Cottonwood Mansion presents a light-up decoration that will cheer and warm the season.  Set it up in any room where a soft colorful light will add a touch of festivity.  Support the mansion's projects at the same time!

Look for the Christmas display in Foodland, Cayuga.  Available in two sizes.

www.cottonwoodmansion.ca
Photo:  Courtesy of Catherine Stidsen

"If our parents read to us as children, we remember the closeness of the moments together, the sound and power of voice and expression, the sense of wonder that a poem inspires." 

~ Caroline Kennedy A Family of Poems MY FAVORITE POETRY FOR CHILDREN, HYPERION, 2005.

"We live in a world of words and feelings that poems can help us understand.  Poetry captures the most fleeting moments and makes them last forever, or describes the tiniest creature and makes it huge.  Poets express our deepest emotions and ponder life's biggest questions in just a few lines that we can carry with us and bring to mind whenever we need them...." ~ Caroline Kennedy

When we first opened as The Neat Little Bookshop, many will recall that we didn't have a POETRY section.  There were several reasons ~ not least of all, we personally did not have a great interest in poetry.

In 2001 Caroline Kennedy, daughter of Jackie and John, published The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.  The book's popularity inspired Caroline to publish in 2005 A Family of Poems.

In the introduction to A Family of Poems she writes, "Some people think poetry is solitary or boring.  They worry that they won't be able to understand it.  But people who start reading poems when they are young don't have these fears.  As children, we enjoy exploring language and rhyme and creating word pictures of the world around us...
"In our family we were encouraged to write or choose a favorite poem for each holiday or birthday as a gift for my mother and grandparents instead of buying a card or present."

[Photo:  a favourite from my files lbw]

STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING
     by Robert Frost *

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

* American poet (1874 - 1963)

"Teddy bears exist on the very borders of fantasy and reality, of waking and sleeping.  It is here, in these transitions, that our function is critical ~ at its most essential even.  While we are fantasy characters in daylight play,
                           at nighttime we are vey real protectors ~ guiding the companion through the magic and mystery of the darkness and shadows, dreams and nightmares."
~ Teddy's World, Mirja de Vries, 2002.  Joost Elffers Books.

Thank you, Cayuga & District Chamber of Commerce ~ A Special Thank-you to the out-going executive members who have worked untiringly behind the scenes to improve our community.  Thank you to President John Edelman and members who have allowed their names to stand yet another year! 

Welcome to the new executive members.  We look forward to an exciting 2014.
~ John & Lorna

Eric & Freddie

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...