Mr. Noodles isn't sure why he is sitting in the Sidewalk Sale books ~ sitting on tables is not something he is allowed to do.  Mr. Noodles, we love you.  Thank you for posing!

Nicole LeVatte of Caledonia and Mr. Noodles ~ always bring a smile.

T's all I have to bring to-day,
This, and my heart beside,
This, and my heart, and all the fields,
And all the meadows wide.
Be sure you count, should I forget, ~
Some one the sum could tell, ~
This, and my heart, and all the bees
Which in the clover dwell.

~ Emily Dickinson

ETERNITY

On this wondrous sea,
Sailing silently,
     Ho! pilot, ho!
Knowest thou the shore
Where no breakers roar,
     Where the storm is o'er?

In the silent west
Many sails at rest,
     Their anchors fast;
Thither I pilot thee, ~
Land, ho!  Eternity!
     Ashore at last!

~ Emily Dickinson

On the River ~ A Barge

Temporary Barge

View from the riverbank

Ouse Street at Bridge

Photos:  Thursday, July 25. lbw

Often Reduced to One Lane

On the Bridge ~  Allow a little extra time.  Movement on the bridge is fine.

To Our Readers ~

We urge you to take a minute to read a comment by one of our favourite followers.  Thank you, Maria, for your comments regarding "poetic perception" (July 20, 2013 Obscure Life). Children do have a natural fascination with small details that go unnoticed by adults.  And bless the parent who takes the time to share!

 lbw

New heights of popularity for Jane Austen* ~
British novelist, Jane Austen, will be honoured on the 10-pound banknote.  Bank of England announced. The design will feature an 1870 portrait and include the Pride and Prejudice quotation, "I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading."

"Her novels have an enduring and universal appeal and she is recognized as one of the greatest writers in English Literature." ~ Mark Carney, Bank of England Governor.

~ CBC News, July 24.
* (Jane Austen, born December 16, 1775; died July 18, 1817)


Photo:  Cover of Jane Austen : her life, by Park Honan, 1987.  U.S. Edition. St. Martin's Press.  First published in Great Britain by George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Limited.

Nostalgic ~

In Rivers of Canada, Hugh MacLennan refers to "The gentle Grand ... I kept marvelling at the Grand.  How does it generate enough force to move at all?

"Streams with low banks running through rich tillage can be very deceptive.  They remind me of quiet, apparently docile women who periodically lose their tempers and are all the more terrifying because you don't expect it.  The Grand River has a long history of losing its temper in the month of April."

p. 147 Rivers of Canada, 1974 Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd.

Photo:  Conway Park, Cayuga.  lbw files.

"There are times when I think that the reading I have done in the past has had no effect except to cloud my mind and make me indecisive."

~ Robertson Davies (1913 - 1935)  Canadian novelist, professor, journalist.

Thought for Today ~

An Essay concerning Human Understanding (1690)

"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common."

"No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience."

"It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of truth."

"Crooked things may be as stiff and unflexible as straight:  and men may be as positive in error as in truth."

~ John Locke (1632 - 1704) English Philosopher

The Obscure Life ~

"I OMIT THE UNUSUAL ~ the hurricanes and earthquakes ~ and describe the common.  This has the greatest charm and is the true theme of poetry.  You may have the extraordinary for your province, if you will let me have the ordinary.  Give me the obscure life, the cottage of the poor and humble, the workdays of the world, the barren fields, the smallest share of all things but poetic perception.  Give me but the eyes to see the things which you possess."

~ Henry David Thoreau/ An American Landscape/ Selected Writings from His Journals, edited and illustrated by Robert L. Rothwell,  Paragon House, 1991.

Reminder:  The Neat L'l Bookshop is closed for the weekend.

