Marina Martin November 2012

Marina Martin is surrounded by nature ~ she lives on a rural road in Haldimand County.  For over twenty years her writings and especially her poetry have reflected that world of flora and fauna.  That, combined with her profession as a physiotherapist working with people, Marina's work "inhabits the liminal space where the boundaries between ourselves and the natural world are permeable.*"

A new book of Marina's poems, BREATHING WATER, Meditations on the Plain and the Profound, is now available at The Neat Little Bookshop.  A wonderful little gift for someone special at Christmas time.

The Neat Little Bookshop is pleased to host an afternoon with Marina on Saturday, December 8 at 1:00 p.m.  Circle your calendar.

* Book Review by Marilyn Gear Pilling

"The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book."

~ American writer, Walt Whitman.

"A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking."

~ Jerry Seinfeld

"The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot."

~ Salvador Dali

"You're only given a little spark of madness.  You mustn't lose it." ~ Robin Williams

"If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it!"  ~ Johnathan Winters

"Laughter is the closest distance between two people."  ~ Victor Borge

"Laughter gives us distance.  It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on."  ~ Bob Newhart



To our Followers:  There is hope.  For seven days the bookshop blog has been without illustrations or photographs.  Peggy in "Google Group" has volunteered some information.

There is "Blogger forum," ""Google Drive forum" and "Google Discuss forum."  We may have posted our woes in the wrong forum!  (Are we trying to purchase additional storage for the Picasa web album associated with our Blogger blog OR or we trying to purchase Google Drive space?  That is the question.)

Fact remains:  "Continue to Checkout" in our blog will not work.
Our blog is not only a quick visit to the bookshop but also our bulletin board for up-coming events.  Thank you Peggy.  ~ lbw

"There is scarcely any less bother in the running of a family than in that of an entire state.  And domestic business is no less importunate for being less important."


"A man should keep for himself a little back shop, all his own, quite unadulterated, in which he establishes his true freedom and chief place of seclusion and solitude."

~ Michel Montaigne, Essais (1580) French Moralist and essayist 1533 - 1592


The Oxford Dictionary of QUOTATIONS, Oxford University Press, 2001.

Dogs ~

"The good Lord in his ultimate wisdom gave us three things to make life bearable, hope, jokes and dogs, but the greatest of these was dogs."
~ Roblyn Davidson

"The dog was created especially for children.
He is the god of frolic."
~ Henry Ward Beecher


Command:  he thee obeys most readily.
Strike him:   he leaves his game and comes to thee
With wagging tail, offering his service meek.
If so thou wilt, a Collar he will wear;
And when thou wish to take it off again,
Unto thy feet he crouchest down most fair,
As if thy will were all his good and gain.
~ J. Molle

"Animals are such agreeable friends ~
they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms."
~ George Eliot

The Tables Turned ~ by Wm. Wordsworth

Up! Up! my friend, and quit your books,
Or surely you'll grow double;
Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?

The sun, above the mountain's head,
A freshening luster mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.

Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet*,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.

And hark! how blithe the throstle* sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher;
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.

She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless~
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.

One impulse from a vernal* wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Misshapes the beauteous forms of things~
We murder to dissect.

Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.

* linnet ~ a small common Eurasian songbird related to the finch.
* throstle ~ a song thrush.
* vernal  ~ appropriate to spring.
~ The Canadian Oxford Dictionary

"At length the winter set in in good earnest, just as I had finished plastering, and the wind began to howl around the house as if it had not had permission to do so till then...
"The snow had already covered the ground since the 25th of November, and surrounded me suddenly with the scenery of winter.  I withdrew yet farther into my shell, and endeavored to keep a bright fire both within my house and within my breast. "

~ Henry D. Thoreau (1817 - 1862) American author, poet, philosopher.

Walden A Fully Annotated Edition, edited by Jeffrey S. Cramer*, Yale University Press, 2004. (based on the original 1854 edition)

*J.S. Cramer is curator of collections, The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods.