Grand Valley Trails Association website features a series,"Take-a-Hike along the Grand River Trail," by Bill Haartman, an avid hiker and active member of The York Historical Society. For a history of the towpath and the Grand River watershed visit http://www.gvta.on.ca/ Click on 1. Resources 2. Trail History 3. Take-a-Hike.

Photos: Bridge over the Grand ~ Cayuga, Ontario. Construction of a temporary, modular two-lane bridge is scheduled for early 2012. It will be built south of the existing bridge and will carry traffic during construction of a new one.

(Photo taken under clouds, Monday, March 14, 2011 and in the sun, Tuesday 15th.)

Smile for Today ~

"Wear the old coat and buy the new book."

~ Austin Phelps, American clergyman and educationist (1820 - 1890) Theory of Preaching

"I cannot live without books."

~ Thomas Jefferson, American President (1743 - 1826) Letter to John Adams, 1815.

The Writer and The Reader, A Book of Literary Quotations, Neil Ewart, Biddles Ltd, 1984

Doggie take-out.  We caught this picture today. (Doggie is actually sitting in the back seat of his master's car.)

Dbl. click on photo to view larger image. We welcome your captions!

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