". . .he has things to teach us about the need to be alone, the need to reflect, and the need to connect with the earth as our ancestors did.
"I have never forgotten his sense of humour, his optimism, and the ceaseless challenge of his life's work ~ to be alone.  To walk and meditate, to pray for a sweeter fate for mother earth.  Above all, to pay attention, to focus.  'We're so cluttered up, so distracted,'  he told me on the phone (yes, he has one, plus a television and a Volkswagen van) before the on-air interview.  'You have to set aside time,' he said, 'a period of quiet and calm.'  He admitted to being terrifically lonely at times, but he also cherished what he called 'my own little monastery' and found great joy in it.
'At one point, all men were contemplative.  I think it is so important to realize that we are part of the Earth and the Earth is part of us.'"

Grey County ON

~ Lawrence Scanlan, Harvest of a Quiet Eye ~ the cabin as sanctuary ~ Viking Canada, 2004.

Note:  Although this passage refers to the quiet life of a priest, Father Charles Brandt, Lawrence Scanlan's Harvest of a Quiet Eye looks at how civilization has distanced us from nature and the earth.  (Father Brandt's childhood hero was Henry David Thoreau.)

July, 2012

Tomorrow: More about Harvest of a Quiet Eye, and time alone and in nature. 

Blue Mountain Village

Collingwood Elvis Festival

"The truck Elvis drove was a Ford pickup with a carry-back for equipment, and sometimes on his way to pick up or deliver supplies he'd pass the Memphis Recording Service, a small but lucrative sideline to the Sun Record Company, both of which had been founded and were being operated by Sam Phillips...

"The office was full of people wanting to make personal records.  It was a stand-and-wait-your-turn sort of thing.  He came in, said he wanted to make a record.  I told him he'd have to wait and he said okay.  He sat down.  Of course he had his guitar.  They all had their guitars in those days...

"While he was waiting his turn, we had a conversation I had reason to remember for many years afterward, because later I had to tell the story so often.  He said he was a singer.  I said, 'What kind of a singer are you?'  He said, "I sing all kinds.' I said, 'Who do you sound like?' He said, 'I don't sound like nobody.'  I thought, Oh yeah, one of those.  I said, 'Hillbilly?  He said, 'Yeah, I sing hillbilly."  I said, 'Who do you sound like in hillbilly?'  He said, "I don't sound like nobody.'"

~ Marion Keisker, ELVIS by Jerry Hopkins, 1971, Simon and Schuster.

http://www.collingwoodelvisfestival.com/

Among Susanna Moodie's Letters, this one to Richard Bentley, Belleville, April 24, 1865, reflecting the hardship of life in the colonies.

"...The Canadian Government, does not encourage literary talent.  I never heard of it granting a pension to any author, and I did not make any application to it -- for assistance.  One of their public men, Dr. Rolph -- long since dead -- used to say, that Mrs. Moodie, deserved a pension from the British Government for the good that her patriotic songs, did, during the rebellion of - /37.  I hold perhaps, the first place among the female authors residing within the Colony; and my contributions to their periodical literature has always enjoyed great popularity.  But this has not made them, more ready to give my dear husband a small place under the government, to keep us from the Author's fate -- A dry crust and the garret.  My husband is now in Toronto, whither he has gone, to mortgage the few acres we possess..."

p. 214, Susanna Moodie, Letters of a Lifetime, University of Toronto Press, 1985.

"A portion of my own spirit seemed to pass into that little stream.  In its deep wailings and fretful sighs, I fancied myself lamenting for the land I had left for ever; and its restless and impetuous rushings against the stones which choked its passage were mournful types of my own mental struggles against the strange destiny which hemmed me in.  Through the day the stream moaned and travelled on, but, engaged in my novel and distasteful occupations, I heard it not; but whenever my winged thoughts flew homeward, then the voice of the brook spoke deeply and sadly to my heart, and my tears flowed unchecked to its plaintive and harmonious music."

~ Susanna Moodie (1803 - 1885) Roughing it in the Bush, 1852.  Richard Bentley of London, England.


Photo:  Normandale, Ontario.

