Beneath these fruit-tree boughs that shed

Their snow-white blossoms on my head,

With brightest sunshine round me spread

Of Spring's unclouded weather

In this sequestered nook how sweet

To sit upon my orchard seat,

And birds and flowers once more to greet,

My last year's friends together.

~ William Wordsworth

~ Wm. Wordsworth, English Romantic Poet (April 7, 1770 - April 23, 1850)

"..above everything else, Emily Carr was a truly great Canadian.  Her devotion to her own land marked everything she did.  She approached no subject in writing or painting with any condescension of purely artistic self-consciousness.  She was driven always by a passion to make her own experience in the place in which life had set her vivid and real for the onlooker or the reader and to do this with dignity and distinction.  She found life in her part of Canada often hard and baffling but always rich and full.  It was her single purpose to share through the medium of her art and in as memorable a fashion as possible the experiences of her life."  ~ Ira Dilworth


~ Emily Carr (1871 - 1945) Canadian artist, author. The Emily Carr COLLECTION.  Four Complete and Unabridged Canadian Classics.Prospero Books.  www.keyporter.com 2002

Emily Carr Exhibition, "From the Forest to The Sea" April 11 - August 9, 2015, AGO Toronto, ON

KEEP A POEM IN YOUR POCKET

Keep a poem in your pocket
and a picture in your head
and you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed.

The little poem will sing to you
The little picture bring to you
a dozen dreams to dance to you 
at night when you're in bed.

So ~
Keep a picture in your pocket and a poem in your head
and you'll never feel lonely
at night when you're in bed.

~ Beatrice Schenk de Regniers

ME
As long as I live
I shall always be
My Self--and no other,
Just me.

Like a tree,
Willow, elder,
Aspen, thorn,
Or cypress forlorn.

Like a flower,
For its hour--
Primrose, or pink,
Or a violet--
Sunned by the sun,
And with dewdrops wet.

Always just me.

~Walter de la Mare (April 25, 1873 - June 22, 1956)  English poet, novelist best known for his work for children.

Beside The Neat Little Bookshop

Please note:  The Neat L'l Bookshop is temporarily closed today.  We will post updates.

Smile for Today ~

"If you play a tune and a person don't tap their feet, don't play the tune." ~ Count Basie (Aug. 21, 1904  - Apr 26, 1984)

"Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom.  If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." ~ Charlie Parker (1920 - March 12, 1955)

"The only thing better than signing is more singing."  ~ Ella Fitzgerald (Apr 25, 1917 - June 15, 1996)

"All music is folk music.  I ain't never heard no horse sing a song. ~ Louis Armstrong (1901 - 1971)

"What is soul?  It's like electricity.  We don't really know what it is, but it's a force that can light a room."  ~ Ray Charles (1930 - 2004)

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues."  ~ Duke Ellington (April 29 - May 24 1974)

"I wish they'd had electric guitars in cotton fields back in the good old days.  A whole lot of things would've been straightened out."  ~ Jimi Hendrix (1942 - 1970)

"Man, if you gotta ask you'll never know."  ~ Louis Armstrong, asked what jazz is.


[Please click on photo for larger image.]

Happy Earth Day ~

Thought for Today ~

Grand Treats & Treasures Closing

"A Little Something for Everyone"~ Grand Treats & Treasures

Places for People - Draft Final - August 7th, 2013

"The street will be a destination, not only linking the services and retail opportunities along the main street but also becoming an attraction as a relevant interpretive piece for the community and people place offering something for everyone.

~ and people place offering something for everyone ~

The street will become a quality public 'story.'  While 'passing through' the community will most likely remain a prime use for the main street, the gateways, portals and markers will announce the beginning of the intriguing story and significance of experiencing the Grand River throughout the interpretive elements of the streetscape.  The streetscape experience will convey Cayuga's geographic significance, and offer its hospitality of shops, services, spaces and attractions."

~ Excerpt from HALDIMAND COUNTY STREETSCAPE PLAN FOR CAYUGA.

Changing Dynamics ~ (from final draft plan for Cayuga)

The process of evolution, the mobility of the average resident and visitors, will and continue to change the role and dynamic of Cayuga; creating a different type of economic centre to what has been experienced in the past.  Future area roadway upgrades enhance traffic patterns.  Improvements to the pedestrian realm are a logical extension of community and infrastructure upgrades for the downtown core.

"Unique, Intimate, Inviting"
Three vision principles that form the basis for the streetscape plan improvements;

Unique Community

• Reinforce the design identity of Cayuga;
• Reflect natural heritage resources;
• Create coherence while fostering creativity;
• Reflect the cultural heritage and value the past history of the Cayuga community; and
• Reinforce the unique features, views and distinctive urban built form that define the character of the community.

