"Devoted Friend" ~

"I don't think he was distinguished at all, except for his kind heart, and his funny round good-humoured face.  He lived in a tiny cottage all by himself, and every day he worked in his garden.  In all the country-side there was no garden so lovely as his.  Sweet-william grew there, and Gilly-glowers, and Shepherds'-purses, and Fair-maids of France.  There were damask Roses, and yellow Roses, lilac Crocuses, and gold, purple Violets and white.  Columbine and Ladysmock, Marjoram and Wild Basil, the Cowslip and the Flower-de-luce, the Daffodil and the Clove-Pink bloomed or blossomed in their proper order as the months went by, one flower taking another flower's place, so that there were always beautiful things to look at, and pleasant odours to smell.

"Little Hans had a great many friends, but the most devoted friend of all was big Hugh the Miller.  Indeed, so devoted was the rich Miller to little Hans, that he would never go by his garden without leaning over the wall and plucking a large nosegay, or a handful of sweet herbs, or filling his pockets with plums and cherries if it was the fruit season.

"'Real friends should have everything in common,' the Miller used to say, and little Hans nodded and smiled, and felt very proud of having a friend with such noble ideas."

~ Oscar Wilde, Quote from The Literary Garden -- Bringing Fiction's Best Gardens to Life. A Berkley Book, 2001.  Lark Productions, LLC.  

To a Distant Friend ~ 

Why art thou silent!  Is thy love a plant
Of such weak fiber that the treacherous air
Of absence withers what was once so fair?
Is there no debt to pay, no boon to grant?

Yet have my thoughts for thee been vigilant,
Bound to thy service with unceasing care ~
The mind's least generous wish a mendicant
For naught but what thy happiness could spare.

Speak! ~ thought his soft warm heart, once free to hold
A thousand tender pleasures, thine and mine,
Be left more desolate, more dreary cold
Than a forsaken bird's nest filled with snow
'Mid its own bush of leafless eglantine~
Speak, that my torturing doubts their end may know!

~ William Wordsworth

Pretty Little Village on The Grand ~

"Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin chose to express their vigorous and abundant thoughts by writing at stand-up desks, and that's how Lewis Carroll wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1885) and Through the Looking Glass (1872). 'Standing at the upright desk he always used while writing,' his biographer Morton N. Cohen said, 'he managed to breathe life and laughter onto the dry leaves of paper that lay before him."


"Playwright August Wilson 'wrote standing up, at a high, cluttered accounting desk,' said John Lahr, drama critic of The New Yorker. For years, an Everlast punching bag was suspended from the ceiling about two steps behind.  When Wilson was in full flow and the dialogue 'was popping, he'd stop, pivot, throw a barrage of punches, then turn back to work."

~ Harry Bruce, Page Fright, McClelland & Steward Ltd., 2009.

View from my window ~

Three authors who wrote standing ~

"If I sit down, I write a long opinion and don't come to the point as quickly as I could.  If I stand up I write as long as my knees hold out.  When they don't, I know it's time to stop." ~ Oliver Wendell Homes, "the Great Dissenter," while serving on the Supreme Court of the United States.

Virginia Woolf had "a desk standing about three feet six inches high with a sloping top; it was so high that she had to stand to do her work.  Her 'principal motive' was that her older sister Vanessa, a professional painter whom she both adored and saw as a rival, stood before an easel as she worked.  Virginia feared her writing would appear less worthy than Vanessa's painting 'unless she set matters on a footing of equality,' and that was why 'for many years she stood at this strange desk, and, in a quite unnecessary way, tired herself."  ~ Quentin Bell, a nephew of VW.

"Winston Churchill composed his prose while standing and walking.  'He wrote forty-two books, five thousand speeches and articles -- in all roughly thirty-million words,' said Richard M. Langworth, founder of the Churchill Centre in Washington, DC.  'When he went to work, usually late at night, he shut himself up and arranged his papers at a stand-up desk.  And there, padding up and down in his slippers, he reeled off prose in the small hours.... 'Nearly 3,000 words in the last two days!'  he told his wife in 1928. 'I do not conceal from you that it is a task.  But it is not more than I can do."

