"From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggety beasties
And things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us!

  ~ Scottish prayer

"Happy & Safe Hallowe'en"

 



"To make a prairie it takes clover and one bee
one clover, and a bee,
and revery
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few."

~ Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886) American poet

Thought for Today ~

After Benjamin Franklin had received a letter thanking him for having done a kindness, he replied:
"As to the kindness you mention, I wish I could have been of more service to you than I have been, but if I had, the only thanks that I should desire are that you would always be ready to serve any other person that may need your assistance, and so let good offices go around, for mankind are all of a family.  As for my own part, when I am employed in serving others I do not look upon myself as conferring favors but paying debts."

"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving."
~ Albert Einstein


"Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow."
~Abraham Lincoln

"The best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love."
~ William Wordsworth

The Treasure Chest , Charles L. Wallis editor, Harper & Row.1965.

[Photo:  "Rest in Peace Cpl. Nathan Cirillo." www.Facebook.com]

Neil Dring Visiting with William Thomas

www.williamthomas.ca Search William Thomas or stop at The Neat Little Bookshop.  We carry Thomas' books, including The Dog Rules -- Damn Near Everything!  You may have met the author when he visited The Neat Little Bookshop or you may read his weekly column in the local papers.  Whatever, he never fails to make one laugh.  "...a three-year-old Great Dane from Portland, Oregon was found to have eaten 43 1/2 socks.  His owners starting asking questions when the family budget revealed they were spending more money on socks than water, heat and hydro.

"One day Hamlet [dog's name changed] just started writhing and retching and was immediately rushed to the nearest animal hospital.  The vet was certain it was something the dog had eaten but he had no idea at the time it was the argyles.  Argyles disagree with everybody." *

*"All The World's A Circus," William Thomas.  The Haldimand Press,  10/1/14

Photo:  The Neat L'l Bookshop, Cayuga St. location.

HALL OF HONOUR

"The great Hall of Honour is destined to change as Canadian history unfolds.  Additional marble carvings will be added to the current collection which commemorates events and distinguished Canadians.  In 1932, the Dominion Memorial commemorating the 60th Anniversary of Confederation, was unveiled by the Earl of Bessborough, then Governor General of Canada.  The memorial was a presentation to Canadians by Canadian countrymen residing in the United States.
The figures and symbols represent past and present Canadian resources and development.  Here the story of Canada is revealed in a series of fascinating plaques and statues ~ a fitting tribute to a vast country with a great past and a bountiful future.
Among the many commemorated events is the Canadian Nurses' Memorial which represents the years of service to country and humanity from 1639 to 1918."

~ THE PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS, Grant-Mann Lithographers Ltd.

 

Entrance to the Houses of Parliament

Confederation Hall into the Hall of Honour

[Photos: files lbw]

"One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible.  Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought, a rivalry of aim."

~ Henry Brooks Adams (1838 - 1918) American novelist, journalist, member of the political Adams family.  The Education of Henry Adams [1907, ch. 4.

"The most effective way to learn bird songs is to listen to recordings made in the field and produced commercially as cassette tapes or discs.  The best ones are made by the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology and published by the Houghton Mifflin Company.  [Check other sources; update this information.] 

A lot of ornithologists write lyrics for bird melodies ~ actual words and sentences that birds would use if they could talk instead of just whistle. 
"Here are a few of the more famous results:  Drink your tea ~ (rufous-sided towhee), Old Sam Peabody Peabody Peabody! (white-throated sparrow), Teacher Teacher Teacher! (oven-bird), Sweet, Sweet Sweeter than Sweet! (Yellow warbler), Quick Three Beers! (olive-sided flycatcher), Pizza! (Acadian flycatcher). "

Our Mum always heard Polly, Polly put the kettle on when the oriole sang.

~ Wild Birds of Canada, Tim Fitzharris, Toronto Oxford University Press, 1989.

Neighbouring Caledonia

Travelling in Haldimand one observes village downtown improvements.  Dunnville, Hagersville, Caledonia were extensively revitalized.  Small hamlets have experienced new sidewalks and curbs.  Rural roads have been up-grated.

