A remarkable book about Hamiltonian Thomas McQuesten, brings to mind a sad fact: many a photograph, many a bit of history is lost when the contents of closets or drawers are discarded. Sometimes sheer volume of stuff makes it impractical to go through papers, correspondence, documents, photos one-by-one.
A visit to Whitehern some time ago, home of the McQuesten family in Hamilton, Ontario, provided me with an insight to the importance of taking the time. A regular search on the internet rewarded the staff of Whitehern with a missing artifact ~ an observant curator recognized an unidentified photograph as one of the family members and was able to acquire it for the collection.
Someone recently told me that he fondly remembers the hours he spent with an elderly aunt looking over old black and white photos of Cayuga. He then reluctantly confessed that family members brought in a dumpster on the event of his aunt's death and everything was apparently lost.
One can only ponder what early history of our village disappeared with that convenient dumpster.
~ Thomas Baker McQuesten, Public Works, Politics and Imagination, John C. Best, Corinth Press, Hamilton, Ontario, 1991
Photo: Colour along The Grand River today.

The Sinking of the Steamboat Victoria, 1881, London, Ontario.

Author, John Passfield's latest historical novel.

How did so many die without any obvious memorial or lasting public awareness? Of five hundred passengers on a steamboat restricted to three hundred, almost two hundred people died.

Well over a century later, Passfield has researched and through articles in the London Free Press and London Advertiser, using the real names of victims and personalities of the day, he brings to us an amazing tale of unbelieveable tragedy.

For more about John Passfield, visit his website http://www.johnpassfield.ca/

"It's extremely important not to have one's life all blocked out, not to have the days and weeks totally organized. It's essential to leave gaps and interludes for spontaneous action,for it is often in spontaneity and surprises that we open ourselves to the unlimited opportunities and new areas brought into our lives by chance."

~ Jean Hersey, The Touch of The Earth, The Seabury Press Inc. 1981.

Autumn Thoughts ~ photo by 4 year old,  Elizabeth's Rocks

Thoughts ~ by Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy

I love the Autumn,
And yet I cannot say
All the thoughts and things
That make me feel this way.
I love walking the angry shore;
To watch the angry sea;
Where summer people were before,
But now there's only me.
I love wood fires at night
That have a ruddy glow.
I stare at the flames
And think of long ago.
I love the feeling down inside me
that says to run away
To come and be a gypsy
And laugh the gypsy way.

"I love walking on the angry shore,

To watch the angry sea;

Where summer people were before,

But now there's only me."

~ by Jacqueline Bouvier, Poem Thoughts, A Family of Poems, My Favorite Poetry For Children, Caroline Kennedy, Hyperion Books For Children, 2005.

Photos: Shore of Lake Erie, Ontario

Gone Fishin' ~