Villagers all, this frosty tide,
Let your doors swing open wide,
Though wind may follow, and snow beside,
Yet draw us in by your fire to bide;
     Joy shall be yours in the morning!

Here we stand in the cold and the sleet,
Blowing fingers and stamping feet,
Come from far away you to greet ~
You by the fire and we in the street ~
      Bidding you joy in the morning!

~ The field-mice at Mole End "singing one of the old-time carols that their fore-fathers composed in fields that were fallow and held by frost..." THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, Kenneth Grahame, Methuen & Co. Ltd. London. 1908.

[Photo:  The Grand River, Cayuga. January 19, 2016. lbw]

THURSDAY, JANUARY 21 at 1:00 p.m.

 

KIRK DU GUID & ROBERT OTTERMAN

 

Author Kirk Du Guid interviewed two dozen Haldimand Veterans and published "in their own words",

 

Soldiers' Stories

 

Join us in the bookshop ~ Coffee & tea always on...

 

 



 

 

"It is not good for man to be too much alone unless he is really very big, with stores of knowledge to draw from and a clear brain to think with.  That's the whole problem:  a clear brain that can take thoughts and work them out, can filter -- clean out -- muddy, confused thoughts, can read meanings into things, draw meanings out of things and come to conclusions, a brain that converses with life and can, above all, enable a man to forget himself.  The tendency in being alone and not having anyone to exchange thoughts with is to be always on the fence between yourself and yourself."

~ Emily Carr (1871 - 1945) Hundreds And Thousands.  EMILY CARR COUNTRY Courtney Milne, McClelland & Stewart Ltd. 2001.

May the beauty and spirit of the season remain with you all year.

John and I would like to thank our family and friends for all your support.  We look forward to a new year, 2016.

Never a Christmas morning,

Never the old year ends ~

But someone thinks of someone,

Old days, old times,

old friends.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

 

 

 



THIRD THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1:00 p.m.  The literary group meets in The Neat Little Bookshop.  Everyone welcome ~the coffee and tea's always on.

THEME:  Bring a token of Christmas ~ a reading, a poem, an item, possibly a family heirloom.

OPTION:  Lunch in The Back 40.   If you did not receive a Third Thursday e-mail and wish to receive it in the future, please email us at neatlittlebookshop@gmail.com

"When they were around ten, eleven, thirteen," he said, "every Saturday night I would get away from my commitments and read to them.  It was our Saturday night together.  I read them Rousseau, history books, poetry, Victor Hugo.  Later, Stendhal, and Tolstoy.  We'd talk about what we read.  Read out loud to each other.  Every Saturday night for years...It was," he paused, "one of the happiest periods of my life.

 

 

 

The New Red & Green at Talbot & Cayuga Streets