This summer Cayuga saw Talbot Street, Hwy 3, torn up and modernized with provision for future underground cables.  Construction of the new bridge is complete.  It will be moved into place in 2015 on new foundations.  Perhaps the most visible improvements will be the planned Cayuga Street changes ~ the old business section.  Watching neighbouring villages,  we wonder with excitement what the new Cayuga will look like.

Oh for a book and a shady nook,
     Either indoor or out,
With the green leaves whispering overhead,
  Or the street cries all about,
Where I may read all at my ease
     Both of the new and old,
For a jolly good book whereon to look
Is better to me than gold.

~ John Wilson (1785 - 1854)  Scottish poet
[pseud. Christopher North]

ODE TO AUTUMN

SEASONS of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease;
For Summer has o'erbrimm'd their clammy cells.

~ J. Keats (Oct. 31, 1795 - Feb. 23, 1821)  English Romantic poet.

"Making scrapbook albums is not only fun and rewarding, it is also an invaluable vehicle of communication.  Finding the right words is usually the most difficult, yet most important, part of scrapbooking.
Every family seems to have stories that are told generation after generation to define them, where they have come from, and where they are today.
You may be the only person in your family or circle of friends who will take the time to write the important details and feelings of events and relationships.  Whether you are writing about mistakes made, victories earned, or simply documenting your feelings about your loved ones, your words will be priceless to you and will help others piece together their own stories.
Sometimes what  you're writing may seem trivial at the time, but later on, you'll find that the little things are what tie us all together through the generations."

 ~ Melody Ross, what to write To Make Meaningful Albums. 2004 Chatterbox Inc., LLC.

[Check out our HOBBIES section ~ including scrapbooking.]

We live beside one of the most beautiful rivers in the world ~ the Grand.

"The landscape painter must walk in the fields with a humble mind.  No arrogant man was ever permitted to see nature in all her beauty." ~ John Constable (1776 - 1837] English landscape painter [Salisbury Cathedral, The Cornfield.]

 "Happy Thanksgiving"

 

There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
Or night-dews on still waters between walls
Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass;
Music that gentler on the spirit lies
Than tir'd eyelids upon tir'd eyes;
Music that brings sweet sleep
Down from the blissful skies.
Here are cool mosses deep
And through the moss the ivies creep
And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep,
And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep.

~ From "The Lotos-eaters",  Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892)

[Photo:  Tiffany Falls, Niagara Escarpment Ancaster]

 

 

Tiffany Falls ~ Ancaster

"Happy Thanksgiving"

"We need time to dream, time to remember and time to reach the infinite.  Time to be."

~ Gladys Taber (1889 - 1980) American writer, professor



[Photo: Courtesy Krista Schaus]

This is the weather the cuckoo likes and so do I;
When showers betumble the chestnut spikes and nestlings fly;
And little brown nightingale bills his best.
And they sit outside "The Traveller's Rest."
And maids come forth sprig ~ muslin drest
And citizens dream of the South and West,
and so do I.

~ Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928) English novelist, poet.

[Photo:  The Village Green Cayuga, October, 2014]

Word Watching ~ Why we say it!

Canary.  How did the inmate of a jail come to be called a 'canary'?

A person placed in jail was called a 'jail bird' because the bars of the jail were similar to the bars of a bird's cage.  He was called a 'canary' because at one time English convicts sent to Australia arrived there dressed in yellow.

Calamity Jane.  What is the origin of the name 'Calamity Jane'?

The original Calamity Jane, Mrs. Martha Burke, was a famous western character who said she got her name because she carried two guns and any man who trifled with her invited calamity.

Church Mouse.  How did a 'church mouse' come to be the symbol of poverty--as in the expression, 'poor as a church mouse'?

There is no cupboard or larder in a church to produce crumbs for a mouse to feed upon.

~ Why Do We Say It? The Stories behind the Words, Expressions and Cliches We Use, CASTLE BOOKS, 1985.