Consider Discontent w/Current National Debt ~
 In a letter to her friend Richard Bentley in Feb., 1859, Susanna Moodie wrote:


"The Commercial prosperity of the country is just now at a stand still.  The rail roads do not pay.  Numbers of people are out of employment, and half the stores are shut up.  The Colony is bankrupt, and cannot take the benefit of the insolvent act.  Money is not to be had, and no one can live upon credit.  What has occasioned this state of things can only be guessed at.  For my own part, I believe it originates in the general love of dishonest speculation, which pervades all the mercantile ranks.  They have ruined themselves and others in trying to grow rich at the expense of the country.  A general gloom pervades all ranks and the certainty[of] the seat of Government becoming fixed at Ottawa, has put Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec, into the sulks.  The decision of the Queen was so unexpected, so distasteful to the majority of the people, that the expressions of discontent almost amounted to treason, and the choice of Ottawa, was only carried in the house by a majority of five.  A few years will make Ottawa worthy of the royal favor. In natural beauty it far surpasses all its more wealthy rivals, and can be made a noble place with very little trouble.  The Queen showed much taste in picking it, and I have no doubt, that the difficulty of deciding between the three great rival cities was one main object in her decision."

Sad-Iron Collection ~ Reta Melick

~ Susanna Moodie:  Letters of a Lifetime, University of Toronto Press, 1985, p. 187.

Mrs. Moodie wrote about pioneer life in Canada in Roughing it in the Bush, a "glowing narrative of personal incident and suffering. . ." ~ the publishers,  McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1962.

Watching CayugaFest Parade ~



Who is Watching Who?


 http://www.cayugafest.com/

Titanic Cruising Through Cayuga

 

For Those of Us Who Didn't Make It to Church This Week . . .



"Get Your Lemonade at Grand Treats & Treasures"

 

 August is a week away ~ no sign of a new bridge.

All we know is that the lights are pointing in the right direction.  Cayuga Street & Talbot (Hwy. #3)

Town Meets Country

Breakfast with the Firefighters ~ This Morning, July 21.  7:00 - 10:00  a.m.  Activities all day.  Parade 11:00 a.m. For details visit http://www.cayugafest.com/

Cayuga Fire Station Ottawa St.

"The important thing in the Olympic games is not winning but taking part.  The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well."

The Baron de Coubertin's ringing declaration ~ which would become a maxim of the Olympic movement ! was appropriated from an American clergyman.  (Smithsonian magazine)

~ Taken from Krista Schaus of Precision Nutrition.

Nothing is Perfect ~ Proverbs con't.

The best things may be abused.
Nothing so good but it might have been better.
The best-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley. (often go awry,  Robt. Burn's poem, "To a Mouse" 1786.)
There are spots even in the sun.
The best cloth may have a moth in it.
The best cart may overthrow.
No garden without its weeds.
No land without stones, or meat without bones.
No rose without a thorn.   (A commonplace of Elizabethan & 17th -cent. verse.)
Every light has its shadow.
No day so clear but has dark clouds.
There was never a good town but had a mire at one end of it.
Every path has a puddle.
It is a good tree that has neither knap nor gaw.  (knob, or blemish.)
It is a good horse that never stumbles.  (Sometimes with the rhyming line "And a good wife that never grumbles."

~ The Penguin Dictionary of Proverbs

Nobody is Perfect ~  Proverbs on Imperfection

Every man has his faults.
He is lifeless that is faultless.
No man is infallible.
To err is human. (The proverb predates Pope's well-known line "To err is human:  to forgive, divine."  An essay on Criticism, 1711)
If you don't make mistakes, you don't make anything. (First recorded in the early 20th century.)
Every man is mad on some point.
He rides sure that never fell.
He stands not surely that never slips.
Accidents will happen in the best regulated families.  (Although the saying is often associated with Mr. Micawber in Dickens's David Copperfield (1850), there are several earlier citations.)
Arthur could not tame woman's tongue.  (A reference to King Arthur.)

Tomorrow:  Nothing is Perfect.

