Day."

~ Helen O'Donnell Malloy

Irish-American Funny Quotes, Merrit Malloy, Sterling Publishing Co. 1994.

March Break at Farm

Billy Goat acted silly.

During March break we went to the farm. We gathered eggs.

Grand Valley Trails Association website features a series,"Take-a-Hike along the Grand River Trail," by Bill Haartman, an avid hiker and active member of The York Historical Society. For a history of the towpath and the Grand River watershed visit http://www.gvta.on.ca/ Click on 1. Resources 2. Trail History 3. Take-a-Hike.

Photos: Bridge over the Grand ~ Cayuga, Ontario. Construction of a temporary, modular two-lane bridge is scheduled for early 2012. It will be built south of the existing bridge and will carry traffic during construction of a new one.

(Photo taken under clouds, Monday, March 14, 2011 and in the sun, Tuesday 15th.)

Smile for Today ~

"Wear the old coat and buy the new book."

~ Austin Phelps, American clergyman and educationist (1820 - 1890) Theory of Preaching

"I cannot live without books."

~ Thomas Jefferson, American President (1743 - 1826) Letter to John Adams, 1815.

The Writer and The Reader, A Book of Literary Quotations, Neil Ewart, Biddles Ltd, 1984

Doggie take-out.  We caught this picture today. (Doggie is actually sitting in the back seat of his master's car.)

Dbl. click on photo to view larger image. We welcome your captions!

The Legend of the Shamrock

There is an honored legend from Ireland's ancient lore
Of how St. Patrick drove the snakes from Erin's lovely shore.
The wee folk were in danger from the serpents all around
That hid beneath the rocks and always moved without a sound.
But then when good St. Patrick came to preach and labor there,
He brought the shamrock with him which he planted everywhere.

And as the shamrocks flourished, all the snakes began to flee
Until they reached the shore, where they were swallowed by the sea.
Sure an' the wee folk marveled, and they asked St. Patrick why.

"The shamrock represents The Trinity," was his reply.
"Just as three shamrock leaves are joined onto a single stem,
The Trinity is three in one, and God is all of them.
The serpents learned its sacred power in Eden long ago
And cannot bear to stay here now because they fear it so,"

And ever since St. Patrick drove the serpents all away.
They've ne'er come back to Ireland's shore, not to this day.

~ Hallmark ~ Thursday, March 17 is St. Patrick's Day.

The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.

~ Elizabeth Hardwick, American writer, literary critic (1916 - 2007) A friend of the bookshop found this quotation for us. Thank you Kimberly.

Word Watching ~

"Where are the clerisy? They are people who like to read books... the clerisy are those who read for pleasure, but not for idleness; who read for pastime but not to kill time; who love books, but do not live by books."

~ Robertson Davies, Toronto man-of-letters, from A Voice from the Attic (1960) Colombo's Concise Canadian Quotations, Hurtig Publishers, Edmonton, 1976.

Clerisy n. a distinct class of learned or literary persons.[apparently after German Klerisei, formed as Cleric]
The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1998

Word Watching

Philology n. 1. The branch of language that deals with the structure, historical development and relationships of a language or languages. 2. the branch of knowledge that deals with the linguistic, historical, interpretative and critical aspects of literature. philologist, philological, philologically, philologize.

[French philologie from Latin philologia love of learning from Greek]

The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Oxford University Press Canada, 1998

A Room of One's Own ~ Virginia Woolf

"Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size. . . That serves to explain in part the necessity that women so often are to men. And it serves to explain how restless they are under her criticism; how impossible it is for her to say to them this book is bad, this picture is feeble, or whatever it may be, without giving far more pain and rousing far more anger than a man would do who gave the same criticism. For if she begins to tell the truth, the figure in the looking-glass shrinks; his fitness for life is diminished. How is he to go on giving judgement, civilising natives, making laws, writing books, dressing up and speechifying at banquets, unless he can see himself at breakfast and at dinner at least twice the size he really is?"

a room of one's own, based on an essay by Virginia Woolf originally delivered in a series of lectures at colleges including a women's college in Cambridge University. 1929. Image: first-edition cover, from Wikipedia.

Today is International Women's Day

"Doest thou love life? Then waste not time, for time is the stuff that life is made of."

~ Benjamin Franklin, (1706 - 1790) Founding Father of the United States, writer, scientist.


"Think that day lost whose low descending sun
Views from thy hand no noble action done."

~ Jacob Bobart (d. 1680) German botanist.

Book of Familiar Quotations, Ottenheimer Publishers, Inc., MCMLV.

A Thousand Canoes on The Grand.

Town of Haldimand Council gave the okay today for the splash of a thousand canoes on The Grand River on Saturday, June 25, 2011. A proposal by Haldimand residents, Blaine Nicholls and Shane Carmichael, was met with enthusiasm. Local businesses are encouraged to participate ~ "We are not asking for financial assistance; we are asking businesses and individuals if they have canoes in their barns, to put ten canoes in the river," Carmichael told councillors."

Declared one of The Seven Wonders of Canada by CBC in 2007, the canoe will be the focus of the event but kayaks are welcome. A Heritage River, The Grand is expected to attract enthusiasts from distances outside of Haldimand ~ worldwide.

National Canoe Day is June 26. http://www.nationalcanoeday.net/
http://www.canoemuseum.ca/

Watch for details on the one-day event taking place from Caledonia Fairgrounds to Cayuga-on-the-Grand.

Photos of Willows at Caledonia and Cayuga Bridge: by Lorna

Smile for Today ~

"Show me a thoroughly satisfied man,
and I'll show you a failure."

~ Thomas Alva Edison, American inventor, scientist. (February 11, 1847 - October 18, 1931)

"Don't let one cloud obliterate the whole sky."

~ Anais Nin, French-Cuban Author, best known for her published journals and erotic literature.
(Feb 21, 1903 - January 14, 1977)

Among Anais Nin's first books was D. H. Lawrence, An Unprofessional Study (1932) Published after her death, were Little Birds and Delta of Venus.

~ Wikipedia.

Moments In Nature ~ by Scott C. Walker

Moments In Nature

The Neat Little Bookshop is pleased to feature a photographic exhibit, Moments In Nature. "We are constantly surrounded by beauty, if we just take the time to look," ~ Scott Walker.

Come in. Stay a while. The coffee pot's always on.

Click on Label "Art" (below) to view more photographs by Scott C. Walker.

HOT LEAD:

"Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel."
~ Bill Clinton, Former American President (1946 - )

"Hot lead can be almost as effective coming from a linotype as from a firearm."
~ John O'Hara, Amer. writer (1905 - 1970)

" The pen is mightier than the sword, and considerably easier to write with."
~ Marty Feldman, English comedy writer (1934 - 1982)

"Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets."
~ Napoleon Bonaparte, French Statesman (1769 - 1821)

"If I want to knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle."
~ Hillary Clinton, American Secretary of State (1947 - )

"Wit, by itself, is of little account. It becomes of moment only when grounded on wisdom."
~ Mark Twain, American writer
Treasury of Wit & Wisdom, Compiled by Jeff Bredenberg, Reader's Digest Assoc., 2006.