Join us on Thursday, December 8 at 1:00 p.m. in The Neat Little Bookshop ~

Author, John Passfield will be reading ballads, stories, poems, songs and hymns lyrics new and old.Photo credit: Thank you to Catherine Stidsen. l-r John Passfield, Neil Paul. b. Lorna Walker. St. Nicolas Day at Cottonwood Mansion. http://www.cottonwoodmansion.ca/

Charles Dickens The Christmas Carol ~ Marley's Ghost meets the Second of Three Spirits on the Stairway at Cottonwood Mansion

In the kitchen, Deanna Schaus & Jill Walters

Celebrating St. Nicholas Day at Cottonwood Mansion ~

l- r, John Passfield, Catherine Stidsen, Neil Paul, Cheryl MacDonald and Bishop Spence after reading Dicken's The Christmas Carol

For many of us, the Christmas tree becomes the center of our December activities. Tasha Tutor, American author and illustrator describes her childhood tree.
"When I was about seven, that was the first Christmas tree that I really remember. It seemed to go up and up and up, straight to heaven! Of course, I was quite small at the time, but it seemed immense, tremendously tall, like a skyscraper."
Crowning the top of Tutor's tree for decades was a large, black velvet raven that she made by hand in homage to the legend that the raven was the herald of Christ's birth. According to the story, a raven was flying over Bethlehem when he encountered a sky filled with angels. He was given the honor of announcing the birth of Christ to all the other birds.

~ Forever Christmas, by Harry Davis. Little, Brown and Company, 2000. Illustrated by Tasha Tutor (1915 - 2008)

Photo: The music room at Cottonwood Mansion. Decorations by Deanna Schaus.

Bringing Home the Christmas Tree ~
Vintage Post Card from The Old-Fashioned Congratulations Postcard Book by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

Oh Christmas Tree

. . . still to be decorated.

Inscribed and scribbled
Book inscriptions are a funny thing. They can increase the value of a first edition. They can render a book worthless for retail. I recently removed a book from the bookshop shelf ~ it remains in a drawer until I decide what to do with it. "To Lorna who comes from my neck of the woods. . ." is hidden on the second page. Don't remember the signing. Have not read.

Reminds me of a story about George Bernard Shaw. Shaw came across a copy of one of his works in a secondhand bookshop. Discovering his own handwriting on the flyleaf, "To _ _ _ with esteem, George Bernard Shaw," he bought the book and returned it to his friend, adding the inscription: "With renewed esteem, George Bernard Shaw."

I have decided to read the book in the drawer. I am sure that it is a good book. I recall paying the list price for it. Perhaps hoping for "renewed esteem."
More and more, I am beginning to believe that the use of a lead pencil is preferable to INK. Lead appears to be as permanent as ink or can easily be erased if the inscription no longer applies ~ leaving the book more attractive and relevant to a new owner. We have seen inscriptions that deface a book but perhaps more bewildering are the discarded books bearing personal, intimate declarations of "forever" inscriptions.

CHRISTMAS ~ In the Spirit?
Readings with local author, John Passfield ~ poems, stories, ballads, hymn and song lyrics old and new, humorous and serious.

Please join us at The Neat Little Bookshop

Thursday, December 8 1:00 p.m.

(Always lively, always casual. Coffee and Tea. No Admission.)

Note: John Passfield is the author of several books including: Jumbo, Inside the Wright Brothers, Out of the Park and Water Lane.

~Graphics A Reproduction of an Antique Christmas Classic circa 1870. A PaperStar Book, 1997 by The Putnam & Gosset Group.

Carol Shields, Pulitzer Prize winning author, shared her memories of her mother's Christmas correspondence.
"My mother's Christmas cards made me see her differently. Her life was wider, more vivid, more thrilling than it appeared. Furthermore ~ and this seemed close to impossible to believe ~ she had had a real life before she met my father, before her children were born. Before me. ..
"The most eagerly awaited card, really a mimeographed letter, came from a man called Alvah Swain. My mother had met Alvah Swain ~ a journalist, a politician, a friend of Will Rogers ~ on a train trip she took when she was 20, and it flattered her to think that such an important person remembered the brief connection and honoured it each Christmas season with a detailed account of his busy year. She opened his letters breathlessly and read them aloud to the family, always, of course, setting Mr. Swain into historical context."

Source: "It's in the Cards," Carol Shields (1935 - 2003), Canadian Living, December 1998