The Legend of the Shamrock

There is an honored legend from Ireland's ancient lore
Of how St. Patrick drove the snakes from Erin's lovely shore.
The wee folk were in danger from the serpents all around
That hid beneath the rocks and always moved without a sound.
But then when good St. Patrick came to preach and labor there,
He brought the shamrock with him which he planted everywhere.

And as the shamrocks flourished, all the snakes began to flee
Until they reached the shore, where they were swallowed by the sea.
Sure an' the wee folk marveled, and they asked St. Patrick why.

"The shamrock represents The Trinity," was his reply.
"Just as three shamrock leaves are joined onto a single stem,
The Trinity is three in one, and God is all of them.
The serpents learned its sacred power in Eden long ago
And cannot bear to stay here now because they fear it so,"

And ever since St. Patrick drove the serpents all away.
They've ne'er come back to Ireland's shore, not to this day.

~ Hallmark ~ Thursday, March 17 is St. Patrick's Day.

The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.

~ Elizabeth Hardwick, American writer, literary critic (1916 - 2007) A friend of the bookshop found this quotation for us. Thank you Kimberly.

Word Watching ~

"Where are the clerisy? They are people who like to read books... the clerisy are those who read for pleasure, but not for idleness; who read for pastime but not to kill time; who love books, but do not live by books."

~ Robertson Davies, Toronto man-of-letters, from A Voice from the Attic (1960) Colombo's Concise Canadian Quotations, Hurtig Publishers, Edmonton, 1976.

Clerisy n. a distinct class of learned or literary persons.[apparently after German Klerisei, formed as Cleric]
The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1998

Word Watching

Philology n. 1. The branch of language that deals with the structure, historical development and relationships of a language or languages. 2. the branch of knowledge that deals with the linguistic, historical, interpretative and critical aspects of literature. philologist, philological, philologically, philologize.

[French philologie from Latin philologia love of learning from Greek]

The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Oxford University Press Canada, 1998

A Room of One's Own ~ Virginia Woolf

"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. . . That serves to explain in part the necessity that women so often are to men. And it serves to explain how restless they are under her criticism; how impossible it is for her to say to them this book is bad, this picture is feeble, or whatever it may be, without giving far more pain and rousing far more anger than a man would do who gave the same criticism. For if she begins to tell the truth, the figure in the looking-glass shrinks; his fitness for life is diminished. How is he to go on giving judgement, civilising natives, making laws, writing books, dressing up and speechifying at banquets, unless he can see himself at breakfast and at dinner at least twice the size he really is?"

a room of one's own, based on an essay by Virginia Woolf originally delivered in a series of lectures at colleges including a women's college in Cambridge University. 1929. Image: first-edition cover, from Wikipedia.

Today is International Women's Day

"Doest thou love life? Then waste not time, for time is the stuff that life is made of."

~ Benjamin Franklin, (1706 - 1790) Founding Father of the United States, writer, scientist.


"Think that day lost whose low descending sun
Views from thy hand no noble action done."

~ Jacob Bobart (d. 1680) German botanist.

Book of Familiar Quotations, Ottenheimer Publishers, Inc., MCMLV.

A Thousand Canoes on The Grand.

Town of Haldimand Council gave the okay today for the splash of a thousand canoes on The Grand River on Saturday, June 25, 2011. A proposal by Haldimand residents, Blaine Nicholls and Shane Carmichael, was met with enthusiasm. Local businesses are encouraged to participate ~ "We are not asking for financial assistance; we are asking businesses and individuals if they have canoes in their barns, to put ten canoes in the river," Carmichael told councillors."

Declared one of The Seven Wonders of Canada by CBC in 2007, the canoe will be the focus of the event but kayaks are welcome. A Heritage River, The Grand is expected to attract enthusiasts from distances outside of Haldimand ~ worldwide.

National Canoe Day is June 26. http://www.nationalcanoeday.net/
http://www.canoemuseum.ca/

Watch for details on the one-day event taking place from Caledonia Fairgrounds to Cayuga-on-the-Grand.

Photos of Willows at Caledonia and Cayuga Bridge: by Lorna