"If I had but one day left to live, I would plant a tree."  Martin Luther King

The Penguin Dictionary of Proverbs, Second Edition, Rosalind Fergusson, Jonathan Law, 2000

 Yard Sale ~ Village-Wide Saturday 

Bookshop Window

July 21 Cayuga-on-The Grand

Come for the Fireman's Breakfast

at the firehall ~ followed by a Full Day of Activities

First Big Village-Wide Yard Sale

For Details on CayugaFest Weekend:  http://www.cayugafest.com/

Cayuga Fest ~ July 20 -21 
 Along the banks of the Grand

Lower Kinsmen Park ~ Ouse Street

Skateboarding

Lots of fun for all ages, activities start on Friday 7:00 p.m. with the MAIN STAGE ENTERTAINMENT in the lower Kinsmen Park on Ouse St. 


On Saturday, there will be events all day beginning with a town-wide yard sale and the fire fighter's breakfast 7:00 a.m. in the fire hall.

For details visit www.cayugafest.com or call 905-912-6641.  email:  cayugafest@hotmail.com  For yard sale details:  Sandy at 905-772-3304



Caledonia Author Suzanne Hurley

 Suzanne Hurley has published a new book, Nice Girls Can Win.  Suzanne is not new to publishing.  Her book, Never Ever, made the finals this year in the Epic Ebook Awards.  She also has a series of four mysteries to her credit.
We are looking forward to having Suzanne visit The Neat Little Bookshop.  Watch for fall Meet the Author events.

http://www.suzannemhurley.com/

Smile For Today ~

  The Wonders of Our World

Photo:  lbwalker

Author of the famous poem, "Footprints", Margaret Fishback Powers, suggests that it is never too early to start writing in a journal.  "As soon as a child can print, print one line a day," she advises.*

Reading:  Footprints, The True Story Behind The Poem That Inspired Millions,  Margaret Fishback Powers, HarperCollinsPublishersLtd., 1993

http://www.footprintspoem.ca/

*Interview with Maralee Dawn & Friends, July 14, 2012

Photo:  lbwalker James N. Allen Park, Haldimand

http://www.sesquiotic.wordpress.com/   Entertaining and educational.  Today James Harbeck compares the words bookshop and bookstore.
"You decide" whether The Neat Little Bookshop is a bookshop or a bookstore ~ and let us know!

Mr. Harbeck writes an excellent blog that is available by email.  Anyone in love with the English language will love Harbeck.

Diaries ~

Fanny Kemble 1834

Authors often draw on diaries or journals when writing books.  British actress, Fanny Kemble, published eleven volumes of memoirs as well as her poetry and plays.
In the bookshop we are intrigued with the stories we hear ~ family histories, local tales.  "I could write a book," is a common pronouncement and often the information indeed is worth recording.

Published books are obviously not every one's calling.  However, jotting down facts in a scribbler ~  information, anecdotes, personality traits ~ facts that will fill in blanks for future generations or even amateur historians is a worthwhile past time.  Journals don't require great writing skills.

~ Reference:  A Book of One's Own People and Their Diaries, Thomas Mallon
Fanny Kemble (1809 - 1893) Portrait:  Wikipedia

Commonplace Books ~

"One forerunner of the diary has historically been used more to regard art than create it.  It was the practice of making a record of one's reading, or of whatever information came one's way, that gave rise to those diaries still known as commonplace books.  The special interest of those kept by artists is obvious:  What piece of reading or news may have triggered a particular line of verse, or perhaps a whole painting?  For writers, especially, commonplace books are the records of influence, but they have for centuries been kept by blocked writers and non writers as well."

~ A Book of One's Own People And Their Diaries, Thomas Mallon, Ticknor & Fields, 1984.

Note:  English Poet, John Milton (1608 - 1674), kept a commonplace book.  He drew on these notes for his later work.  Milton's commonplace book is now in the British Library.

ANTICIPATING FRIDAY the 13th ~

Street-Scape Visuals Talbot St. (Hwy. #3)

Stoplight Hwy #3 at Cayuga St.



Royal Canadian Legion Branch 159

Ottawa St. & Hwy # 3

Hwy. #3 at Ottawa St.

