To You And Yours ~ Happy New Year

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp!
and surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.
CHORUS:
We twa hae run about the braes,
and pu'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary fit,
sin auld lang syne.
CHORUS:
We twa hae paidl d i' the burn,
frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae
roar'd sin auld lang syne.
CHORUS:
And there's a hand, my trusty fiere!
and gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak a right gude-willy waught,
for auld lang syne.

~ Robert Burns, Scottish Poet (January 25, 1759 - July 21, 1796)

"Don't just do something, sit there!" "Don't just do something, sit there!""Mindfulness can also help us to appreciate feelings such as joy, peacefulness, and happiness which often go by fleetingly and unacknowledged. It is liberating... can free us from the ruts we often fall into."

Wishing you time to reflect, time to share ~ wishing you health and happiness in the new year.

"We tend to be particularly unaware that we are thinking virtually all the time. The incessant stream of thoughts flowing through our minds leaves us very little respite for inner quiet."

Mindfulness, living consciously, being aware not of the past or of the future~ solely of the moment, is empowering...because "paying attention in this way opens channels to deep reservoirs of creativity, intelligence, imagination, clarity, determination, choice, and wisdom within us."
~Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go There You Are, Hyperion, 1994. Also author of Full Catastrophe Living And Coming To Our Senses.

Photos: Home of Canadian author, Stephen Leacock. Lake Couchiching. lbwalker

Year In Review

Year of The Arenas ~ In 2011 New State-of-the-Art Facilities
On Saturday, September 17, the new Cayuga Memorial Arena opened. Neighbouring Dunnville celebrated a grand opening on September 5.
Many people came together including an organization, "Cayuga Think Rink," formed in early 2007 to bring this community dream to fruition ~ raising over a million dollars. Over four years in the making.

Year In Review

Comfortable In Our New Location ~ "You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf."~ Swami Satchitananda

Thank you to Peter and Betty Lou Baird for believing in The Neat Little Bookshop. They second-guessed plans to sell 29 Talbot St. and allowed us to lease. With help from our friends, we opened in our new location on Wednesday, September 7, in time for the first week of school and Story Hour.

John and Kim Jeffrey, interested in downtown Cayuga businesses and heritage buildings, purchased 29 Talbot Rd. The Neat Little Bookshop proudly survives. John and Kim opened Grindstone Creek Gallery on King Street in June. http://www.grindstonecreekgallery.com/

Year In Review

On Wednesday, July 20
The Neat Little Bookshop was forced to leave 11 Cayuga Street by order of the Fire Marshal's office. Broken leaking pipes, mould and garbage prevailed.

Combustibles removed. Smoke alarms to code and building permits required. Five upstairs tennants and three businesses shut out until orders met. Today 11 Cayuga Street has been cleaned up and renovated. It is the new home of a diabetic clinic.

Year In Review

Day of 1000 Canoes ~ took place on the Grand River on Saturday, June 25 (June 26th is National Canoe Day). This first-time event was an overwhelming success involving many volunteers and the co-operation of Haldimand County and the O.P.P. Co-founders, Blaine Nicholls and Shane Carmichael had a vision, "The idea of 1000 Canoes is Community ~ getting together, bringing other communities into ours and enjoying one of our greatest local resources ~ the Grand River!"

Next year's Day of 1000 Canoes is scheduled for Saturday, June 23, 2012.

http://www.1000canoes.com/ Photographs from Day of 1000 Canoes Facebook.

Year In Review

http://www.chiefswood.com/

Historic Chiefswood, home of the poet Pauline Johnson, was extensively damaged by water ~ along with priceless artifacts. Sometime on Sunday, February 5 according to the TEKAWENNAKE newspaper, water pipes burst as a result of freezing temperatures. "It's the worst nightmare that could possibly happen," said curator Paula Whitlow, "short of the building being burned to the ground."
"Water was running down the stairs from the second floor like a cascade and the sound of water under pressure was loud and coming from the closet under the stairwell on the main level and pouring out from under the door, covering the main level floors with 2 to 3 inches of water." Difficulty in finding the main shut-off valve by Six Nations Public Works employees resulted in the flow of water for more than six hours from the time the bursts were first discovered.

Previous appeals to Band Council when the furnace no longer worked, went unheeded. Band councillors and Elected Chief Bill Montour were once again contacted for help after the disaster.

Source: TEKAWENNAKE Canada's Oldest Leading Native Weekly - since 1963. Wednesday, December 28, 2011 Issue. Photo: Lorna Walker

Note: The Neat Little BOOKSHOP is Closed for holidays. Returning Wednesday, January 4.


