Highway 3 East of Dunnville ~ Looking East

 

 

 

Wind turbine country ~ may be related.

 

"All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my mother."

 

~ Abraham Lincoln





 

"It was when I had my first child that I understood how much my mother loved me."

~ from For Mother, A Bouquet of Sentiments

 

 

"Happy Mothers' Day"

 

 

 



How easy to work with birds singing and sunshine! [View from my desk]

THE TREE

I stood still and was a tree amid the wood,
Knowing the truth of things unseen before;
Of Daphne and the laurel bow
And that god-feasting couple old
That grew elm-oak amid the wold.
'Twas not until the gods had been
Kindly entreated, and been brought within
Unto the hearth of their heart's home
That they might do this wonder thing:
Nathless I have been a tree amid the wood
And many a new thing understood
That was rank folly to my head before.

~ Ezra Pound ( b.1885 - 1972) American poet, author, critic.

"Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size."

~ Virginia Woolf (1882 - 1941) A Room of One's Own [1929]

March 8 is International Women's Day.  Theme for 2016 is Pledge for Parity.

 

 

[Photo:  Vintage hand-fan advertising for G. W. Robinson Co. Ltd. Department Store lbw]

 

 

 

 

"Indeed he knows not how to know who knows not also how to un-know."

~ Sir Richard Francis Burton [March 19,1821 - October 20,1890] British explorer, writer, poet.
Familiar Quotations, John Bartlett./ Little,  Brown and Company, Centennial Edition. 1955

[Portrait:  Wikipedia]




 

"...the fear of hurting someone's feelings may be having a chilling effect on solid conversation in general ~ not only political conversation.  At dinner parties I've attended, the topics of conversation mainly were restaurants, vacations, and health ~ all safe subjects.
To engage in small talk is often enjoyable and it certainly is "polite," but a steady diet of conversation about food, vacations, and health is tedious.  "Politeness," La Rochefoucauld says, "is essential in social life, but it should have limits;  it becomes a kind of slavery when it is excessive."
...
"Yet it is hard to avoid saccharine politeness when the alternative is often the angry venting of opinions.  Judith Martin says that "she would be only too happy to welcome the return of substantive conversation at dinner parties; goodness knows she is weary of hearing people talk about the food.  But conversation requires listening respectfully to others and engaging in polite give-and-take, rather than making speeches and impugning others' motives and judgment."

Conversation requires listening respectfully to others and engaging in polite give-and-take, rather than making speeches and impugning others' motives and judgment.

"Anne Applebaum, a Washington Post columnist, warns against discussing politics at dinner parties.  'Anyone who has ever even invited guests of opposing political persuasions over to dinner will know how quickly it can all go wrong....A chilly, polite dinner is more bearable than one that ends with guests stomping out the door'."

 

 

~ Stephen Miller, Conversation, A History of a Declining Art, Yale University, 2006.

SANCTUARY by Bliss Carman

Out of the turmoil whither shall I go?
How cure the fever of a mind distraught,
The crazed futility of haste assuage,
And dear serenity's lost poise restore?
Is there no respite for the racing pulse,
No haven from the day's demoniac din
And the relentless frenzy of the night?
Were may the haunting peace of God be found?
No cabined luxury contents the soul,
Homesick for solace of its native air.
For healing of the wind among the pines,
The stilling beauty of the clear new moon,
The strength of hills, the joy of singing streams,
Take any road at hand, to Out-of-doors.

~ ESCAPE by Bliss Carman (1861 - 1929) Canadian Poet Laureate

 

 

SANCTUARY SUNSHINE HOUSE SONNETS by Bliss Carman, Illustrations by Whitman Bailey.

McClelland & Stewart, 1929.

 

 

 

 

"Now Miss Matty Jenkyns was chary of candles.  We had many devices to use as few as possible.  In the winter afternoons she would sit knitting for two or three hours;  she could do this in the dark, or by fire-light;  and when I asked if I might not ring for candles to finish stitching my wristbands, she told me to 'keep blind-man's holiday'."

"String is my foible.  My pockets get full of little hanks of it, picked up and twisted together, ready for uses that never come.  I am seriously annoyed if any one cuts the string of a parcel, instead of patiently and faithfully undoing it fold by fold.  How people can bring themselves to use Indian-rubber rings, which are a sort of deification of string, as lightly as they do, I cannot imagine.  To me an Indian-rubber ring is a precious treasure.  I have one which is not new;  one that I picked up off the floor, nearly six years ago.  I have really tried to use it; but my heart failed me, and I could not commit the extravagance.

"I have often noticed that almost every one has his own individual small economies ~ careful habits of saving fractions of pennies in some one peculiar direction--any disturbance of which annoys him more than spending shillings or pounds on some real extravagance. An old gentleman of my acquaintance, who took the intelligence of the failure of a Joint-Stock Bank, in which some of his money was invested, with stoical mildness, worried his family all through a long summer's day, because one of them had torn (instead of cutting) out the written leaves of his now useless bank-book;  of course, the corresponding pages at the other end came out as well; and this little unnecessary waster of paper (his private economy) chafed him more than all the loss of his money.  Envelopes fretted his soul terribly when they first came in;  the only way in which he could reconcile himself to such waste of his cherished article was by patiently turning inside out all that were sent to him, and so making them serve again.  Even now, though tamed by age, I see him casting wistful glances at his daughters when they send a whole instead of a half sheet of note-paper, with the three lines of acceptance to an invitation, written on only one of the sides..."

~ Elizabeth Gaskell, known as Mrs. Gaskell (1810 - 1865) English novelist. CRANFORD, Chatto & Windus Publishers, 1907.
[Photo miniature: Wikipedia.]