Intimate Community

• Create streets where people can walk around and see each other face-to-face;
• Provide accessible public places where people can walk, sit, play, relax, and talk;
• Enhance public spaces and define them with interesting buildings, art, and greening; and
• Support a full range of accessible community businesses and services that are vibrant and foster our commercial cores as destinations.

~ HALDIMAND COUNTY STREETSCAPE PLAN FOR CAYUGA  Final Draft, August 7th, 2013.
[Tomorrow: Inviting Community]

Natty Trappings Closing

I will be the gladdest thing
   Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
   And not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and clouds
   With quiet eyes,
Watch the wind bow down the grass,
   And the grass rise.

And when lights begin to show
   Up from the town,
I will mark which must be mine,
   And then start down!

~ Edna St. Vincent Millary (1892 - 1950)  American poet. Pulitzer Prize for poetry.  Robert Frost medal.

Special Projects

Special projects include entry walls, Tourist Information Centre plaza and parking lot improvements.  Allowances for 'special projects' include all components to complete the project, for example, the 'bump out' locations typically include new curbs, planting, associated boulder and/or fabricated seating, and waste/recycling containers.

These budget estimates do not include estimates for murals, public art or other markers; these could vary significantly in price depending on quality and magnitude desired by the community.

From the past:  Cover of brochure inviting folks to "The Heart of Haldimand"

Invitation to the Mayor ~

 

"My motto was always to keep swinging.  Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging."
~ Hank Aaron, MLE Major League Baseball.

"It ain't over till it's over." ~ Yogi Berra

Mayor Hewitt, come by when you get back from Paris, France!  Fred Morison, nice to see you.  We supported you.  At the end of the day, we are looking forward to designated, accessible public parking for the village.  Troubling that the streetscaping final draft identifies "property owners" as providing public parking for our tourists and visitors, suggesting strongly that they make their parking more attractive, while $25,000 to upgrade a "tourist booth."

The plan "proposes that Cayuga Street become more of a people place." It goes on to say, "Cayuga's downtown core, seems to have a 'holding' power that is a real testimony to the spirit of the community."

We have lost beautiful little shops on Cayuga Street ~ owners of which believed that this was a quaint village on the heritage Grand River.  They came. They gave up.  

Smile for Today ~

"May your walls know joy.  May every room hold laughter and every window open to great possibility."
~ Maryanne Radmacher-Hershey

"Congratulate yourselves if you have done something strange and extravagant and broken the monotony of a decorous age."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You hit home runs not by chance but by preparation."  ~ Roger Maris


"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."  Yogi Berra (b. 1925)  Legendary American baseball player, coach & manager.

John A. Turnbull of East Seneca

Third Thursdays at The Neat L'l Bookshop are
set aside for the Literary Group/Fascinating Personalities.  Today we are changing the location, meeting in The Haldimand Stewardship Council office on Cayuga Street at 1:00 p.m. Optional:  Lunch at the Back40.

Topic:  "Bring a few Letters"

Below:  A letter from a young man to his "wifie" while planning a homestead and building their "dream" home.  "I see you are getting real careless with that D.R. [diamond ring].  If Mother hasn't seen it yet, I don't know where her eyes are but she hasn't said anything."

John A. Turnbull and Mary B. Jackson m. and lived in the dream house in East Seneca, Haldimand County.

"Dear little Wifie"

"My Dear Mary"

[Click on photo for larger image.]

"Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep."

~ Le Corbusier (1887 - 1965) Writer, Swiss-French architect, urban planner.

Village of York

Tuesday Morning ~

Thought for Today ~

"The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion.  He hardly knows which is which.  He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing.  To him he's always doing both."

~ James Michener (1907 - 1997) American Author

Monday Morning ~

[For larger image please click on photo.]

Pin the Cherry on the Cupcake!

The Neat L'l Bookshop

Talbot Street (Hwy 3) Crosses The Grand River.  Cayuga's New Bridge is Complete; however, date of alignment with Talbot is unclear.  All progress came to an abrupt stop in the fall.

Date of Realignment with Talbot is Unclear

Alice & John (Jack) HInds & only child Pearl

Many of us are dismayed at the closing of two valued small businesses downtown Cayuga.  Keeping in mind that

R. J. Hinds Owned a Feed Store in Cayuga

a small rural village always feels the loss when friends and neighbours decide to move on.   However, looking back... we go on.

Receipt from 1896 ~ Mrs. Hinds

[Pearl Hinds married Charles Walker of Cayuga.  Pearl & Charlie are John's Parents]

Inside The Neat L'l Bookshop

We are Open on Talbot Street ~ Come in

Watching Talbot Street Reconstruction

Inside TOWPATH ON THE GRAND

Antiques & Collectibles

We are open for business on Talbot Street [for larger image please click on photo]

Bookshop Door

Removing Old Ashphalt