In a letter* to her friend, Al Purdy, Margaret Laurence wrote:

"I don't think you should worry unduly (maybe you aren't ~ hope not) re: the poems ... which you aren't crazy about. There are some good poems in the collection, and others which don't have as much reach as you would like them to have. So what?

"It seems to me we ought not to worry that all our work is not of the same (high) standard. . . for God's sake, whose is? Not even Shakespeare's."

Referring to her own work, Laurence writes, "...there are some okay things in them, but they're not true enough, not penetrating enough, or at least they don't speak as much of my own truth as I have sometimes been able to speak in novels. But I think this is a fact of life, and damn well better than not writing at all if it makes you miserable at that particular time not to be writing. The Nigerian book was a life saver for me ~ saved me from despair and booze, probably. So it's got a few decent parts, and that's all, but that's okay, I think. This doesn't mean a drop in standards ~ it only means that you don't operate at the same pitch or tempo or whatever it is, all the time."

~ MARGARET LAURENCE (1926 - Jan. 5, 1987) Margaret Laurence - Al Purdy: A Friendship in Letters, McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1993.
* September, 1969

What does a book-lady get for Christmas? You probably guessed part of it . . . a new book and ~ a clock disguised as a book!

After all there is nothing like a good book ~

A Peaceful Christmas to You ~

Wishing Everyone a safe and Happy Holiday ~
time for reflection, for sharing, and for love.
Post Card from December, 1909 ~ A Bright and Merry Christmas.

The true story of Alfred Kienitz ~ his escape from Germany ~ risking his life to assist family, friends and even strangers to escape the clutches of Communism.
Written by his daughter, Doris Kienitz, East Germany and the Escape, Kitchen Table Memoirs.

A Memoir Available at The Neat Little Bookshop in both soft cover and hard. Please call or email to reserve your copy. 905-577-5635, lbwalker@shaw.ca

~ FriesenPress, First Edition, November, 2011

Postcards from 1900 - 1910

Proving that children really did have a l-o-n-g walk to school back then!

"Owning a first-edition book is like having a baby and not being able to cuddle it," says George Murray of J. N. Barfield* Books in New York City.

"A scratch, a rip, or smudge diminishes a first edition's value as an investment." For those who wish to own fine books and read them, too, leather-bound volumes offer handsome rewards. Barfield's collection dates from about 1870 to 1929, when bookbinding went the way of the stock market, never to rebound. The shop welcomes and educates browsers.
~ BOUND TO BE ENJOYED, Country Living Magazine, Dec. 1991.

*J. N. Bartfield Rare and Fine Books, New York

Early Postcards although sent with warm sentiments were poorly crafted with no embellishments. Later as the quality of paper and printing methods improved, cards became decorative works of art.

Postcards from the Past

"The Cayuga Bridge Company was incorporated in 1836 and the bridge was completed soon afterward. A bridge was also built at Seneca. The Cayuga company was a joint stock operation, financed by shareholders, who profited from the tolls which were collected. The government set limits on the tolls: total annual amount collected could not be more than 20 per cent of the total cost of the bridge."
In 2011, as the plans for a new bridge to replace the old in Cayuga are revised and revealed, we read with interest the chapter on the history of roads and bridges in Haldimand County.
Available at The Neat Little Bookshop The Early Years by Cheryl MacDonald, author and historian. $20.

Here Comes Santa Claus ~ excerpts from CHRISTMAS IN ONTARIO*
In Ontario, the tradition of visiting Santa at a store goes back to the late 1800's. In some cases, he was an invisible presence ~ one Toronto bookstore billed itself as Santa's depository for gifts. But stores that featured a real live Santa had a definite edge, especially if his arrival was marked by a special event.
The most special event of all was Eaton's annual Santa Claus parade, which started in 1905. Prior to that time, Santa was enthroned in the Toronto department store's Toyland.

"This compilation brings to life the very best holiday stories from across Ontario." ~ Cheryl MacDonald

Cheryl has been writing about Canadian history for nearly thirty years. A long-time resident of Nanticoke, she is a full-time writer and historian.

*Available in The Neat Little Bookshop $9.95

"A composer friend, visiting Heine, found the poet at his desk gloomily surveying a blank page. Asked what the trouble was, Heine replied, "Well, I just met X in the street, I stopped for a moment to exchange ideas, and now I feel like a complete idiot."