[Tomorrow: "String is my foible...Small pieces of butter grieve others."]

Quotations Henri Nouwen.

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.  The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares."

Note:  Henri J.M. Nouwen is the topic of our Third Thursday readings this month.

"Because of a friend ~ life is a little stronger, a fuller, more gracious thing;  for a friend's existence, whether he be near or far.  If a friend is close at hand, that is best but if he is far away he is still there to think of, to wonder about, to hear from, to write to, to share life and experience with, to serve, to honour, to admire, to love."

~ Arthur C. Benson (1862 - 1925) English essayist, poet, author.

"Happy Valentine's Day"

 

 

"You're my friend ~
What a thing friendship is, world without end!"
~ Robert Browning, The Flight of the Duchess

"In every mess I finds a friend."

~ Charles Dibdin, Jack in His Element

"Money can't buy friends
but you can get a better class of enemy."
~ Spike Milligan

"Sir, I look upon every day to be

lost, in which I do not make

a new acquaintance."

~ Samuel Johnson

 

"Even if we take matrimony

at its lowest, even if we regard it

as no more than a sort of friendship

recognized by the police."

~ Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque

~ THE LITTLE BOOK of Friends, A Compilation by Brockhampton Press 1996.

"My lover spoke and said to me,

Arise, my darling,

my beautiful one, and come with me.

See!  The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.

Flowers appear on the earth;

the season of singing has come...."

 

 

~ The Song of Songs

 

"There's nothing half so sweet in life as love's young dream."

 

~ Thomas Moore

 

VALENTINE'S DAY is Sunday, February 14. [Photo files:  Jackson House, King Street & Centennial, Stoney Creek. lbw]

 



"Today there are two elements that go into friendship, each so sovereign that I can detect no superiority in either,... - One is Truth.  A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud....-.  The other element of friendship is Tenderness....- When a man becomes dear to me I have touched the goal of fortune....-.  I wish friendship should have feet, as well as eyes and eloquence.  It must plant itself on the ground before it walks over the moon...-.  The essence of friendship is entireness, a total magnanimity and trust.  It must not surmise or provide for infirmity.  It treats its object as a god, that it may defy both."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Friendship and Love"


VALENTINE'S DAY is Sunday, February 14

"It is not good for man to be too much alone unless he is really very big, with stores of knowledge to draw from and a clear brain to think with.  That's the whole problem:  a clear brain that can take thoughts and work them out, can filter -- clean out -- muddy, confused thoughts, can read meanings into things, draw meanings out of things and come to conclusions, a brain that converses with life and can, above all, enable a man to forget himself.  The tendency in being alone and not having anyone to exchange thoughts with is to be always on the fence between yourself and yourself."

~ Emily Carr (1871 - 1945) Hundreds And Thousands.  EMILY CARR COUNTRY Courtney Milne, McClelland & Stewart Ltd. 2001.

LEST WE FORGET

 

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

 

We are the Dead.  Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

 

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch, be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

 

~ Lt. Col. John McCrae, Canadian army doctor.

 November 11, 1918 the war finally ended

 

 

 

 

One of the best-loved children's classics is The Wind in the Willows

"This has been a wonderful day!" said he, as the Rat shoved off and took to the sculls again.  "Do you know I've never been in a boat before in all my life."
   "What?" cried the Rat, open-mouthed:  "Never been in a boat ~ you never ~ well I  ~ What have you been doing, then?"
   "Is it so nice as all that?"  asked the Mole shyly, though he was quite prepared to believe it as he leant back in his seat and surveyed the cushions, the oars, the rowlocks and all the fascinating fittings, and felt the boat sway lightly under him.
   "Nice?  It's the only thing,"  said the Water Rat solemnly, as he leant forward for his stroke.  "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing ~ absolutely nothing ~ half so much worth doing as  simply messing about in boats.  Simply messing,"  he went on dreamily:  "messing~about~in~boats;  messing~"
   "Look ahead, Rat!" cried the Mole suddenly.
  It was too late.  The boat struck the bank full tilt.  The dreamer, the joyous oarsman, lay on his back at the bottom of the boat, his heels in the air.
   "~about in boats~or with boats," the Rat went on composedly, picking himself up with a pleasant laugh.
   "In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter.  Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it.  Whether you get away, or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not.  Look here!  If you've really nothing else on hand this morning, supposing we drop down the river together, and have a long day of it?"

~ Kenneth Grahame (1859 - 1932)  created  the adventures of Ratty, Mole, Badger & Toad for his nightly bedtime stories with his only son, Alastair.  The stories were published in 1908.

PICTURE-BOOKS IN WINTER

SUMMER fading, winter comes ~
Frosty mornings, tingling thumbs,
Window robins, winter rooks,
And the picture story-books.

Water now is turned to stone
Nurse and I can walk upon;
Still we find the flowing brooks
In the picture story-books.

All the pretty things put by,
Wait upon the children's eye,
Sheep and shepherds, trees and crooks,
In the picture story-books.

We may see how all things are,
Seas and cities, near and far,
And the flying fairies' looks,
In the picture story-books.

How am I to sing your praise,
Happy chimney-corner days,
Sitting safe in nursery nooks,
Reading picture story-books.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson (Nov. 13, 1850 - Dec. 3, 1894)  Scottish novelist, poet.

"Do you know what it is to be a child?  It is to be something very different from the man of today.  It is to have a spirit yet streaming from the waters of life;   it is to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief;  it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear; it is to turn pumpkins into coaches and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness and nothing into everything...for each child has a fairy godmother in its soul."
 
~ Francis Thompson (1859 - 1907) English poet, writer.