"Choose thy friends like thy books, few but choice."

~ James Howell Writer, historian (1594 - 1666)

Resurrecting some hazy high school memories?

 The Neat L'l Bookshop will reopen WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2.  John and I spent time with friends ~ on seaside walks, watching the ocean dolphins, pelicans, gathering shells and taking long drives along the Gulf Coast.

 

 

On Writing ~

"It took many years of writing, thousands of pages, to discover that I could not find the fit between experience and record by writing with 'summing up' words.  To say that a canoe trip was wonderful, and that the river was beautiful, and that I had many adventures accomplished nothing in the journal:  I didn't even have the pleasure of reliving the best moments while writing about them.  And yet this ingrained tendency to generalize I still have to fight daily.  A journal filled with 'nices,' wonderfuls,' 'terribles,' and 'interestings' is one drained of any live juice.  If that kind of writing merely reflects habit, there is hope for change.  If the writer insists on it, consider it a sign of a deep-seated fear of the real."

~ Hannah Hinchman, A TRAIL THROUGH LEAVES, The Journal As A Path to Place/An Inspiration to journal-keepers and commonplace-book-makers everywhere, W.W.Norton & Company, 1997.

Miss Marple

"I may fling down a sketch in a moment, if my cat happens to be doing something droll, and then the page has received the seed of its structure.  Or it may begin with a deliberate and soothing geometry:  blocks of intricate text building up like rows of knitting, a tension between  organic form and implied vertical/horizontal axes.  The book, the pages, are physical things, and the way I make something with the raw materials is handiwork.
     There is nothing like the feel of the tip of a reliable, familiar pen gliding over the paper, leaving a crisp trail, and the sense of control in the fingers shaping beautiful letters.  Especially early in the morning before a cup of coffee has rippled the stillness of the waking state, to write is to luxuriate, and fulfills some indescribable need.  Then there is the boldness of brush lettering, the cooperation between the tip of the brush, which has its own shape and tendencies, and the guiding hand  working out a plant-like pattern made of thick and thin, curved and straight, sharp and rounded marks."

~ A TRAIL THROUGH LEAVES The Journal as a Path to Place, Hannah Hinchman, W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.
Tomorrow:  Hannah's "fit between experience and record by writing with 'summing up words.' " 

(photo lbw Thought for my artist friend Sharon)

 

 

"Out of nowhere in our midst

come the leaves, growing as we grow

 

(palm, fingers, branching of veins,

nucleotides dreaming in trillions),

 

green inheriting the earth again

each spring. . ."

 

 

~ Poet, Margaret Holley, BEYOND ME / VOICES OF THE NATURAL WORLD, NorthWord Press Inc., 1993.

 

Today is Earth Day 2014

 

 

(Photo: lbw)

"To be lonely is a state of mind, something completely other than physical solitude; when modern authors rant about the soul's intolerable loneliness, it is only proof of their own intolerable emptiness."

~ Karen Blixen, pen-name Isak Dinesen


(Photo: lbw)

"...there is so much sea imagery in the book [Winter's Tales*].  One image in particular keeps recurring: an enveloping blueness, in which the horizon dissolves and the sea and the sky seem to be the same element.  This is the vision King Erik has when he clears the hill and looks down upon the shore where Granze is fishing, and it is what Lady Helena remembers about her nine days with the young sailor:  'There is no up and down in the sea.' "

~ *Karen Blixen [Isak Dinesen The Life of a Storyteller, Judith Thurman, St. Martin's Press, 1982.

The sun, the sand, the sea ~ 

" I love to sit on the beach and watch the sunsets, reflecting on the past and reviewing the various possible paths to the future.  Somehow, I'm more objective when I'm at the beach.  I can shut the rest of the world out and do my best inner reflection." ~ Ruth Fishel

~PRECIOUS SOLITUDE, Finding peace and serenity in a hectic world  ~ Ruth Fishel, Adams Media Corp., 1999

 

 

 

(For larger image, click on photo.  lbw)

Spring Officially ~ Thursday, March 20

Third Thursday Reading ~ March Reading is cancelled because of bookshop holidays.  We look forward to Neil Paul's visit on Thursday, April 17.  1:00 o'clock.  Please watch for details.

Apologies for the absence of email notices.  Contact us at neatlittlebookshop@gmail.com in future.  Thank you.  Sorry for any inconvenience. lbw

Spring Fever

The Neat L'l Bookshop will be closed for holidays, reopening on April 2 Wednesday.  We hope that you have a great transition into spring, officially next Thursday.  lbw

I TASTE a liquor never brewed,
     From tankards scooped in pead;
Not all the vats upon the Rhine
Yield such an alcohol !