Be sure to visit the www.cayugafest.com

"THERE IS SOME ADVANTAGE, intellectually and spiritually, in taking wide views with the bodily eye and not pursuing an occupation which holds the body prone.  There is some advantage, perhaps, in attending to the general features of the landscape over studying the particular plants and animals which inhabit it.  A man may walk abroad and no more see the sky than if he walked under a shed.  The poet is more in the air than the naturalist, though they may walk side by side.  Granted that you are out-of-doors; but what if the outer door is open, if the inner door is shut!  You must walk sometimes perfectly free, not prying nor inquisitive, not bent upon seeing things.  Throw away a whole day of a single expansion, a single inspiration of air."

~ Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau An American Landscape, Selected Writings from His Journals, Edited and Illustrated by Robert L. Rothwell, Paragon House, 1991.

(Photo:  Family, Haldimand County.  Pls. click on photo. lbw)

Dr. Alan Bishop, a professor emeritus of English at McMaster University, is our guest tomorrow, 1:00 p.m.

Everyone Welcome ~ light refreshments, cool drinks.

YES, WE HAVE AIR-CONDITIONING ~
Join us.. .  Stay a while ~ Read a book!

Grand at Conway Park Cayuga

Ouse Street Along The Grand

~ Or Under a Shade Tree Along The Grand
Be sure to visit www.cayugafest.com

Signs of Bridge Beginning ~

One Lane on Old Bridge

We hope to keep our visitors updated.  If Blogspot goes down again, we will use "Cayuga-on-the-Grand" or "The Neat Little Bookshop" on Facebook.  If necessary, lorna walker on Twitter!

(Photo:  Tuesday, July 22 lbw)

The Neat L'l Bookshop survives because of folks who love books, enjoy sharing experiences and ideas.  We had almost given up on posting until your sincere encouragement.  Today we tried again.

Bridge Beginning

  We can choose fonts, size and colour of font, and post pictures!  (Once entered in bold or italics we can't change.  Limited features encourage getting it right the first time!)

Our blog helps us tell you when our special guests are coming.

This week we are looking forward to Dr. Alan Bishop reading from his book, Contemporaneous Impressions/ South African, English & Canadian Poems (1957 - 2010).  Dr. Bishop is a professor emeritus of English at McMaster University.

THURSDAY, JULY 18 at 1:00 p.m.

(Thank you to the ITs at Google who apparently "heard" our pleas for help.)

Photos:  July Bridge Watch lbw

Mornings

Morning Sun

Having to try entering text in every round-about way. We are limited by Google's current Glitches.   Reminded of the following anonymous quotations:

"I have often regretted my speech, never my silence."

"There is nothing wrong with having nothing to say ~ unless you insist on saying it."

And this from Mark Twain, "I was gratified to be able to answer promptly.  I said, 'I don't know.' "

Photos Taken Morning, Thursday, July 11 [Google's Blogspot allows text in photo caption.]  Maybe I'm not using the right words to get administration's attention.  Daily

Google's Blogspot Allows Photos This Morning!

From Under the Willow

Google's Blogspot claims to be currently undergoing a "New Look". We are unable to get a response to our daily pleas for "Help". Meanwhile, we apologize for the unpredicable ~ sometimes absent ~ postings. Yesterday, we were able to post text only if we first posted a photograph. Today we can post text although we have no choice of font or size. We are suspending our "visit to the bookshop" until the problem is resolved. lbw

South African, English & Canadian Poems (1957 - 2010)
Alan Bishop will be in The Neat L'l Bookshop
THURSDAY, JULY 18 at 1:00 p.m.

Google's Blogspot features are currently limited.  We cannot edit previous post.  Please note, should read JULY 18.  Thank you.  

Alan Biship's poetry was written over some fifty years in three different countries.  It reflects the intensely personal experiences of the poet.
While an undergraduate at Rhodes University during the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, Alan participated in protest-marches.  He had his name recorded by the police.
Mr. Biship continued to "follow the tensions of life in South Africa" while at Corpus Christi College in Oxford, England.  After three years in Oxford, he returned to his native Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) where he taught for a year at a Black high-school; married and accepted a lectureship in the Department of English Language at the University of Cape Town.  This ended abruptly when the government expelled anti-apartheid university teachers.  Mr. Biship returned to Oxford, completed a D.Phil then emigrated to Canada.

