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.