Harry Bruce, FOIBLES and FETISHES of FAMOUS WRITERS / Page Fright.  McClelland & Stewart Ltd. 2009.

They Wrote Standing Up ~

"A website that advertises the J. Peterman Stand-Up Desk asks, 'Notice how you get some of your best ideas when you're standing there shaving or taking a shower?  How your thighs and toes squirm when you sit at a desk, then 'it comes to you' when you stand up and walk around?  The fact is, you think with your legs. . . .If you want to increase the vigour and abundance of your thought, I recommend this time-tested Stand-Up Desk.'  Sitting at a desk put heavy pressure on 'those shock absorbing discs between your vertebrae,' but standing instantly relieved it and thus eliminated the risk of back pain."

~ Harry Bruce, Page Fright, McClelland & Steward Ltd. 2009.

[Tomorrow:  Authors who wrote standing up.]

Cayuga Street

The Neat Little Bookshop

Preliminary Work ~ Checking for Cracks? In Advance of Improvements to Cayuga Street and Talbot.

Law Office of Shawn Richarz 

From Foibles and Fetishes of Famous Writers / Page Fright * by Harry Bruce

"  When Hugh MacLennan was in his seventies and completing his last novel, Voices in Time, his elderly Underwood died of old age and overwork.  With that black, noisy, anachronistic, typewriting contraption -- whose shape was as familiar to the elderly as Model T Fords had once been -- MacLennan had earned his reputation as Canada's first internationally acclaimed novelist and had written no fewer than five winners of Governor General's Awards.  Now, the machine was just a mess of keys, spools, wheels, and other useless parts.  It was too old to repair or replace, and he was too old to switch to another brand.  How could he possibly finish Voices in Time?

His alarmed publisher, Douglas Gibson, asked Peter Gzowski, the host of CBC Radio's "This Country in the Morning," to appeal to his listeners for old Underwoods in working order.  Gzowski was the most popular on-air personality in the country.  He was "Mr. Canada," and, to enable a pioneer of modern Canadian literature to finish his last novel, dozens of Gzowski's fans now rummaged through their attics for dusty Underwoods of a certain age.  MacLennan accepted the machine that best suited him and, sure enough, Voices in Time reached bookstores in 1980."

* McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2009.

Inside The Blacksmith's Garden ~ Talbot St. Cayuga

Gardening Begins on Talbot Street ~ Cayuga

On Hand-writing ~

"The handwriting of Robertson Davies, the Canadian whose magical novels moved an American critic to call him 'the white-bearded magus of the North,' was neat, elegant, and supremely legible but, while composing fiction, he used a typewriter.  'I type because writing by hand I find to be a very great betrayer,' he said in 1989.  'If you try to write [by hand] legibly, as I do, you finish a page and think, That's a handsome page.  This absolutely wrong.  Also, you can only write so long with a pen before your hand becomes tired, and then your invention begins to tire.  If you type. . .you have what you've written there before you--cold and bare.  Then you can go over it, and it is as though someone else had written it and you can edit it with great severity."

~ Harry Bruce, Page Fright, Foibles and Fetishes of Famous Writers, McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2009.

The Dear Little Shamrock

There's a dear little plant that grows in our Isle,

    'Twas St. Patrick himself sure that set it:

And the sun on his labour with pleasure did smile,

   And with dew from his eye often wet it.

It shines thro' the bog, thro' the brake, thro' the mireland,

And he called it the dear little shamrock of Ireland.

(Chorus:)
The dear little shamrock, the sweet little shamrock,
The dear little, sweet little shamrock of Ireland.

The dear little plant still grows in our Isle,

   Fresh and fair as the daughters of Erin,

Whose eyes can bewitch and whose eyes can beguile,

   In each climate they ever appear in.

For they shine thro' the bog, thro' the brake, and the mireland,

Just like their own dear little shamrock of Ireland.