The Neat Little Bookshop is honoured to host an afternoon with Alan Bishop on Thursday, June 18 at 1:00 p.m.  Everyone welcome.

Available at the bookshop:  Contemporaneous Impressions/South African, English & Canadian Poems (1957 - 2010) by Alan Bishop.  McMaster Innovation Press.

[Blogspot's limited features currently available to us.  We apologize for recent confusion. lbw  Blogspot has recently claimed a "new look."

 

Round 'n Round we go in Blogspot  ~ No one replies to our "Help" pleas.  We cannot enter text, post or edit.





Cayuga Kinsmen & St. John's Lodge

Brian and Billy Serve Omelets as You Like Them!

"The best brunch in Haldimand County!" ~ Brian Nyberg

Cathie & Larry Smith from Hamilton in Cayuga for Sunday Brunch

Cayuga Kinsmen and St. John's Lodge welcome you to join them for Sunday Brunches ~ the first Sunday of each month at the Cayuga Kinsmen Community Centre.  9:30 a.m. until 12:00 p.m.

 Adults $10.00 and children (under 12) $4.00.

Laura Secord

Laura Secord House Queenston



Historians of the War of 1812 have recorded various accounts of Laura Secord's walk from Queenston to Beaver Dams. 

Ruth McKenzie, author of Laura Secord, the legend and the lady*, writes,  "Laura Secord had found her niche in Canadian history as the agent of victory at Beaver Dams.  It was a distinctive niche because it was held by a woman, and in the next two decades women played a large part in bringing the name of Laura Secord into prominence as a great Canadian heroine."

*McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1971.  Maracle Press.

 

Today visitors can sit in the adjacent tea room and enjoy the historic surroundings.  North-west corner of Queen and Partition streets, Queenston, Ontario.

Lundy's Lane Niagara Falls

Photos:  lbw Click on photos for larger image.

Laura Secord's Young Friend

Carla Ann Kuchard has created a charming little tale of a young Native girl's chance meeting with Laura Secord.  While picking strawberries, eleven year old Lucy is surprised to discover a stranger resting under a tree.  As Lucy approaches her, the lady invites her to sit and talk.  The two become instant friends.  Laura has been traveling by foot since daybreak and gratefully accepts the girl's offer of strawberries and a drink of water.

As the new friends part ~ as Laura has an important message that must be delivered before dusk ~ they exchange gifts.  Lucy gives Laura her "good-luck" doll, beautifully dressed, wearing bead-worked moccasins.  Laura gives her young friend a dainty handkerchief.

After Laura disappears into the forest, Lucy unfolds the handkerchief.  To her delight it is edged in embroidery.  In all four corners tiny red stitches ~ strawberries! 

[Available at The Neat Little Bookshop, all proceeds go to the Thorold and Beaverdams Historical Society.]

Note:  Be sure to read "the other Maria's" comment on Lucy's Special Day.

Wisdom

For three days there have been no bookshop posts.  Frankly it did not matter what I tried, nothing worked.  Today I noticed a blank field with tiny, pale words, "Enter title" ~ Enter a phony title ~ no attention to key words and voila!

William James said, "The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." 


[The underlined, mandatory title is not attractive.  Personally I preferred a choice of font, colour, italics, spacing, etc. as before.  Even the option of no title was preferable!  Why the change?]

Smile for Today ~

"I do not object to people looking at their watches when I am speaking.  But I strongly object when they start shaking them to make sure they are still going."

~ Lord Birkett

Family Holidays ~

NO SMALL LEGACY ~

One need only read the writings of early settlers of Upper & Lower Canada to understand that we stand on the shoulders of many individuals.  There are numerous diaries and biographies that describe the hardships and challenges of clearing and governing a new land.

HAPPY CANADA DAY