THANK YOU!!!

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The Pine Bush Library would like to thank all of you for your generosity during this year’s Toys for Tots toy drive. We would also like to extend an extra special thank you to the Crispell Middle School Interact Club for collecting BOXES full of toys. Your kindness has made the holidays brighter for HUNDREDS of children in need.

These were the second and third boxes you helped us fill up, the first one was collected before we could get a picture.

LAST CHANCE!!!

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DON’T FORGET

Tomorrow is the drawing for our Holiday Raffle Baskets. The drawings will take place at 11am in the Community Center. We will open at 10am so you can buy any last minute tickets or some delicious Jam from Liz our jam lady.

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Have you seen tree of heaven plants in your neighborhood? This fast-growing invasive tree is easy to identify and found all over NY, particularly in urban areas. Tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is the preferred host plant of the spotted lanternfly, an invasive insect being found in more and more parts of NY that could have severe impacts on our state’s agriculture and forests. Finding and reporting tree of heaven to NY iMapInvasives can help supplement state efforts to prevent negative impacts from these two species.

Use these tips to help you identify tree of heaven (TOH):
Plant and leaflets resemble sumac. TOH leaflets are smooth around the edges with a small notch at the base (see top photo), whereas sumac leaflets have jagged edges.When touched or broken, TOH has a unique scent similar to burnt peanut butter.You can find more information, including photos to help with identification, on the Penn State Extension website.If you find TOH on your own property, you may be interested in removing it. If the plant is small, you can simply pull it out by hand or dig it up. Large plants require herbicide treatment. Read more about tree of heaven, including details on different management techniques, starting on page 23 of the Invasive Species Best Management Practices booklet (PDF) from the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program.

Holiday Raffle Baskets!!!

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The final countdown to our 2021 Holiday Basket Raffle Drawing has begun! You only have one week left to enter to win one of these wonderful baskets. Stop by the Pine Bush Library and get your tickets before time runs out!!!


The drawing will be held on SATURDAY DEC. 18, at 11:00 AM in the library COMMUNITY CENTER, where you can also pick up some last-minute gifts from our Holiday Shop and from our local vendors:

HAPPY HERBS SOAP & HOMEMADE JAMS & JELLIES BY LIZ.

Raffle Ticket Prices:

6 for $5.00

15 for $10.00

A yard for $20.00

Everyone Can Dowse

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Take some time and watch our latest YouTube video.
Your success will depend on your belief in yourself and asking the proper concise questions. Use your pendulum, “Y” rods or other devices and surround yourself in the realm of dowsing. In this class we will discuss tools, charts and methods to insure getting the correct answers to life’s questions.
Join us and enjoy a quest for answers.

Rave Reviews by Jean E. Eustance December 2021

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“Marley was dead, to begin with. There was no doubt whatever about that…Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.” It dawns upon me that Charles Dickens could really write.  Off he goes, and it’s “Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone. Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!..  secret and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster.”

We all know, or think we know, everything about Charles Dickens’ short book, A Christmas Carol. We’ve all seen it, several times, in innumerable movies or TV shows. In fact, Pine Bush Public Library has the show in several versions on our DVD shelves.  The one I like best is The Muppets Christmas Carol, in the Children’s Department.  Charles Dickens, the author and narrator, is played by The Great Gonzo.  Rizzo the Rat is played by himself.  Unless you are Hamlet, you have to have someone to talk to, so Gonzo and Rizzo talk back and forth and fall into snow drifts. Gonzo, as Charles Dickens, uses the phrase “solitary as an oyster” to describe Ebenezer Scrooge.  It occurs to me that he’s right. Nothing is more solitary than an oyster, nor deader than a door-nail.  Dickens has hit the (door) nail on the head.

But I decided to get out the actual book, and see what Charles Dickens had to say for himself.  We have A Christmas Carol in Children’s Department and upstairs in Adult Services. The book is a little different from the movies.

There’s something that’s bothered me.  Any good cook would wonder about it—It takes hours and hours to roast a turkey. Ebenezer Scrooge has seen the three Spirits and been converted, and on Christmas morning he buys a huge turkey and has it sent, anonymously, to Bob Cratchit’s house. Now, in the movies, he sometimes shows up at Cratchit’s house with the bird, and asks himself in and is shown with the family, eating the turkey.  But it takes hours to cook a turkey. This “show up at the door and eat” does not work out.

It turns out, in the book, that Scrooge does not go to Bob Cratchit’s house on Christmas Day, but goes to his nephew Fred’s house and has dinner with his own family.  Fred is one of the unsung heroes of the tale, going to Scrooge’s counting house and wishing him (and Bob Cratchit) a Merry Christmas. When the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge the house of mourning that the Cratchit house has become, because of the death of Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit tells his family that he had seen Mr. Fred, who had said, he was heartily sorry for them, and if he, (Mr. Fred) could be of any service to them, Bob Cratchit was to come to him and ask. And this wasn’t empty sentiment. Mr. Fred really meant it.

In the book, Scrooge waits for Bob Cratchit to come to work on December 26. First he plays at being his old, heartless self, and then changes his tune and shows the new, improved Scrooge. He will raise Cratchit’s salary and find a good doctor for Tiny Tim.

 “Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more, and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew.”  Charles Dickens could really write.  “God bless us, Every One,” said Tiny Tim.

New TED Talk

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When you fall asleep and start dreaming, you’re actually doing very important work. According to sleep scientist Matt Walker, dreams act like a form of “overnight therapy.” In fact, your dreams may even boost your ability to solve problems and process tough emotions that affect your waking life.

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Have you gotten your lucky raffle tickets yet?
If you haven’t, time is running out. The winners will be picked December 18th at 11 am.

We have dog baskets, cat baskets, lottery baskets, wine baskets, cooking baskets, coffee baskets, chocolate baskets and many many more. So stop by the Pine Bush Library and enter to win ASAP.

Ticket Prices

6 for $5.00

15 for $10.00

A yard for $20.00


All the baskets were generously donated by The Friends of the Library and our amazing patrons. 100% of the proceeds go to the library.

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O, the legendary light,
Gleaming goldenly in night
     Like the stars above,
Beautiful, like lights in dream,
Eight, the taper-flames that stream
     All one glory and one love.

In our Temple, magical—
Memories, now tragical—
Holy hero-hearts aflame
With a glory more than fame;
There where a shrine is every sod,
     Every grave, God’s golden ore,
With a paean whose rhyme to God,
     Lit these lamps of yore.

Lights, you are a living dream,
Faith and bravery you beam,
     Youth and dawn and May.
Would your beam were more than dream,
Would the light and love you stream,
     Stirred us, spurred us, aye!

Fabled memories of flame,
Till the beast in man we tame,
Tyrants bow to truth, amain,
Brands and bullets yield to brain,
Guns to God, and shells to soul,
Hounds to heart resign the role,
Pillared lights of liberty,
In your fairy flames, we’ll see
Faith’s and freedom’s Phoenix-might,
The Omnipotence of Right.