Hwy. #3 at Cayuga St.



Cayuga Street, Steps From Hwy #3

 Downtown Businesses Anticipating Friday 13th

Early Blacksmith's Shop*,  Talbot Rd. (Hwy. #3)

Cayuga's Early Beginnings ~

"Cayuga is situated on the banks of the Grand River, where it is crossed by the Talbot Road (Hwy. #3).  Early settlement to the area took place in 1784.  The migration of several families to Haldimand began with the hasty migration of the United Empire Loyalists from their homes in the Mohawk Valley.  Small settlements began to emerge along the Grand River.  Due to the location of Cayuga it's believed that the area was initially settled in the late 1800s for its vantage point as a stage stop and its river access.  According to the 1879 atlas there were only five houses in the village in 1842. . .
"Lumbering was the chief and only industry.  John Welch and Michael Finley kept taverns in the village. . .Sam McClung opened a school in 1842.
"In 1850 Cayuga became the County seat for Haldimand county and in January, 1851, the Court House was completed and opened."

~ Karen Richardson, contributor to Stories along the Grand, The York Grand River Historical Society, 2010.  $20 Available at The Neat Little Bookshop.

*Now The Blacksmith's Garden, owned by Jim Gibson

.

View From the Bookshop Window ~
29 Talbot St., Cayuga, ON
~

Thursday Afternoon Readings ~  in the bookshop always leave me pondering.  Yesterday, Pauline Johnson was the topic.  Reading the Mohawk princess' poetry and briefly touching on her life, John Passfield left most of us thinking.

In A Book of One's Own People and Their Diaries,   Thomas Mallon explores commonplace books.  Commonplace books are personal journals of one's reading.  Mallon notes that "inside most commonplace books there is a personal diary trying to get out."
Today I am left feeling that the Pauline Johnson story is "trying to get out."  We have not, for whatever reason, even begun to understand her life.  A visit to Chiefswood * is a good start.  A couple books, Pauline, A Biography of Pauline Johnson, by Betty Keller and Flint and Feather, The Life and Times of E. Pauline Johnson, by Charlotte Gray are informative. 


Thank you John and all who participated for your insight.  A thoughtful study of Pauline Johnson's own writings may be the best insight.
http://www.chiefswood.com/

* Chiefswood National Historic Site

Please note:  The Neat Little Bookshop will continue Thursday afternoon readings in the fall.  We look forward to new topics and fascinating personalities.  Have a safe and happy summer.

You Asked ~

Yes, the bookshop is air-conditioned! 

Today:  1:00 p.m. Reading ~ E. Pauline Johnson w/John Passfield

"Sleeps the overhanging willow"

In The Shadows

I am sailing to the leeward,

Where the current runs to seaward soft and slow,

Where the sleeping river grasses

Brush my paddle as it passes

To and fro.

On the shore the heat is shaking
All the golden sands awaking

In the cove;

And the quaint sand-piper, winging
O'er the shallows, ceases singing
When I move.

On the water's idle pillow
Sleeps the overhanging willow,
Green and cool;
Where the rushes lift their burnished
Oval heads from out the tarnished

Emerald pool.

~  ~

My canoe is growing lazy,

In the atmosphere so hazy,

While I dream;

Half in slumber I am guiding,

Eastward indistinctly gliding

Down the stream.

Note:  "In The Shadows" consists of nine verses. 

~ Flint and Feather, The Complete Poems of E. Pauline Johnson, Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd., 1917.

Photos:  lbwalker

Author John Passfield has studied and taught literature, creative writing and drama.  Born in St. Thomas, Ontario, many of his published books are true stories of his hometown.  Always interested in the "development of the novel as an art form," Passfield keeps daily notes during the writing of each of his novels. These studies are subsequently published in a journal to accompany the novel.  For an insight into his "search for the ideal form of a novel" visit http://www.johnpassfield.ca/

Among John Passfield's ten books are Jumbo, P.T. Barnum's Greatest Creation, Pinafore Park: The Swan Boat Incident and Rain of Fire:  The Ordeal of Conductor Sprettigue.