"...But I look up high to see only the light,
And never look down to see my shadow.
This is wisdom which man must learn."

~ Song of the Flower

~Kahlil Gibran, Tears and Laughter, 1949 The Philosophical Library, Inc.

English journalist, critic, poet, and lexicographer, SAMUEL JOHNSON*

"Andrew Millar, the bookseller who published Johnson's Dictionary, had great difficulty in extracting the copy for this work from the author.  At last a messenger was dispatched to Millar with the final page.  Upon the messenger's return Johnson asked, 'Well, what did he say?'
'Sir,' replied the messenger, 'he said, 'Thank God I have done with him'
'I am glad,' said Johnson, 'that he thanks God for anything.' "

"Dr. Johnson was taken to task by a lady who asked why he had defined 'pastern' as 'the knee of a horse' in his dictionary.  She expected an elaborate defense.  He replied, 'Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.' "

[Johnson's dictionary took eleven years to complete.]

~ THE LITTLE, BROWN BOOK OF Anecdotes, Clifton Fadiman, General Editor.

* (1709 - 1784)

"On one occasion when Dylan Thomas had been drinking and talking freely for some time, he suddenly stopped.  "Somebody's boring me,"  he said.  "I think it's me."*

No one appeared bored in The Neat L'l Bookshop last month when the Third Thursday group discussed the Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas.  In fact, we have scheduled Part II for the third Thursday in November.
Clip our ad in The Haldimand Press (Oct. 1) outlining upcoming events.

* THE LITTLE, BROWN BOOK OF Anecdotes, Clifton Fadiman General Editor. 

"There are two kinds of people:  those who wear badly and those who wear well.

     The folk who wear badly usually begin by making a good impression. . .they are so pleasant, ready to flatter, and so eager to help.  But as time goes on you find them just not as wonderful as you were sure they were at first.
     The second type are folk who, at first, are perhaps a bit too quiet, anything but fascinating or amusing and certainly never showy. . .but as time goes on you discover they mean what they say, they lend a hand, and you can depend upon them.  The first wear badly.  The others wear well."

~Francis Gay, The FRIENDSHIP BOOK, 1969

Haldimand County

"The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines."

~ Charles Kuralt (1934 - 1997) American Journalist, CBS "On The Road"

"How often I found where I should be going only by setting out for somewhere else."

~ R. Buckminster Fuller (1895 - 1983) Designer, architect (Montreal Biosphere, 1967)

"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive."

~ Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894) Scottish novelist, poet.


"Not all who wander are lost."

~ J.R.R. Tolkien (1892 - 1973) English writer, university professor.

Haldimand County

Cayuga and District Chamber of Commerce is requesting that businesses in Ward 2 submit questions for an upcoming Candidates Debate.  What issues are of most concern to you as a business in the Cayuga area?

The building of a historic new bridge and the planned revitalization of downtown Cayuga begs two important questions from our perspective.  What can council do to cleanup the existing eyesores on Talbot St. and what can council do to provide free public parking on the main street, Talbot (Hwy 3)? [Addressed in post of July 30, 2014 ~ Cayuga-on-The-Grand]

Thank you to all community-minded individuals who are allowing their names to stand in the October municipal election.

"Being busy does not always mean real work.  The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration.  Seeming to do is not doing."

~ Thomas Alva Edison (Feb. 11, 1847 - )ct. 18, 1931)  American businessman, inventor.

Let's express our thanks to all the community-minded individuals who are allowing their names to stand in the upcoming municipal election.

"I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree"

Helen Keller, perhaps the most famous blind and deaf person in history, on one occasion invited a member of the audience to play the music to which Joyce Kilmer's* famous poem 'Trees' was set.  A young blind pianist came up and proceeded to play the tune.  Helen stood with her hand on the piano lid ~ feeling the vibrations.

When it was all over, she thanked the pianist, saying, "The way you played that music, I could feel the sound of the leaves in the wind."

Source:  Francis Gay, The Friendship Book, 1999.Tuesday.

*Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886 - 1918) America writer, poet.