Inebriate of air am I,
And debauchee of dew,
Reeling, through endless summer days,
From inns of molten blue.

When landlords turn the drunken bee
Out of the foxglove's door,
When butterflies renounce their drams,
I shall but drink the more !


Till seraphs swing their snowy hats,
And saints to windows run,
To see the little tippler
Leaning against the sun !

~ Emily Dickinson

Philip Larkin wrote:

"I am afraid the compulsion to write poems left me about seven years ago, since when I have written virtually nothing.  Naturally this is a disappointment, but I would sooner write no poems than bad poems."

English poet (1922 - 1985)

                Happy International Women's Day ~

My beautiful granddaughters.  We don't often post family photos; however, today my joy is two-fold. Pride and love on International Women's Day with the passionate desire for a "perfect" world for the next generation of women ~  and the return of my computer and precious photo files!

 

[Always back-up photo files. lbw]

 

 

We like to think that our small corner in the blog world is a quick visit to our bookshop.  We hope that folks feel welcome to stay a while and read a book. 
The following except from Winston Churchill* seems to strike a chord given the disturbing conflicts currently in our world.

February 9, 1941 Broadcasting

"The other day President Roosevelt gave his opponent in the late Presidential Election a letter of introduction to me, and in it he wrote out a verse, in his own handwriting, from Longfellow, which he said, 'applies to you people as it does to us.'

     Sail on, O Ship of State!
     Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
     Humanity with all its fears,
          With all the hopes of future years,
     Is hanging breathless on they fate!

What is the answer that I shall give, in your name, to this great man, the thrice-chosen head of a nation of 130 million?  Here is the answer which I will give to President Roosevelt:  Put your confidence in us.  Give us your faith, and your blessing, and under Providence, all will be well.
We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire.  Neither the sudden shock of battle, nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down.  Give us the tools, and we will finish the job."


* Winston Churchill (Nov. 30, 1874 - Jan., 24, 1965)  Former Prime Minister of United Kingdom.

AFTERFLAKES
by Robert Frost

In the thick of a teeming snowfall
I saw my shadow on snow.
I turned and looked back up at the sky,
Where we still look to ask the why
Of everything below.

If I shed such a darkness,
If the reason was in me,
That shadow of mine should show in form
Against the shapeless shadow of storm,
How swarthy I must be.

I turned and looked back upward.
The whole sky was blue;
And the thick flakes floating at a pause
Were but frost knots on an airy gauze,
With the sun shining through.


American poet (March 26, 1874 - January 29, 1963)

6:30 a.m. A Devastating Fire remains out-of-control at Rosa Flora, Dunnville, Ontario.  Rosa Flora is the biggest grower of gerbera in North America as well as many other flowers.  Our thoughts are with our friends at Rosa Flora.

www.rosaflora.com   Find Rosa Flora on Facebook

"What a desolate place would be a world without flowers!  It would be a face without a smile, a feast without a welcome."

~ Clara L. Balfour

Serenity on The Grand ~

Grand River Cayuga Bridge
For Winter Watchers ~





Side-by-Side:  The Gleaming New vis-a-vis The Old Rust

"Overheard at the Bookstore" by Judith Henry
Universe Publishing, 2000

• "Some people like to think, but me, I just like to read."
• "Do you have anything for dummies?"
• "This book is very expensive--I guess they charge by the pound."
• "I need a book that doesn't put me to sleep."
• "That's a really bad beginning."
• "So all your money goes for books, but food's important too."
• "I asked for a book on the Beatles and he sent me to the nature section."
• "The thing I don't understand is, who writes these books?"
• "The cover looks good, but don't be fooled." 
• "I don't know the title or author, but the book's purple."

Here we go ~ Summertime (or South!)

CRIME STOPPERS' Kenneth Schaus explains the role of Crime Stoppers in our community.
 

Crime Stoppers is looking for your anonymous tips to help solve a break, enter and theft that occured at an address in Cayuga in Haldimand County.

Sometime during the late evening hours of Sunday, February 16, 2014 and the early morning hours of February 17, unknown suspect(s) attended an Echo Street property and entered an unlocked storage shed.  Once inside the shed a green a 2002 Honda Forman Fourtrax All-terrain Vehicle (ATV) was located and removed.  Also stolen were two (2) Stihl chainsaws and several bottles of alcohol.
www.helpsolvecrime.com

GOT INFORMATION?  CALL 1-800-222-TIPS(8477) OR SUBMIT ONLINE
Crime Stoppers is totally anonymous.  Callers never have to testify in court or deal directly with the police.

[Photo:  Simcoe, Haldimand, ON, 2013. For larger image, please click on photo. lbw]


{...40 days and counting.  Computer still in the shop. lbw]