(Chorus:)

The dear little plant that springs from our soil,

When its three little leaves are extended,

Denotes from its stalk we together should toil,

And ourselves by ourselves be befriended.

And still thro' the bog, thro' the brake, and the mireland,

From one root should branch like the shamrock of Ireland.

(Chorus:)

The Grand

"In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you."

~ Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910) Russian novelist, Philosopher.

"The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowlege and it becomes another's, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises."

~ Leo Buscaglia PHd (March 31, 1924 - June 12, 1998) American author, known as Dr. Love.

Vicky Peart

Vickie Peart, professional calligrapher, will be our guest speaker next Third Thursday, March 19.  Vickie is well known in Haldimand County for her work with the Caledonia Fair.  What may not be as well recognized is her passion for calligraphy.  Since 1986, Vickie has been studying, travelling, learning all there is to know about calligraphy. Her fascinating stories include the Saint John's Bible Project ~ the first handwritten bible in the "New World" ~ a multi-million dollar millennium project commissioned by St. John's College, Minnesota.

We welcome Vick and look forward to learning about her work in calligraphy.

THURSDAY, MARCH 19 at 1:00 p.m.

[Apologies to Vickie for the incorrect spelling of her name.]

Smile for Today ~

For our friends in Florida

[Photos: Monday, March 9, 2015 lbw]

The Grand

"Behold, we know not anything;
   I can but trust that good shall fall
   At last ~ far off~ at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring."

~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892) the Cantos, first published in 1869.

~ The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Oxford University Press

[Photos:  Sunday, March 8, 2015]

STRANGE FITS OF PASSION HAVE I KNOWN ~ 
William Wordsworth*

Strange fits of passion have I known.

And I will dare to tell,

But in the Lover's ear alone,

What once to me befell.

When she I loved looked every day

Fresh as a rose in June,

I to her cottage bent my way,

Beneath an evening moon.

Upon the moon I fixed my eye,

All over the wide lea;

With quickening pace my horse drew nigh

Those paths so dear to me.

And now we reached the orchard plot;

And, as we climbed the hill,

The sinking moon to Lucy's cot

Came near, and nearer still.

In one of those sweet dreams I slept,

Kind Nature's gentlest boon!

And all the while my eyes I kept

On the descending moon.

My horse moved on; hoof after hoof

He raised, and never stopped:

When down behind the cottage roof,

At once, the bright moon dropped.

What fond and wayward thoughts will slide

Into a Lover's head!

"O mercy!" to myself I cried,

"If Lucy should be dead!"

~ *English poet (1770 - 1850) helped launch the Romantic period in English literature.

March 8 is International Women's Day.

At The Neat L'l Bookshop we think of used books as a serious way to Recycle/Reuse/Reread.
"Never waste a book."

Books are checked for condition and only if we cannot sell, delivered to the most appropriate charity.  Good books keep on trading.
If beyond use, we recycle properly.

Landfill is a bad word here.

Mysteries in The Neat L'l Bookshop

. . .and True Crime.

"I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree." ~ Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886 - 1918)

Tell us about one of your favourite trees.  It could be one that you sat under as a kid.  Could be one that you shared special moments with family or friends.  Perhaps you relate a certain tree to memories of Grandparents, parents or others.  It may simply be a tree that you particularly admire.

The Neat Little Bookshop is offering a cool prize (of course, it is a book) for the first, second and third most compelling photo or story/ or both.  The judges will be individuals well qualified to understand our love of trees.

Please watch for further details.  Deadline for entries, Sunday, May 31.*

Submissions may be made at neatlittlebookshop@gmail.com or in person at The Neat Little Bookshop, 29 Talbot Street (Hwy 3), Cayuga, ON.  We will share details on Facebook and Twitter.  If you prefer, attach submission to a text 905.577.5635 or post on facebook, The Neat Little Bookshop


*[Please Note Change:  Deadline for entries has been moved to TUESDAY, JUNE 30 ~ yes, so that our trees will have LEAVES!]  Keep an eye on our trees and watch for photo details.]