~ Heinrich Heine (1797 - 1856), After 1831 he lived in Paris, where he was involved in radical political journalism, wrote essays on French and German culture, and composed satirical verse.
THE LITTLE, BROWN BOOK OF Anecdotes, Clifton Fadiman, 1985

"Frosty the Snow Man is a fairy tale, they say; He was made of snow, but the children know how he came to life one day. There must have been some magic in that old silk hat they found,

For when they placed it on his head, he began to dance around. Oh, Frosty the Snow Man was alive as he could be, ~And the children say he could laugh and play just the same as you and me. Thump-et-y thump thump, thump-et-y thump thump, Look at Frosty go. . .

Words and Music by Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins

The Old-Fashioned Christmas Tree ~

"Everyone enjoys the tree enthusiastically. It seems as if we are all in never-never land. We are children again, or at least completely comfortable with our childlikeness I realize that this is exactly what many trees might have looked like a century or more ago ~ not just hung with the old ornaments, but imbued with a spirit of a far different time...

"Gifts are exchanged and admired. Tasha reads "The Night Before Christmas" to us from one of her own versions. It is tremendously comforting to sit around Tasha's tree and have her read this Christmas classic to us, as she did years ago to her children, as her father did even more years ago to her. The past and present seem to merge, as they often do at Corgi Cottage. All the Christmases past become a seamless part of this Christmas."

~ Tasha Tudor, American illustrator and author (1918 - 2008) Forever Christmas, 2000

"The Moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow

Gave a luster of midday to objects below. When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer..."

"Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen! On. Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donner and Blitzen!"

~ A Visit From St. Nicholas, Clement Clark Moore, 1823

Photo: The Niagara Escarpment, West Hamilton. Taken last winter when we had snow ~ Lorna

With a hearty "Ho, ho, ho!" Santa calls out each name then off to the North Pole again. "A book for Susie, a comic for Sam." Santa smiles. "Bundles of fun.""In a land way up north ~ at the tip of the North Pole ~ there's a magical place where winter stays the whole year long. Elves upon elves zigzag their skis through the snow on their way to a very special house ~ the Toy Shop of Mr. and Mrs. S. Claus." "How was your trip, Santa? Merry Christmas!" Couldn't do it without Elf Mike!

~ Santa's Toy Shop, Walt Disney Classic Edition, 2000

THE AVRO ARROW
A PICTURE HISTORY ~ "When the magnificent new Avro Arrow fighter jet thundered into the sky over Malton, Ontario on a cold March morning in 1958, Canada became a world leader in the aviation industry. Less than a year later, the Arrow project was dead. What happened?
The story of the Avro Arrow has been told, retold, and analyzed so often it is fading into myth. This book brings the Arrow, and the people who made it, back to life through over 100 historical images cataloguing every step of the Arrow's development ~ and its shocking demise."
~ Local author, Lawrence Miller, James Lorimer & Company Ltd., 2011.

NEW ~ Autographed copies available at The Neat Little Bookshop $9.95 (Limited quantity)

J. D. Salinger (January 1919 ~ January 2010)

Holden Caulfield Watching Phoebe on the carousel ~ "I was so damn happy all of a sudden . I don't know why.It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going round and round, in her blue coat and all.God, I wish you could have been there." (Paperback edition courtesy of Lawrence Miller.) J. D. Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye, has become an icon for teenage rebellion and adolescent confusion. The theme of the importance of family throughout the book perhaps contributes to the book's lasting attraction. Above hard cover: First published in Britain 1951 by Hamish Hamilton Ltd. 2nd impression 1955.

Reading of A Christmas Carol
at Cottonwood Mansion left most of us inquiring, "What is Smoking Bishop??" (Read by Rt. Rev. D. Ralph Bishop Spence ~ the casting by Catherine Stidsen.)
The drink is hot, spiced wine similar to wassail ~ something like a hot sangria, scented with oranges and infused with port.

Thank you Bishop Spence, Anglican Bishop of Niagara, retired, for your enlivened rendition of The Christmas Carol script. With thanks to Catherine Stidsen for photo.

At the very end of the beloved Charles Dickens holiday classic A Christmas Carol, a reformed Ebenezer Scrooge and his long-suffering employee Bob Cratchit share an oddly named libation:

"A Merry Christmas, Bob!" said Scrooge with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. "A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I'll raise your salary, and endeavor to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon over a bowl of Smoking Bishop, Bob!" Source: CBC

Photo: Deanna and Jill Serving Guests