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' ~

"Who Loves a garden still his Eden keeps,
Perennial pleasures plants,
and wholesome harvests reaps."
~ Amos Bronson Alcott* (1700 - 1888) American educator, writer.
Nature's Bounty ~ Elderberries
*A. B. Alcott may not be as well known as his four daughters, one of whom is author Louisa May Alcott.