"Coffee-table books provide one type of view of Ontario.  Prize-winning photographs ~ of Queen's Park, Fort Henry, a fall fair, Tillsonburg's main street, Agawa Canyon, gingerbread trim, the steamboat Segwun, the Blue Jays, Mennonites haying, and so on ~ present Ontario as a recreational playground in a benign setting.  The heritage village at Lang ~ or Doon, or Black Creek, or Morrisburg ~ has its page, too.  It is the predictable reminder that history is found behind a ticket window, through a turnstile.    'Foodland Ontario' is another popular subject;: a roadside stall of sweet corn in Leeds County, a 'U-pick' strawberry or apple farm in Halton, the weekly vegetable market in the corner of a shopping mall in Waterdown, or an estate winery's tasting boutique in Grimsby."
. . .
"The old Ontario landscape is a remnant and has been attacked from both the city side and the cottage side for years.  Suburbanization is rural renewal with no opportunity of going back to an earlier, less crowded era.  Beyond, former city folks ('exurbanites') attempt to maintain a country look, but with no intention of being rural."
. . .
"A drive between Shelburne and Collingwood is a showcase of rural Ontario in the 1990s.  This is a countryside of marketing boards, crop insurance, RRSPs, and CD players.  Farm kitchens have filing cabinets, personal computers, and fax machines.  The number of low metal farm buildings is greater than seems proper.  The nineteenth-century houses are more and more noteworthy amid so many new dwellings, both at the roadside and back on the farm.  It may still be rural, but the feeling is changing.  The city has become the standard, and the old, comfortable countryside is rapidly becoming part of folklore."

Thomas F. McIlwraith, LOOKING FOR OLD ONTARIO, University of Toronto Press, 1997

"The barns of old Ontario speak for themselves as ageless artistic works of great power, built for the millennium.  Gaps between barn boards are not the result of carelessness but were deliberately included, to provide for air circulation.  They also admit filtered light, and an empty barn in June, just before the first hay is garnered, can inspire thoughts of medieval cathedrals.  The silver-grey boards and lustreless steel roofs signal a timeless commitment to the land."

~ Thomas F. McIlwraith, LOOKING FOR OLD ONTARIO, University of Toronto Incorporated, 1997.

The opening paragraphs of Looking For Old Ontario ~ by Thomas F. McIlwraith

"Many people have looked at Ontario's landscape without really seeing it, or have been bored by what they saw.  Charles Dickens, writing in 1842, found Ontario very flat and 'bare of scenic interest';  the Canadian Illustrated News a few years later described it as 'tame and domestic.'  An 1894 tourist guide bluntly stated that between Smiths Falls and Perth 'the country is unattractive.'  John Kenneth Galbraith called his childhood area, west of St. Thomas, in the 1920s 'an uninteresting country.'  A Manitoban used words such as 'sober,' 'stable,' and 'serene' to describe his adopted province in the 1960s.  A British colleague of mine once spoke of 'beautiful monotony' after spending a day driving up and down the straight roads near Lindsay...
"The rumpled countryside is a marvellous place that Ontarians have inhabited and continually reinvented.  It may be ambiguous and perplexing, but surely not dull.
"To appreciate a living landscape we must also draw on the written record from such sources as biography and legistlative studies, to understand long-gone events."

~ University of Toronto Press, 1997
[Tomorrow:  more of Ontario.]

Thinking of enrolling in summer riding?  Storey's Guide to TRAINING HORSES ~

"Horses communicate their feelings and intentions, and you can tell what a horse is thinking by watching his body language.  Ears forward  means alert interest;  ears flat back signals a threat that could be followed by a bite or a kick; ears to the side means boredom  or sleepiness.  Tenseness of relaxation of the body can also be a clue to the horse's mood.  Tail swishing means irritation and sometimes anger -- a prelude to a kick."

~ Heather Smith Thomas, horsewoman, Storey Publishing, 2003.

Check out The Neat L'l Bookshop Nature/ Animals section.