The Neat Little Bookshop is pleased to host an afternoon with the author on Thursday, July 5 at 1:00 p.m.  John is always available to discuss his own work; however, on Thursday, he will read the poetry of Canadian Poetess, Pauline Johnson.  Please join us.  "Coffee and tea pot's always on. . ."  No admission.

Photo:  Wikipedia

"As wampums to the Redman, so to the Poet are his songs; chiselled alike from that which is the purest of his possessions, woven alike with meaning into belt and book, fraught alike with the corresponding message of peace, the breathing of tradition, the value of more than coin, and the seal of fellowship with all men.
So do I offer this belt of verse-wampum to those two who have taught me most of its spirit ~ my Mother, whose encouragement has been my mainstay in its weaving; my Father, whose feet have long since wandered to the Happy Hunting Grounds."
~ E. Pauline Johnson

Reading Pauline Johnson ~ 

THURSDAY, JULY 5, 1:00 at The Neat Little Bookshop.  John Passfield returns, this time with a fascinating presentation on the native-born poet, performer, Pauline Johnson.

Don't miss this one.  Coffee, Tea Pot's Always on. . .  Everyone welcome.


Photo:  lbwalker

E. Pauline Johnson

Having made her debut in Toronto, Ontario, Indian Princess Pauline Johnson was "bewitching audiences with wampum belts, trade brooches, a bear-claw necklace and fiery oratory."  Between October 1892 and May 1892 alone, Pauline gave 125 recitals in 50 different towns and cities in Ontario ~ Paris, Fergus, Berlin, Strathroy, Watford, Renfrew, Smiths Falls, Rockland, Kingston, Lindsay. . .  "The poet sometimes felt that wherever steel rails went, she was bound to follow."

~ Flint & Feather, The Life and Times of E. Pauline Johnson, Tekahionwake, Charlotte Gray, HarperFlamingo Canada, 2002.
Photo:  Wikipedia

Canadian Born ~

 Canadian Poetess, Pauline Johnson recited the following poem on Dominion Day, July 1, 1804 in London, England.

We first saw light in Canada, the land beloved of God,
We are the pulse of Canada, its marrow and its bloos:
And we, the men of Canada, can face the world and brag
That we were born in Canada beneath the British flag.

Few of us have the blood of kings, few are of courtly birth,
But few are vagabonds or rogues of doubtful name and worth,
And all have one credential that entitles us to brag~
That we were born in Canada beneath the British flag.

We've yet to make our money, we've yet to make our fame,
But we have gold and glory in our clean colonial name;
And every man's a millionaire if only he can brag
That he was born in Canada beneath the British flag.

The Dutch may have their Holland, the Spaniard have his Spain,
The Yankee to the south of us must south of us remain;
For not a man dare lift his hand against the men who brag
That they were born in Canada beneath the British flag.

~ Flint & Feather, The Life and Times of E. Pauline Johnson, Tekahionwake,
Charlotte Gray, Harper Flamingo Canada, 2002, A Phyllis Bruce Book.

Happy Canada Day.  Fly the Maple Leaf Proudly and . . .


Cayuga, ON



Caledonia, ON

O.P.P.  Cayuga, ON

Let Us Remember the Hard-Working Men & Women Who Came Before ~

Excerpt from Pauline, A Biography of Pauline Johnson*:

As in 1894, Dominion Day was celebrated with enthusiasm by the Canadian exiles, [Pauline and Walter McRaye in London, England], but since July first was a Sunday, all the festivities took place the following day.  There were balls, fetes, garden parties, picnics, dinners, suppers and luncheons.  The celebrants entertained each other with tableaux vivants, songs, dances, recitations, speeches and more speeches.  Pauline and McRaye attended Lord and Lady Strathcona's Dominion Day party at the Imperial Institute in South Kensington.  Both were asked to recite;  predictable Pauline gave "Canadian Born," and McRaye gave "When Albani Sang."  McRaye then went on to the "Men Only" dinner being given by Lord Strathcona at the Hotel Cecil Strand."

* Betty Keller, Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver/Toronto, 1981.


Photos:  lbwalker